So, in my continuing quest to figure out how to be a lazy (but extremely comfortable) bum, I have more questions.
It looks like I’ll be able to have about 80K per month net. I’ll be living in Taipei City or somewhere with comparable internet access (ping time to Canada, not bandwidth). I’ll want a nice 2 bedroom apartment which is reasonably quiet at night. I don’t drink much, but I like eating well and being social. I’ll probably be on a 30 day visitor permit, so the monthly budget has to include travel costs to leave and come back once per month. It’d be nice to sock away 10 - 20K per month. I’ll want to go to a competent language school (dunno if this will allow me to change that 30 day permit) so I can learn a conversational Chinese language and talk to random local people (hmm, learn Mandarin for this?). I don’t know if I’ll need a vehicle since I won’t be commuting (not sure if I can even get one on a 30 day permit).
Great, thanks! As I understand it I need to have a health check done to get a student ARC, since I have a phobia of needles is there any way around this? For instance, just keep getting landing visas indefinitely and instead of applying to a regular Chinese class get good private lessons?
Unless you have some unwanted illness you are not telling us about there is no way around this. It’s a legal requirement.
But then again as you are intending to move here and work illegally in the first place why bother with such formalities.
Of course I’d be willing to give you nice private Chinese lessons. For a fee [/quote]
Hah, no horrible diseases here! I just have a phobia of needles. It took me a hell of a lot of working up to it just to get my TB test done to get into grad school, and I ended up having to have my doctor prescribe a valium like medication (I don’t remember the name). Which I took an hour before the test, and that was a simple jab with no blood draw.
:s If I could figure out a way to make it legal work I would, I just can’t seem to find a route which actually covers the way I want to work. I’m a pretty honest person and it actually bothers me that I can’t seem to figure out how to do this on the up and up. Hell, it’s only what, a 12% tax rate? Not like it’s gonna break the bank, I just can’t figure out how to get the government to take the damn money.
You will only need to give a sample of blood but that would be a lot easier than doing a visa run every month.
80K/mo should be more than enough to live a very nice lifestyle. The Chinese classes will probably be about 8-9K/mo so it can actually be cheaper to visa runs. And the Chinese classes require a lot of time. To get a visa you need to take the 15 hr/wk option. You’ll probably have 1-2 tutors outside of class or want to setup a language exchange for additional help. And you’ll need to study (mostly the characters and writing) an hour a day (on average). Overall it easily comes to a 20+ hr/wk commitment.
[quote=“skoster”]Sample as in blood draw or finger prick?
Hmm, sounds like the classes are a lot more intensive than I’m interested in. I just want to learn how to communicate with people in everyday life.[/quote]
they draw from a vein. Just close your eyes and breathe normally (relax) and it’s not that bad.
The classes are a lot time imo and if you have the money then there are other options like a private tutor which would be a lot more efficient timewise. I’m lucky since I have a good language exchange with a student studying to teach mandarin. But I’m god-awful lazy so I don’t take advantage of it. And I don’t talk in any language (naturally quiet) so I don’t improve in everyday life.
You should really consider getting Hep A and B shots too, if you haven’t already. I appreciate you hate needles, but getting hepatitis would suck way more. Either that or you’ll have to make sure you take extra steps to avoid picking it up, which will impinge on the stuff you can try out food wise in night markets etc.
Thanks, yeah, shots aren’t as big a deal to me since they can just poke me in the shoulder or another muscle, it’s really a localized phobia of the area of my arms where draws are usually taken. Just from a bad experience when I was a kid. I’ll suck it up and do it if I have to, though the student visa doesn’t seem to solve my problems.
Is there any route you can think of which allows me to get a work visa while working purely over the internet and contracting my services to North American clients?
I really don’t want to set up a life just to end up having it pulled out from under me, and I imagine after a while some customs officer is going to wonder why I keep getting landing visas and start asking tricky questions (like how can you afford to live here without any sort of income).
in my experience, iv never been asked anything and i used a multiple visa good for sixty days each time for over 15 years. As long as you dont overstay you wont be asked most likely.
immigration at the airport only is concerned you are not on a blacklist and that your passport is in order and you are entitled to a visa free entry.
[quote=“skoster”] Hell, it’s only what, a 12% tax rate? Not like it’s gonna break the bank, I just can’t figure out how to get the government to take the damn money.
