Asking the Apple Daily for help sounds like extremely bad advice. Their motivations are all wrong. @tommy525, your answer suggests you do not know what kind of newsletter the Apple Daily or its ilk are
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Well getting down to the local registrar will do.
The place where Taiwanese have their domicile registered will do
Go explain the situ and get sorted out
Frankly I am not buying the story at face value
I wish this story was fake. As I mentioned in the original post, I honestly think most of the problems fall on myself for being unable to take a step out to break the status quo. As a result the problem was just being pushed back and back until it couldn’t be pushed any more.
My Chinese took quite a while to develop and it’s still rather rudimentary because I never developed a habit of browsing or searching with Chinese instead of English. It’s obviously much more comfortable to just use the language I’m most familiar with. That is probably the main reason my English capability is still passable while my Chinese is underdeveloped for how long I have lived here.
The story itself has a lot of details excluded as they aren’t particularly relevant to helping my current situation… And well, I can’t say I’d want to joyfully tell a story of stupid decisions I’ve made either.
Back to the subject…
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.
My memory is not exactly clear since it’s not something explicitly explained to me but if I’m not wrong I was told that I entered Taiwan on my American passport. I believe military service is something I’d have to do if I wanted to obtain legal status in Taiwan.
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?
The divorce happened apparently when I was 3~ and all I have been told about her is horror stories. I essentially know nothing about my mother and at this point I do not even remember her face.
As for the relatives part, this is something I excluded as it was not particularly important to my current situation. Originally my father returned to rely on his family but unfortunately my grandmother has already passed on. To my knowledge I do not have anything more than very distant relatives who I have never even talked to.
OP, try to contact somebody at the government explaining this story, and without reveailing your identity.
Admittedly I haven’t looked into seeing whether or not it’s possible to do so through email but I believe it’s rather hard to be anonymous when using a house phone to call.
So far I’m settling towards figuring out what I can do at the moment to improve my situation while staying low. When that reaches a dead end, I will likely directly seek advice from the government as many have advised.
For the most part I’m unwilling to do so without preparations or the security of anonymity because it could suddenly throw me into a tight spot when things don’t quite work out well.
Most government websites have contact forms that require an email address. You write your message and email address in the form, you get a confirmation email with a link you need to click on (otherwise the message is not actually sent), and you wait for a reply by email. The form may also require your name, but if it doesn’t explicitly say it needs to be your “name as it appears on your passport”, you can write it differently. (As far as US law goes, your name is whatever you want it to be, as long as you don’t have a fraudulent intention. Procedures for making a change of name “official” vary by state, but the existence of an official procedure doesn’t erase the common law right. I can send you more info on this if you have doubts.)
Of course the government has ways of tracking people, but simply inquiring about what the laws/regulations say (you don’t need to say it involves you) is unlikely to result in that, imo. They operate in a very compartmentalized way.
The government usually takes longer to respond to English messages, and in my experience most departments/units only respond in Chinese.
I still think you shouldn’t assume you don’t have any relatives who would care about your life, even if they’re difficult to track down.
This sounds like an extreme case of abuse! Your father’s paranoia must have affected you, as well as your extreme isolation. Your father must have serious mental problems (paranoia, isolation, talking crap about mother are big red flags). You need to use every second of every day to try to GET OUT.
Alright thanks for the information. I never looked into emails because I sort of had some prejudice that most emails only get you systematized responses, in part because of the amount they probably have to deal with.
I will try to consult them about this one of these days but before that, do you have any idea where this sort question should be asked at?
I’m not very knowledgeable about this type of thing, but if you follow the links here http://www.taiwan.gov.tw/np.asp?ctNode=3818&mp=1 you can reach an English contact page for the Department of Household Registration. (It says “suggestion mail”, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.)
There are probably people in the Ministry of Health & Welfare and the Ministry of Education who would take an interest in your case if they knew about it, but like I said the government is very compartmentalized, and you might bump into a lot of “walls”. It’s probably better to try to find an NGO that knows how to handle these things.
You have more options then you realize. You are an American citizen. Get yourself back in America. Forget the fines or whatever else your worrying about. If your willing to work, there are plenty of jobs that require no special skill or degree here. Also as an American and not a person of means, you qualify for all types of financial aid when it comes to going to college. I know community colleges here in New York that will get you your Ged and start you on your way to college at the same time. If your serious I can give you more details on how you can survive and get your life on track, but I don’t know, the way you speaks makes me a bit doubtful as others have expressed here. Trust me, there’s no need to resign at 22. You have ample time to not only turn it all around but also excel.
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Thanks for the links, I’ll try AIT first and see how that turns out.
Also more details would be very welcome indeed since I believe that I will still ultimately end up back in America unless things work out very smoothly here.
I get that the story may be unbelievable and all but it’s not as if I’m here to ask for donations. All I’m really looking for is information on what roads I can take in my current position so that I can properly plan out what I need to do.
Hena, I want to wish you good luck!
