ACR I-Card and the BI Annual Report: Compliance Calendar

TL;DR: The ACR I-Card and the Bureau of Immigration Annual Report are two different obligations that foreign residents often lump together. The card is an ID you renew when it expires (typically every year, longer for some permanent residents); the Annual Report is a separate yearly check-in every registered foreign national must complete between January 1 and March 1, in person or through the bureau’s Virtual Annual Report, or face fines and a block on your Emigration Clearance Certificate.

What the ACR I-Card is, and what it replaced

The Alien Certificate of Registration Identity Card, universally shortened to ACR I-Card, is the microchip-based, credit card-sized identification the Bureau of Immigration (BI) issues to registered foreign nationals in the Philippines. According to BI’s own FAQ page, the card carries embedded biometric security and electronic data management features, and it is issued to “all registered aliens whose stay in the Philippines has exceeded fifty-nine (59) days.” That 59-day line is the trigger most foreign founders hit without noticing: a short business trip on a tourist visa never crosses it, but almost any 9(g) work visa, 13-series resident visa, or Special Resident Retiree’s Visa (SRRV) holder does, the moment their stay extends past that threshold.

The card program replaced the old manually issued paper-based Alien Certificate of Registration. Some long-tenured foreign nationals still hold a paper ACR rather than the microchip card, and BI’s 2026 guidelines still accommodate them explicitly, but the paper document is now the exception rather than the rule, and it comes with fewer processing options, including no access to the bureau’s online filing tools.

The legal foundation sits in two overlapping statutes: Commonwealth Act No. 613, the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940, which requires aliens to register with BI on arrival or on any change of immigration status, and Republic Act No. 562, the Alien Registration Act of 1950, which governs the certificate itself and the annual reporting duty covered below. BI issues the card in ten color-coded categories, including Permanent Resident (light yellow), Worker (blue), Student (aqua blue), and Tourist (white), each tied to a specific visa classification.

ACR I-Card requirements: who must register and when

BI’s FAQ page states the rule plainly: “All foreign nationals under immigrant and non-immigrant visas including holders of Temporary Visitor’s Visa, who have stayed for more than fifty nine (59) days in the Philippines” must apply for an ACR I-Card. That covers, in practice, nearly every foreign founder or employee running a Philippine company:

1. Anyone on a 9(g) pre-arranged employment visa, once they have an Alien Employment Permit and the visa is issued.
2. Anyone on a 13-series immigrant or quota visa, including 13(a) spouses of Filipino citizens.
3. SRRV holders under the Philippine Retirement Authority program.
4. Long-staying Temporary Visitor’s Visa holders whose extensions push them past 59 days total, even without a change of visa category.

Which category you fall under changes almost every date and fee in this guide, so it is worth confirming your exact classification against our overview of Philippine visa categories before you plan around any of the figures below. Dual citizens, meaning Filipino citizens who also hold a foreign passport, sit outside this system entirely and do not need an ACR I-Card at all.

ACR I-Card renewal: validity periods and the process

BI’s official renewal page states that the ACR I-Card carries “one (1) year validity,” and that renewal becomes due once that period expires. In practice, immigration counsel report a split by category. Duran & Duran-Schulze Law and Respicio & Co. both describe temporary and probationary visa holders, such as 9(g) workers and 13(a) probationary residents, as receiving one-year cards, while foreign nationals who have converted to a full Section 13 permanent resident status commonly receive cards valid for up to five years. BI’s public pages do not spell out that five-year figure directly, so treat it as the pattern practitioners see rather than a guaranteed rule, and check the expiry date printed on your own card rather than assuming either number.

Renewal is not only triggered by expiry. The same sources point to three other triggers: a dependent turning 14 and needing their own card rather than being covered under a parent’s registration, a change in the underlying visa status, and replacement of a lost or damaged card.

