Mongolia or Philippines
Two countries side by side across the same rows as the full comparison. A dash means the value is missing: fields are not filled with guesses. about the data
| Mongolia | Philippines | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | — |
| Citizenship | 5 years | 10 years |
| Partner can work | — | yes |
| Parents | — | — |
| Pets | no trouble | no trouble |
| Pet limit | no limit | 3 |
| Quarantine | — | no |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 710 · estimate | $ 373 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 28,1 | $ 22,6 |
| Life expectancy | 72.4 | 69.95 |
| Homicides/100k | 5.64 | 4.31 |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 3.3 | 8.2 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: Mongolia — 28, Philippines — 32. Types present in both: work, study, family, investment and repatriation. Mongolia adds: talent. Philippines adds: retirement.
Fees, thresholds and deadlines
Mongolia: fees range from 45,000 to 135,000 MNT. Routes with a published decision deadline: 28; the shortest is 3 days. Philippines: fees range from 1,010 to 37,060 PHP. Routes with no fee: 2. Routes stating an income threshold: 1; the lowest is 800 USD a month. Routes with a published decision deadline: 1; the shortest is 2 days.
Beyond the first permit
Permanent status: Philippines after 1 year; the other country publishes no term. Citizenship: Mongolia after 5 years, Philippines after 10 years. Neither recognises a second citizenship.
Mongolia in brief
Mongolia is a landlocked country between Russia and China with an extremely uneven distribution of population: almost half the population is concentrated in Ulaanbaatar, while the other major cities (Erdenet, Darkhan) are an order of magnitude smaller. Dual citizenship is not permitted: naturalisation requires at least five years of permanent residence, knowledge of the Mongolian language, and renunciation of prior citizenship. The work-visa system is broken down in detail by sector of the economy (construction, science and IT, mining, finance, agriculture, and others); employing foreigners under the work and investor categories is subject to a separate monthly workplace fee. A sharply continental climate produces winter temperatures below -17°C and summer temperatures above +20°C on a monthly average. In winter, Ulaanbaatar ranks among the cities with the dirtiest air in the world: the average annual PM2.5 level stands at 42.7 µg/m³ — almost nine times the WHO guideline — because of coal heating in the ger districts.
Philippines in brief
What sets the Philippines apart from its neighbours is the language: English is official and used in business, so there is no separate language barrier. Getting in is easy — 30 days visa-free under a wide list of countries, extendable on the spot; permanent status through marriage arrives after one probationary year, which is rare in this guide. The 9(g) work visa, on the other hand, is firmly tied to the employer: the labour department issues the hiring permit for that specific company. The digital nomad visa created by Executive Order No. 86 in April 2025 is not open to everyone: the reciprocity condition requires the applicant's country to issue such visas to Filipinos itself and to host a Philippine Foreign Service Post. The order sets no income threshold at all — the widely quoted figure of 24,000 dollars a year comes from consultants' commentary, not from the text. The main constraint is not bureaucratic: on the INFORM scale this is one of the most hazard-exposed countries in the world — earthquakes 9.7 out of 10, tsunamis 9.4, typhoons 9.2. Naturalisation takes 10 years and requires giving up the previous citizenship.
Other comparisons
Mongolia or… Taiwan · South Korea · Japan · Thailand · Kazakhstan · Lebanon · Uzbekistan · Malaysia
Philippines or… Azerbaijan · Bangladesh · Kuwait · Iraq · Oman · People's Republic of China · Sri Lanka · Singapore
More on each: Mongolia · Philippines. Build your own comparison — up to four countries
This material is for reference and is not legal, tax or immigration advice. Visa rules, tax thresholds and prices change. Before deciding anything, check the official sources and consult a licensed professional in the relevant country.