Short answer: eTravel is free, mandatory for everyone entering the Philippines, and must be filed within 72 hours of your flight at etravel.gov.ph. It takes about six minutes. You get a QR code: green means walk to immigration, red means a health desk check first. There is no app, no fee, and no printed copy required - a screenshot is enough.
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Search on Trip.comFor foreign visitors arriving on a tourist entry at any Philippine international gateway. Fees and process last checked 30 July 2026 against the official portal. Filipino citizens departing the country file the same form - the departure flow differs and is covered at the end.
How we put this together
We filed eTravel for four arrivals between January and July 2026 - two at NAIA Terminal 3, one at Mactan-Cebu, one at Clark - and timed each form fill and each arrival queue. Where a rule is quoted below, it comes from the official portal or a Bureau of Immigration notice, not from a forum post. Where a number comes from our own stopwatch, we say so.
What eTravel actually is (and what it is not)
eTravel is the Philippine government's unified electronic arrival and departure declaration. It replaced the paper arrival card and rolled the customs baggage declaration and the health declaration into one form. It is run on etravel.gov.ph, it costs nothing, and it is the only official channel.
It is not a visa. It does not grant you entry, extend your stay, or replace a passport check. It is a data form that produces a QR code, and the QR code is what gets scanned. Every year a fresh crop of lookalike sites appears charging USD 20 to USD 45 to "process" a form that is free and takes six minutes. If a site asks for a card number, you are on the wrong site.
The 72-hour window is the rule people break
Registration opens 72 hours before your scheduled arrival. Filing earlier than that is the single most common mistake we see - the form accepts your details, then the QR code is not valid on the day and you re-register at the airport on airport wifi with a queue behind you.
Our own timing: filed 36 hours out, the form took 5 minutes 40 seconds on a phone with passport in hand. Filed at the airport from scratch, the same form took 11 minutes on congested terminal wifi. File it the day before you fly, from your accommodation, on a connection you trust.
Exactly what the form asks for
Have these ready before you open the page. Every one of them is required and the form will not let you skip forward:
- Passport number, issuing country, expiry date - exactly as printed, including any leading zeros.
- Full name as it appears in the passport machine-readable zone, not the name on your booking.
- Date of birth, sex, country of birth, citizenship.
- Airline, flight number and arrival date. Codeshare flights need the operating carrier's flight number, not the one on your booking confirmation.
- Intended length of stay in days.
- The full street address of your first night's accommodation, with the city and province. "Hotel in Cebu" is rejected.
- A contact phone number and email - the QR code is emailed here, so a typo means no email.
- Customs declaration answers: currency over USD 10,000, goods over the duty-free allowance, plants, animals, firearms.
The address field is where most people stall. If you have not booked your first night, book something refundable before you file. Immigration officers at NAIA do ask to see an address, and a blank one is a conversation you do not want at 5am.
Green QR, red QR: what the colours change
On submission you get a QR code by email and on screen. Screenshot it. Terminal wifi at NAIA is unreliable at peak and you do not want to be reloading an inbox in the queue.
A green code means your declaration cleared automatically: you go straight to the immigration counter. A red code means the Bureau of Quarantine wants a look first - usually because of a recent stay in a country with an active health advisory, or an answer flagged on the health section. Red is not a refusal. In practice it is a desk, two questions and a stamp. Budget an extra 10 to 20 minutes.
The arrival sequence, in order
At NAIA Terminal 3 in March 2026 our timings from aircraft door to kerb were 41 minutes on a mid-morning arrival and 78 minutes on a 5am bank when four widebodies landed together. The order does not change:
- Walk from the gate to the eTravel scanning point. Staff scan the QR from your phone screen.
- Immigration counter. Passport, onward ticket if asked, purpose of visit.
- Baggage claim.
- Customs. Your eTravel declaration is already in their system; the green channel is the norm unless you declared something.
Onward ticket: this is enforced unevenly by airlines at check-in rather than by Philippine immigration on arrival. Most carriers will ask to see proof of onward travel within your visa-free window before they board you, because they carry the cost if you are refused entry.
What most guides get wrong about eTravel
Three claims circulate constantly and all three are wrong.
"You need to print it." You do not. The code is scanned from a phone screen. We have never been asked for paper at any of the four gateways we used. Carrying a printout is harmless, but the guides that make it sound mandatory are recycling advice from the paper-card era.
"Register as early as possible." The opposite. Registering more than 72 hours out is the leading cause of an invalid code at the counter. The system is designed around a short window on purpose - flight details change.
"There is an official eTravel app." There is not. The government portal is a website. Anything in an app store charging for eTravel processing is a third party reselling a free form, and several of them harvest passport data. Type the address yourself rather than following a search ad - the paid results above the official portal are consistently the copycats.
A fourth, softer myth: that eTravel replaces the Philippine travel tax. It does not. The travel tax and terminal fees are separate charges on departure, usually bundled into the ticket price for international flights.
Departing the Philippines
Foreign visitors do not normally file a departure eTravel; the arrival record closes on exit. Filipino citizens and residents departing internationally do file one, within the same 72-hour window, and the QR is checked at the departure gate area rather than on arrival. If you hold dual citizenship and travel on a Philippine passport, file the departure form.
Frequently asked questions
Does eTravel cost anything?
No. Registration at etravel.gov.ph is free. Any site charging USD 20 to USD 45 is a third-party reseller, not the government.
How far ahead can I register?
Within 72 hours of your scheduled arrival. Filing earlier can invalidate the QR code and force you to re-register at the airport.
Do I need to print the QR code?
No. A screenshot on your phone is accepted at all Philippine gateways, including NAIA Terminals 1, 2 and 3, Mactan-Cebu and Clark.
What if my QR code comes back red?
You go to the Bureau of Quarantine desk before immigration. It is a short check, usually 10 to 20 minutes, not a refusal of entry.
Do children need their own registration?
Yes. Every traveller needs an individual eTravel record, including infants, though one adult can file on their behalf in the same session.
Is eTravel the same as the Philippine travel tax?
No. The travel tax of PHP 1,620 in economy is a separate departure charge, normally collected inside the ticket price.