I’m not entirely sure how to take that last bit! Edited to break up a run on sentence…[/quote]
Nope it’s 20% for you mister for the first 6 months of every tax year if you are legally working here. Welcome to being a furriner. You can yourself legal by registering a company and being an investor in it. You can even get an ARC as an investor. It doesnt take a lot of Money. And you can have it setup so as you are a rep and dont get paid in Taiwan by your clients.
Many people do this type of thing to get legal status here, like thelostswede, and many others. Try reading the visa threads.
I wish I could get an ARC here, but I prefer my trips to China and Japan and Manila every now and then.
The chinese classes that get you an ARC require a 90% attendance record and of course that you actually study.
Yes I was serious about teaching you communicative Chinese. I’ve taught Mandarin before, it’s not rocket science. BY the way it won’t take you long to be communicating with people here at all.
[quote=“skoster”]that was a simple jab with no blood draw.
[/quote]
Just to clarify, in Taiwan they don’t “draw” the blood…
I was horrified to hear my father (in the UK) had three SYRINGES full of blood taken out of his body the good old fashioned way - sucking it out with a plunger-type syringe. (Aside: he fainted after two and a half and the hospital fucked up his blood tests, NOT giving him the one test he really wanted and then asking if they could have more blood… damned NHS).
Here, they stick a needle in your arm and pop these evacuated test tubes onto the end. They fill up with blood before you know it and the whole process takes mere seconds. It really is over almost as soon as it’s begun.
I actually watch sometimes. I don’t mind seeing my blood come out of me - means I’m alive and my heart is pumping (and it doesn’t hurt one iota). Does that make me a sicko? I didn’t much like the lumber punctures I had done a couple years ago - that was a weird feeling, even with the local anaethetic.
However I can’t bear to watch someone under the knife, or getting sutures. Strange, innit?
In Taiwan the laws here are just a loose guideline… they don’t bother to follow or enforce it when there are no “official” paper trails to get you with. Do bear in mind that if you are working illegally, or whatnot (I don’t think this includes working online though, they really have no way of knowing this if you don’t tell everyone about it) someone can report you if they don’t like you then they will use the full force of the law against you!
In short… laws in Taiwan are really just a tool to make you comply to some boss/authority so that if they don’t like you, they can get you. It works since no one really follows the law here.
[quote=“Taiwan Luthiers”]In Taiwan the laws here are just a loose guideline… they don’t bother to follow or enforce it when there are no “official” paper trails to get you with. Do bear in mind that if you are working illegally, or whatnot (I don’t think this includes working online though, they really have no way of knowing this if you don’t tell everyone about it) someone can report you if they don’t like you then they will use the full force of the law against you!
In short… laws in Taiwan are really just a tool to make you comply to some boss/authority so that if they don’t like you, they can get you. It works since no one really follows the law here.[/quote]
Any work, even volunary work, can be illegal. Do you think I could just step off a plane and start working in the USA on a visitor visa because I felt like it? INS wouldt have a problem with that after all I’m white, not a south american
Just because some people think the laws are a guideline, please tell us about all those who get deported for working illegally how they feel. After all they treated the laws as guidelines, nothing to worry about. Nah nada nip zero nuthin to care about. So if you theink they don’t enforce then you are clearly mistaken. It takes one phone call to get somebody nicked.
If you haven’t had your bloodwork done in a while, you can’t be quite sure of that can you?
Oh yeah, +1 on the Hepatitis vaccination too. IIRC it’s a 3-shot regimen over 3 months, so don’t expect to be able to get it done in a day and go buck wild at the night markets.
I have been in plenty of fist fights, done survival courses for offshore, 200mph on a hayabusa… lots of scary stuff.
needles are the only thing i am scared of, anything that penetrates my skin just makes me go faint!.
Its a problem and for years as a child my family tried to get me help about it, but fast forwards 20 years and i still have it.
Getting a booster shot i can just about deal with, but taking a blood sample just kills me
Hence i never got a proper visa done, just a visitor whos overstayed twice!.
BY the way it won’t take you long to be communicating with people here at all.
I didn’t much like the lumber punctures I had done a couple years ago - that was a weird feeling, even with the local anaethetic.