24 October 2026 · Department of Labor and Employment

The AEP costs ₱6,000. Half the internet still says ₱10,000

The Alien Employment Permit is the first thing an employer pays for when hiring a foreign national. The price changed in 2025, and a large part of the internet has not caught up.

The Department of Labor and Employment publishes its own fee schedule in the Bureau of Local Employment's AEP frequently asked questions. The current schedule, dated 15 June 2026, is unambiguous: ₱6,000 filing fee for an AEP with one year of validity, ₱5,000 for every additional year or fraction of one, ₱6,000 for a renewal, ₱3,000 for a replacement card after loss or amendment, and ₱2,000 per certificate for a Certificate of Exclusion or Exemption.

Before Department Order No. 248, series of 2025, the headline figure was ₱10,000. That order reorganised the rules on employing foreign nationals, and the fee fell to ₱6,000.

Why the old number survives

Because it is quoted by pages that were accurate when they were published and have not been revisited since. Some of them are law firm explainers, some are consultancy service pages, some are the AI-generated comparison articles that now dominate the first page. A client who reads three of them will budget ₱4,000 too much, and will wonder why the receipt says ₱6,000.

The gap is not trivial in the other direction either. A page that quotes ₱10,000 and collects ₱10,000 while paying ₱6,000 to the Treasury has a problem that has nothing to do with marketing.

What the fee actually buys

One year of authorised employment, unless the contract sets a shorter or longer period, capped at three years. The permit is priced by validity, so a three year AEP is ₱6,000 plus ₱5,000 plus ₱5,000, which is ₱16,000. A permit for two years and one month is charged as three years, because the extra year rule says or fraction thereof. That word is where budgets break.

The cost that is not a fee

The publication. Before DOLE will look at the application, the employer must advertise the vacancy in a newspaper of general circulation, at least 15 days before filing, and the advertisement is only valid for 45 days. The newspaper charges what it charges, and a missed window means paying for it twice. In practice that publication, not the ₱6,000, is the line that decides the timeline.

How to check any figure on this site

Every page in this directory names the agency document the number comes from and the date we last read it. For the AEP that document is the DOLE FAQ linked below. If DOLE issues a new schedule, this page is wrong until we correct it, and we would rather say so than present an undated number as fact.