The renewal process, step by step

1. Submit the ACR I-Card renewal application form with your current or expiring card, a valid passport, and documentation of your underlying visa status to the Alien Registration Division at the BI Main Office or an authorized field or satellite office.
2. BI runs a database check for derogatory records, including any blacklist, watchlist, or pending case entries under your name.
3. Once cleared, the registration officer issues an Order of Payment Slip for the applicable fees.
4. Pay the slip at the BI cashier or an accredited channel and keep the official receipt.
5. Submit a copy of the receipt at the processing counter, along with updated biometrics (photo, signature, and fingerprints) if these are not already on file.
6. BI prints the renewed card once the application is approved.
7. Return with your claim stub and a valid ID to collect the card.

On fees, BI’s renewal page lists an I-Card Fee of USD 50.00 plus an Express Fee of PHP 500.00 for expedited processing, but the page itself flags that this schedule was last updated in 2014. Treat that dollar figure as a starting point rather than a confirmed 2026 number, and get the exact peso equivalent from the cashier or your BI-accredited liaison before budgeting for it, since the bureau has not published a newer consolidated fee list alongside its 2026 Annual Report guidelines.

The Bureau of Immigration annual report: a separate yearly duty

This is where most confusion starts. Renewing the ACR I-Card replaces the physical ID when it expires. The Annual Report is a different, calendar-driven obligation that applies every year regardless of how much validity remains on your card. Section 10 of Republic Act No. 562, as amended by Republic Act No. 578 and Republic Act No. 751, requires that every registered alien “report in person to the Bureau of Immigration” within the first 60 days of each calendar year. The statute is blunt about the consequence of skipping it outright: failure to report results in automatic cancellation of the alien’s registration certificate, which is a heavier legal consequence than the administrative fines the bureau assesses in practice.

For 2026, BI implemented this duty through Operations Order No. 2025-007, the “2026 Annual Report Guidelines,” signed by Commissioner Joel Anthony M. Viado. That order sets the Bureau of Immigration Annual Report 2026 window as January 1 to March 1, 2026, and it also cites Republic Act No. 11032 (the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018) and Executive Order No. 170, series of 2022, as the basis for pushing the process online through the bureau’s e-services portal.

Who is covered, and what you need to bring

Coverage extends to “all registered foreign nationals who are holders of Alien Certificate of Registration Identity Card (ACR I-Card) and Alien Certificate of Registration paper-based with valid visa,” per Section 1 of the 2026 guidelines. To complete the report, you need:

1. Completed online pre-registration through the bureau’s e-services portal, which generates a reference number for your appointment.
2. Personal appearance, since the guidelines state plainly that no representative is allowed for reportees who do not qualify for an exemption.
3. Your original, valid ACR I-Card, or the original paper-based ACR if that is what you hold.
4. Your original, valid passport. If it has expired, you submit an affidavit of undertaking to secure a new one instead of being turned away outright.

Exemptions, and what “exempt” actually means

Section 3 of the 2026 guidelines lists who can skip the in-person appearance, not the report itself:

• Foreign nationals below 14 years old.
• Foreign nationals 60 years old and above.
• Those who are mentally or physically incapacitated, provided a Person with Disability (PWD) ID is presented.
• Pregnant women and foreigners with a medical condition, provided a medical certificate from the attending physician or hospital is presented.

Each of these still needs to report; a representative can appear on their behalf, but only with proof of the exemption and a special power of attorney, except where the representative is an accredited BI liaison officer. Separately, BI’s FAQ page confirms a full exemption for dual citizens: “If you are a citizen of the Philippines and another foreign country, you are not required to file for an Annual Report.” Foreign nationals who never crossed the 59-day threshold and were never issued an ACR I-Card in the first place have no Annual Report obligation either, simply because they were never registered.

Fees

BI’s Annual Report service page and the 2026 guidelines agree on the standard cost: a 300-peso Annual Report fee plus a 10-peso Legal Research Fee, for a total of 310 pesos. Reportees who choose the Virtual Annual Report pay an additional 1,000-peso Express Lane Fee on top of that. Groups of 15 or more foreign nationals can request an on-site Mobile Annual Report instead, at an additional service fee of 1,000 pesos per reportee, filed at least five working days ahead of the preferred schedule.

