Highlights

Passengers flying out of the Philippines from April 15 must fill out online departure cards via the eTravel portal — etravel.gov.ph

Outbound travellers urged to do it from 72 hours or three hours prior to departure. 

New system will be rolled out in full from Saturday, according to Philippine immigration authorities.

Manila: From Saturday, April 15, 2023, paper-based departure cards will be done away with completely, the Philippines’ Bureau of Immigration (BI) has announced Friday.

As such, passengers must fill out the online departure cards via the eTravel portal — etravel.gov.ph.

The platform was initially launched in December 2022.

With the e-Travel system, flying in and out of the Asian is expected to be faster and more convenient as the digital system will be rolled out — in full — from Saturday (April 15), the Bureau of Immigration (BI) announced Friday.

The system provides integrated border control, health surveillance, and economic data analysis, the bureau said.

Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) that the high-tech system requires all passengers and crew members arriving in the Philippines to register through the secure portal [www.etravel.gov.ph] not earlier than 72 hours from their intended arrival.

What happens from April 15

As the paper-based cards start to “gradually disappear”, outbound travellers should be able to access the site [etravel.gov.ph] as early as 72 hours and no later than 3 hours prior to their scheduled flight.

Meanwhile, the “One Health Permit” platform, which the government had previously used for travel health declaration checklist, has been replaced by the eTravel platform.

The eTravel system's implementation will simplify the formalities for departing passenger and speed things up without compromising security, said the Philippines’ Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Norman Tansiongco.

As a result, quicker and more efficient immigration processes are expected at the country’s major travel gateways.

Eventually, both departing and incoming passengers would use the eTravel platform, he said.

“This is a major step in streamlining documents presented by departing travelers, allowing for faster and more efficient immigration processing,” Tansingco said in a statement.

How to use e-Travel platform:

(1) Log in to the web portal etravel.gov.ph before your flight

(2) Fill up all the required fields in the online form.

(3) Hit the submit button.

(4) You will get an acknowledgement email.

As for data privacy, the government assures that enough safeguards are in place to protect customer data from hackers.

The National Privacy Commission (NPC), the Department of Transportation (DoTr), the Department of Health (DOH), the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the Department of Tourism (DOT), the Bureau of Quarantine (BoQ), and the Bureau of Customs (BoC) are all partners in the eTravel system project.