Expat’s Guide to Knowing When to Renew (Driver’s License, Vehicle Registration, Annual Report)

Updated as of Feb. 14, 2023.

So you’ve settled into the Philippines as an expat. Congratulations! You’ve registered with the Bureau of Immigration, gotten your Alien Certificate of Registration, maybe even bought yourself a car and converted your driver’s license.

You may have even put up your own business by the time you’ve settled in the country… then you get to a point wherein you need to deal with what every Filipino deals with: renewals.

Most of the things you get a permit that need to be renewed are pretty straightforward: you look at until when it’s valid, make sure you plan ahead, and renew it at least a week before it expires. A couple of things, however, are not so straightforward, like your Annual Report, your Driver’s License, and your motor vehicle registration.

Annual Report

An annual report is the one thing expats should not miss out on. It’s what keeps them from being deported when they start living and working in the country full-time. With your busy schedule, it’s hard to keep track, so a gentle reminder should do: Annual Reports are done every first 60 days of the year, starting with the first working day of the year.

Not sure what to do? Here’s a handy guide.

Motor Vehicle Registration

Image grabbed from wayblima.com

It’s one of the things that you’re probably used to, but there is a bit of a trick if you’re renewing your Motor Vehicle Registration, also known as an OR/CR. All Land Transportation Offices (LTO) have guides on what to do once you’re there, but not really on when you should go there.

Thanks to the agency’s website, however, we can tell you exactly when you should be thinking about renewing your OR/CR. Though your OR/CR will indicate the year when you need to renew your registration, there is a schedule that you should follow, as shown below:

It looks confusing, but think of it this way: the last digit of your license plate indicates what month you should visit your nearest LTO office, and the second to the last digit (since we have four numbers now instead of three) tells you which week you should visit. This means if your vehicle’s license plate is ABC 1234, it means you visit the LTO office between April 1 – 7.

Driver’s License

This is something you should probably know by now, but people still manage to fumble the date, which usually results in delays and the process costing more than it should. Things have been made easier with the LTO extending the validity of a driver’s license to five years, though it is important to note when you should visit the nearest driver’s license renewal center (be it an LTO office or a satellite office): it’s on your birthday. Unless you change your birthday every single year, that shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Now that you have knowledge of when you should do your Annual Report and renew your vehicle registration and driver’s license, make sure you include them in your planner so you never forget.