A year after being granted a golden visa, Filipino actress Bea Alonzo is set to receive her Spanish residency card, which will allow her to apply for Spanish citizenship at a later date.
The actress broke the news in a vlog posted earlier this week, where she also revealed plans to visit several European cities and regions, including some of Italy’s most famous, such as Milan, Florence, Lugano and Tuscany, as part of her 20-day Eurotrip, SchengenVisaInfo.com reported.
As a Filipino citizen, Alonzo could only travel to the Schengen area by obtaining a visa from the relevant authorities. The 36-year-old actress will be able to move freely in the borderless zone thanks to her Spanish Golden Visa – a residency by investment scheme that allows third-country nationals to obtain a visa by investing €500,000 or more.
Third-country nationals can also obtain a golden visa by buying property, investing in a Spanish company or creating employment opportunities in the European country.
Alonzo obtained her golden visa last year after buying an apartment in the heart of Madrid, and now, a year later, she is getting her residence permit, which will allow her to stay and work in Spain for some time.
After two years, Alonzo will also be eligible for Spanish citizenship, which means she will be able to travel, live and work anywhere in the Schengen area. With a Spanish passport, Alonzo will be able to travel to 105 countries around the world without a visa, compared to the 37 she can currently visit with her Philippine passport.
According to VisaGuide’s Passport Index, the Philippine passport is ranked 124th in the world for the strength of the document, allowing its holders to travel to 26 countries with a visa-on-arrival and another 35 with an e-visa, while one country has a visa ban on Philippine passport holders and 127 require a visa.
Spain, on the other hand, is ranked the third strongest passport in the world with a score of 89.20, behind Singapore and Finland. This means that Spanish passport holders can travel to 43 countries without a passport, 29 countries with a visa on arrival and 19 countries with an e-visa. Spanish passport holders require a visa to enter 19 countries in the world.
Due to the visa requirement for Filipino citizens, they must apply for a visa to visit the Schengen area. According to Schengen statistics, Filipinos submitted a total of 152,817 applications in 2022, with the majority (29.6 percent) submitted to Dutch consulates – around 45,354, making Filipinos the third largest nationality group submitting the most visa applications to the Netherlands.
