Despairful Consultation

Alright, I’ll start off with saying that I’ve already partially reached a state of resignation about my current state of affairs. However on the other side of things, since I don’t think the situation can get any worse I decided I’d grasp at straws and found my way here when looking for advice on the net.

I’ll very briefly sum up my life skipping details irrelevant to this. First of all I was bought to Taiwan from America when I was a child because of my father (divorced) having no job and ending up on the streets so he came back to his home country. As I was not born here, I’m not a citizen of this country.

Fearing deportation, my father severely forbid me from leaving my home or even getting near anywhere with windows and bought me up under these circumstances with “home schooling” and promises that he’ll send me to a proper school when I grow up a little more and other plans. By the time I was 15 I grew dubious on his promises but I had no one to rely on. When I reached 18 I already stopped believing in his promises.

Naturally I struggled however perhaps I was too much of a coward to take extreme measures like escaping as I had no one to rely on or any sense of locality and money. In the end the status quo persisted with me relying on the thin thread of hope that things would eventually improve.

It didn’t. My father is now facing his own struggles as he’s aging and can no longer earn much money anymore consequentially I’m splendidly on the road to becoming homeless and I’m now 22.

I will not blame others for my current situation as I still feel there should have been things I could have done but did not and I’ve more or less reached a resignation on life however I’m not in a mental state to commit suicide either so I still want to struggle.

To plainly sum up my problems:

  • Simple lack of money to do any proper problem solving. (e.g. leaving the country and starting anew)
  • Currently illegal in status here making any form of legitimate money making likely difficult although I do not know if there’s exceptions to this.
  • No form of official education whatsoever which does not give much light to the future even so.

The only possible solutions I have thought about is finding some sort of way to earn money so I can leave the country and then find basic employment for self sufficiency where I can see if I can find room for education to further expand my career options but it’s horribly vague of a plan even then.

Turning myself in and being deported may also be an option if they’re willing to pay for the ticket but from what I have read US citizens will be fined with the ticket cost as a debt, moreover as I have no money it’s up for question how I’ll survive and pay it back.

Can’t say I’m expecting any magical solutions to all of my problems since I personally feel checkmated in life but if anyone has advice then my ears are open.

Well how old were you when you came here? As your story implies you were here before you were 15, given the amount of time you’ve been here, I doubt you’d be deported. And even if you were, you’d likely get social security in the US. Given your level of English, you’d have no trouble making twice or three times the average Taiwanese salary as an English teacher and be able to support your father.

This sad story raises many questions. OP, have you talked to anyone at the AIT?

It’s illegal to teach without a degree, but I can tell you many buxiban will look the other way. It might we worth a shot. Until you earned enough to figure out other plans

First off, I notice your writing skills are better than average, so the home schooling must have worked somewhere along the line. Honestly, it sounds like your isolation hasn’t been as complete as you suggest, but we’ll have to take your word for it.

If your father is a Taiwanese citizen, or was born here, then you can apply for citizenship, and can then (theoretically) do all the normal things Taiwanese people do, such as apply for jobs. I’m not sure about the process, but I believe it’s quite straightforward. There are threads on it. If you speak Chinese you may be able to call immigration anonymously and inquire.

In the meantime, why not post a ‘job wanted’ in the classifieds, listing every possible skill you have? There are always possibilities.

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Yeah kind of getting the feeling the focus is on getting out here.

Thanks for the advice so far, to answer some questions:

  • I do not actually remember the exact age I came here at but I’m pretty sure I was around 5. How would that help my case though?

  • I haven’t talked to anyone at AIT yet although the selection did cross my mind. That is most likely something I’d do when I’ve reached the resolve of essentially turning myself in as currently no one knows of my status here.

  • Working illegally is an option but I honestly have no clue how something like that would work out. I don’t think I can possibly just walk in and say I want to work but I have nothing to prove my legal status.

  • My home schooling was essentially my father teaching me various things when he had time. I cannot say the education was very complete as my father insisted that if I learn more advanced topics first I can look back on basic topics later and solve them more easily. This also stopped by the time I reached 18. While I tentatively have knowledge of calculus and such, I feel dubious on my ability to use it practically. Language was not included in the schooling so my English and Chinese was self studied. As bemusing as it may be, I’m actually somewhat dubious of my Chinese read/write because as I never leave the house I don’t actually need to use it often.

  • The degree of my isolation is essentially that I never leave the house. If you want to be concrete however, I do leave the house on odd occasions but they are to the extent of once every few years. My father also has some degree of paranoia as he insists the government is spying on him so my access to the internet is limited as well but not completely blocked or else I would not be here. I also don’t have any television if it matters.

