The Philippine Overseas Employment Administartion (POEA) upgrades their overseas employment certificate (OEC) or exit clearance issuance to vacationing/returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) as a new update to the online issuance has been announced. 

At present, OFWs may walk-in at any POEA regional offices or schedule an appointment through the POEA's website for them to be able to get an exit clearance. But in the new exit clearance issuance system, a Balik-Manggagawa (BM or returning OFW) can log in, fill out and submit forms at the POEA website. if the name of the employer that they have stated in the filled-out form matches the one in the POEA's records, the POEA system will approve the BM's employment record.

According to Baldoz, the BM-OFW will just proceed to pay the fees electronically and print out the OEC either at the comfort of their homes or wherever they are conducting the on-line transaction.

The OEC print-out will contain a special barcode that will be presented to an immigration officer upon an OFW's departure. Once checked, the OFW will be cleared to leave the country.

POEA expects that the new service will benefit at least 500, 000 returning OFWs.