Where and how to file

You have three practical routes for the Bureau of Immigration Annual Report, and which ones are open to you depends on your visa category and your card type.

In person at the BI Main Office. For 2026, BI is running its Intramuros processing out of Robinsons Place Manila, third level, Center Atrium, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding holidays.

In person at a satellite or field office. The 2026 guidelines list dozens of participating offices nationwide, including the SM Aura and SM North satellite offices, the BOI Makati and PEZA immigration extension offices, and BI district or field offices in cities such as Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Baguio, and Cagayan de Oro, among many others. This is generally the fastest route outside Metro Manila.

Online through the Virtual Annual Report. BI’s e-services portal runs the Virtual Annual Report 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including weekends and holidays, throughout the reporting period. Eligible categories include most permanent resident visa holders (the Section 13 series, Native Born status, and several presidential-decree categories), and most non-immigrant visa holders, including 9(d), 9(f), and 9(g) visas, SRRV and Special Investor’s Resident Visa (SIRV) holders, and several special economic zone visa categories. The process runs through the same reference-number registration, an appointment booking, a Google Meet interview where you present your passport and ACR I-Card on camera, and payment by Maya, GCash, a Visa or Mastercard credit card, or Landbank once the registration officer issues the Order of Payment Slip. Paper-based ACR holders are excluded from the virtual option and must appear in person.

What happens if either one lapses

The two obligations create different, compounding risks if you let them slide.

A lapsed Annual Report costs money immediately, then blocks your exit. Under the 2026 fee schedule, a foreign national who reports late owes a 1,510-peso Motion for Reconsideration fee plus 200 pesos for every month of delay, with a fraction of a month counted as a full month, capped at 2,000 pesos in fines per year. Say a 9(g) visa holder misses the March 1, 2026 cutoff and finally reports on July 1, four months later. The bill comes to the 1,510-peso reconsideration fee, plus 800 pesos in monthly fines (200 pesos times four), plus the standard 310-peso Annual Report fee itself, for a total of 2,620 pesos against the 310 pesos it would have cost on time. The 2,000-peso annual cap applies only to the monthly fine component, so it stops growing after roughly ten months of delay, but the reconsideration fee and the base report fee still apply on top of it every year the report stays open.

Beyond the money, an unpaid Annual Report follows you to the airport. The 2026 guidelines make clear that all departing foreign nationals must settle their Annual Report before BI issues an Emigration Clearance Certificate (ECC-B), citing Section 22(a) of the Immigration Act and Section 10 of RA 562. If you arrive at the port still owing a report, you have to clear it through the Virtual Annual Report system on the spot before the ECC-B, re-entry permit, or special return certificate will be issued, and the guidelines explicitly direct ports of entry and exit to offload registered foreign nationals who cannot prove compliance. BI has also gone as far as directing that immigration officers who fail to check this are referred to its own Board of Discipline, which tells you how seriously the bureau currently enforces this particular chokepoint.

A lapsed ACR I-Card creates a different kind of friction. An expired card is not, by itself, the same statutory violation as a missed Annual Report, but it still creates real problems: banks, landlords, and other agencies routinely ask for a current I-Card as valid ID, an expired card can slow down other BI transactions such as visa extensions, and Duran & Duran-Schulze Law notes that letting registration lapse for extended periods raises the risk of complications with future immigration applications. The practical fix is the same either way: treat renewal and reporting as two separate line items on your calendar, not one combined task, because BI enforces them through different mechanisms and on different clocks.

A one-page compliance calendar

If you are tracking this alongside your company’s own filing calendar, our 2026 annual compliance calendar for Philippine companies covers the BIR and SEC deadlines that tend to land in the same first quarter as the Annual Report window, which is exactly when most foreign-owned companies are also busy with their own year-end filings.

This guide is general information, not legal advice on your specific facts. Book a consultation if you want a fixed-scope review of your visa status, ACR I-Card validity, and Annual Report history before you file.