Was so excited about working in Taiwan to teach, and thought I had zero criminal record, but I did a background just to make sure.
10 years ago, I was coming home from school and got pulled over, cop informs me my licence had just expired 3 weeks prior. License last for 5 years so I honestly just hadnt noticed.
Long story short, it counted as an arrest since I had to get finger printed and booked (even though I didnt spend any time in jail). The cop told me to just get my licensed fixed asap, show the court, and it would be fine.
So I got it fixed asap, showed the person at the courthouse and paid a 10$ fine and thought it was all good.
On my background check it shows as a misdemeanor. I am in the process of getting it expunged, which im told will show it as dismissed, or something. But it will still show that I was caught driving on an expired licence 10 years ago.
In America this would effectively make it as though it never happened, but Im hearing they are strict in TW.
Worst part is, I found out that since it was just 3 weeks expired and I had no prior conviction, and bc I renewed my license the very next day - a judge would have reduced it to an infraction. I found out that by fixing it and paying a 10$ fine -I actually got stuck a misdemeanor. I had no clue, being so young.
Will an expunged traffic violation from 10 years ago like (driving on exp license) this prevent me from being able to teach english in TW?