As it appears to have dawned on you, NOW is the time to STOP waiting. Abandon that thin thread of hope that things will eventually improve on their own and take control of your own life now. Your father has strung you along for too long. Get yourself out of this situation.
I can’t offer you any more details than what others have already provided as I am not knowledgeable of how things work in Taiwan.
However, I have some suggestions, for what they are worth:
You’re going to have to go outside in order to get out of this mess. There could be several places you have to get yourself to. But, you are not used to going outside. So it may be advisable to get yourself slowly used to it. While you are waiting to hear from the AIT, try to go outside once a day or once every other day. Go for some short walks, even if it’s just a few steps away from whatever building you are living in. Build up on this.
I think in your situation, the AIT are going to help you in light of your financial difficulties. But at some point, you’re going to need money. If you can start earning money now to put away to use later, it will help you a lot.
[quote=“yyy, post:20, topic:155359”]
No matter what payment system you use, the money has to be collected somewhere.
[/quote]Well, you can open a paypal account, accept payments into it and let money accumulate there. At least that gives you somewhere safe to put money so that you can at least have a few dollars to your name while you get identification and a bank account sorted.
http://italki.com/ is a website you can use to make money teaching via video chat (ie Skype, LINE), but you need to upload a short video introduction of yourself. Be a community tutor and make your lessons cheap. You will get a few bookings.
If you need to convert your paypal balance to cash without the use of a bank account, one way I know of doing this is to use https://localbitcoins.com/ to buy some bitcoins with Paypal and then sell those bitcoins to a buyer who pays in cash. You will lose some money along the way but it’s a solution you can use.
Please do your best to keep us informed of all developments in your situation as they happen with as much relevant detail as you are willing to provide. I am really looking forward to hearing about how this pans out.
Start a blog! You’ve got a real niche story here that you can use to grow an audience, and as your audience grows you can make quite decent money over the long term. Here’s a website on how to start a blog I pulled off google: https://theblogpress.com/blog/how-to-start-a-blog-and-make-money-online-guide/
Between that and a paypal account you will create an additional source of motivation for yourself, a point of focus, a vehicle for generating the drive to keep going down the path to self-liberation.
Focus on the light at the end of the tunnel. You are obviously an intelligent guy with a lot of potential that will get you far in this world if you put the effort in.You are a United States citizen. The AIT will help you get back to America, and with your background, you will be able to find a community college that will really help you, they will assist you to apply for financial aid, get your GED and get through college.
How did it go, did you contact them and have they gotten back to you?
I have to apologise for my really sloppy writing, the words are really struggling to flow today but I really wanted to add my voice to this conversation in the faith that you are not a troll and are really in this situation.
Again, good luck!
TBH, I know several cases like this or worse. It can be negotiated. She can stay or she can go if she pleases.
I’d like to say it is not uncommon, but I would be lying.
Next step, once she solves the paperwork, is to pursue formal education. There are adult classes at local schools and basic training. Luckily for her, the service industry at the lowest levels is the one most lacking in dependable human resources. She can find a job and be independent, free from these abuses. Once she gets enough experience and maybe a basic degree, she can use her language skills for even better positions.
I think Hena is a he.
Even better. With military service, a career path opens. Heck, even as a woman, now that they are grabbing, eh, sorry welcoming everyone.
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I thought PP required verification of a bank account before transactions can begin. Maybe I’m wrong, or they changed it, or it varies by country.
Bank verification is required only if you want to associate that bank account with your PP acckunt. Some banks in Taiwan – like E.Sun – help make connecting your PP to your accountbthere easier but I think the transfer costs are high.
Hello, to update a bit on the situation…
I’ve sent mails to AIT and some other places for time being. Still haven’t seen a reply other than a message stating that AIT received my mail so I’m patiently waiting for now on that end.
With the advice I’ve been given here so far I decided to try working out a way to earn some money online for now until I get a response. I should be able to work out the paypal issues somehow but I’m still undecided on the actual method to earn money. In one of the suggestions above about tutoring through video chat, I don’t own a webcam and my internet access is a little too unreliable to do that.
As for finding a job off the net… I feel it’s the most straightforward solution since I don’t have to go through hurdles like withdrawing money. But at the same time fairly difficult on the side of basically having to find under the table work which obviously isn’t advertised openly.
Any further update on this?
Replies from AIT were a mixed bag. Trying to get a reply from miscellaneous mail got me ignored, trying it from a different mail gave me a response however in the end I wasn’t told much more than what people here have already taught me. Answers to mostly everything were ignored and I was told to just contact the Department of Household Registration/National Immigration Agency for all of my answers.
So in short: not very productive.
As for other mails, as I don’t seem to be getting any responses either I’ll probably rewrite them in Chinese and try again.
Building up money online in the meantime has been fairly difficult but I wasn’t expecting it to be easy either way.
I’m also tentatively looking into contacting relatives for support but I would consider it to be merely grasping at straws and I’m not placing much expectations in it succeeding.
Based on personal experience, email has about the same success rate for communication in Taiwan as a message in a bottle.
It would help if someone could make inquiries for you in person.
It might be better to go in person and ask what documents you need as proof.