  • My father is indeed a Taiwanese citizen and he has mentioned about applying for my citizenship. However ultimately he tells me to continue waiting in the end every time. I’m uncertain on how things would work out if I did apply given my current legal status here so some clarification on that would be useful before I do anything.

My focus points towards getting out of here because I don’t see much of a future in staying here with my legal problems. Even if I managed to find a job, it’s unknown when I’d get caught so it doesn’t feel like it’s a good idea as a long term solution. Of course I have no problems if we’re talking about using it to save some money to get things on track again.

I primarily want some knowledge on what I can do in my current situation before I concretely do anything so I don’t somehow get myself in an even bigger mess.

Average salaries is Taiwan is a complex issue and while many laborers and white collar entrants make 25-35k per month, there are many others in various industries that average after 14th check and other bonuses around 45-65k per month so no way he’ll make twice or three times that. And no degree and he is of Taiwnese ethnicity, both major obstacles.

OP, you’re very young. I’ve been in worse situations at much older years in life. You could be the next millionaire app or startup guy. Start selling stuff online, find a low paying job, get out there and try whatever don’t despair.

Hang on, you entered as 5 year old? On a passport, but what passport?

I suggest that you find out your dad’s id number and when you can find out if you are registered as son or daughter to him.

If you are male, your biggest problem is not deportation, it’s military service.

Hi Hena,

Before we help lots of “overstayed” overseas Chinese with overdue Taiwan passport without ROC citizenship.

The group that I volunteer with also handle different case like overstayed mom who are married to Taiwanese with some documents problem relating to marriage contract, Children with similar case like you.

Here’s my suggestion:

  1. Bring your father’s Taiwan ROC ID, household book (if he has) to the nearest household office (google it please).

  2. Hena - If you don’t have records of yourself - the only way is DNA to confirm.
    There is social worker or social welfare located at the same building example in Daan
    they are in 1 location they can help you.

You have 100% rights to have ROC ID.

You must act soon as possible don’t wait anymore.

Considering your father’s questionable behavior, he may withhold important documents from you. I don’t think you can rely on anything he says. He may also be withholding other things from you, such as the existence/whereabouts of cousins who probably don’t know about your situation. What about your mother and her relatives, here or in other countries?

That’s what I think.

OP, try to contact somebody at the government explaining this story, and without reveailing your identity.

Not having a degree does not necessarily make teaching in a buxiban illegal. Obviously, being an illegal immigrant makes any sort of work illegal, but hopefully the OP can get that sorted out.

Reminder to everyone, we don’t encourage illegal behavior here.

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I don’t even know if this is not a troll, the story has some details that don’t make a lot of sense to me, but reality can beat fiction as we all know.

I would suggest the OP to teach English online. If he’s not very familiar with the Real World, to use Skype for one on one conversation classes or whatever you call it sounds a much better option than to go to a company and deal with some other problems in addition to legal status and titles.

Well the English ability and access to the internet is what makes this story extremely suspect.

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I’m assuming the suggestions to work online are for the future, once the other issues have been sorted out. (Not to mention that it’s a bit hard to make money online anyway, if you can’t go out of the house to open a bank account.)

No, my suggestion is that he can do both things. To teach English on Skype is in the gray area, I don’t think that he would be prosecuted for doing that, and given the level of desperation shown on the thread (again, if this is real), he would feel much better with some small weekly incoming.

To OP,

Estimate cost of DNA - are expensive about TWD 16k + (before)
Today no idea.

Why expensive? your Father and you will both take this test so to confirm if there is blood related

I seem to recall this “gray area” was covered in another thread long ago and determined to be “black”. But I still don’t see how it would work even if it were “white”. No matter what payment system you use, the money has to be collected somewhere.

If OP is an ROC national and eligible for household registration (or actually is registered but doesn’t know it), that should solve the question of being able to work legally, but it should be solved first, to avoid making a messy situation messier.

This is certainly an Apple Daily newsworthy story. You might want to contact them. They will be able to help you sort things out in return for your story. It is pretty incredible a story.

Home taught but yet writing like that? Imprisoned essentially from five years old until 22? Barely ever going outside?
That is a book waiting to become a movie !

If your father is a Taiwanese citizen, no matter what you are a Taiwanese citizen or could be. You just need to get to the local precinct and find out the process for registration.

But you are entitled to TW citizenship for sure.
Hopefully you can speak mandarin fluently?