ALL Alien Employment Permits (AEPs) must have been issued within 15 working days by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to qualified foreign workers intending to work in the country.
This was the assurance made by Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) Director Patrick Patriwirawan, saying they want the AEPs to be issued as soon as possible.
“Under the new guidelines, we have set the processing cycle to 15 working days only. We guarantee that within this period, we can process the applications,” said Patriwirawan in a radio interview yesterday.
“Within the 15 working days, our regional implementers must have completed the whole process, including assessment of the application requirements, the conduct of site visitation, and the release of the AEP cards,” he added.
In the past, Patriwirawan noted that there was no strict timeline being followed so AEP issuances sometimes happen “weeks or months” later after they have applied.
“In our previous guidelines, the timeline was not clearly determined. Once the site validation begins, the processing time is gone,” he recalled.
“It can actually last for weeks or months depending on whether the workplace is immediately located or if the establishment is cooperative during the evaluation,” added Patriwirawan.
An AEP is a document issued to a non-resident alien or foreigner seeking admission to the Philippines for employment purposes.
Records show that a total of 60,312 AEPs were issued by DOLE in 2024.