I have just received this information from the European Chamber of Commerce and Trade:
[quote]Dear Members,
We would like to inform you that the application procedure for R.O.C. Visitor and Resident Visa have been tightened as follows:
Old procedure:
Foreigners obtained a Visitor visa overseas at a Taipei Representative Office overseas (e.g. HongKong), obtained within the same day.
They converted the Visitor visa into Resident visa upon return in Taiwan at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
With the Resident visa They applied for an Alien Resident Certificate(ARC) and re-entry permit at the Foreign Police station.
New tightened procedure currently in place:
Foreigners have to obtain a Resident Visa instead of a Visitor Visa at a Taipei Representative Office overseas. The Resident Visa application procedures takes longer than Visitor Visa, at least 24 hours (by express service). Also, a Resident Visa for requires a medical report which takes a few days to complete, and the applicant and family members need to stay in, for example, Hong Kong waiting for the medical report in order to complete the Resident Visa application procedure.
Upon return in Taiwan, Foreigners can use the Resident Visa to apply for an ARC and Re-entry at Foreign Police station.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained the following reasons for the change of procedures:
Simplify the procedures of applying visitor visa first and convert to residence visa later.
Ensure that the type of visa issued corresponds to the purpose of visit in order to avoid illegal employment.
Please take note of this new practice. The ECCT HR Committee will be communicating with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on trying to avoid the inconvenience due to the long waiting period in HongKong or other overseas locations.
I was told something like this when I did a visa run in June. They gave me a visitor visa ( I showed them a letter from my boss saying he wanted to employ me) but said I would have to leave Taiwan again with all the paper work to get my resident visa. However I gave my passport and paperwork to the BOCA on Tuesday and they are proceeding as per the old system. Usual tip top communication and logical thinking in the government of paradise. (http://forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?t=18800&start=15)
1- the government is introducing a mandatory health test (done overseas) for those who didn’t require it before
and especially
2 - they make Visitor Visas ‘non-convertible’ to Resident Visas inside Taiwan.
Previously, I have twice had all the documents for a Resident Visa available overseas and tried to apply for a Resident Visa only to be told that I had to apply for the Visitor Visa and change it inside Taiwan. They couldn’t be bribed or begged into giving me the Resident Visa I was entitled to. I took it to be because the MOFA officers overseas are too damn lazy to do anything but the bare minimum and as a scam to make you pay for two visas instead of one.
If the ‘new policy’ is to issue people with a Resident Visa (if entitled) on first application overseas, it will mean loss of revenue for the government AND they will have to make the overseas offices do more work when they are used to saying ‘Take a Visitor Visa and fix it in Taiwan’. (I don’t see that happening myself!
If the ‘new policy’ is to make people have health tests outside Taiwan it will mean a loss of revenue for Taiwan hospitals.
If the ‘new policy’ is to introduce health tests for all Resident Visas then you can be sure ECCT and AmCham will be complaining loudly about it!
It could be any or all of these… and the fact that those rules would be difficult to apply and disadvantageous to Taiwan’s bureaucracy doesn’t mean - as we know - that they haven’t been cooked up as a new ‘policy’.
On the other hand… it could be nothing! I’d bet its nothing!
I noticed however that the ECCT email describes it as ‘tightened procedure currently in place’! So… anyone been subject to this ‘new’ procedure? We have one NO vote so far![/b]
No doubt another brainwave which will be quietly ignored. Like the HK visa office is going to be better at spotting potential illegal workers than the Ministry in Taipei…
Perhaps the son of the chairman of some airline just got a job at MOFA ?
The main aspect of this is that it affects those under ECCT jurisdiction. I wonder if a similar change is about to happen for those in the US to boot. I ask because I’m just about to send in my app for a Visitor Visa.
Should I get told to get a Resident Visa (or some other hogwash), where would I need to go? San Francisco? (I live in Minneapolis, MN (northern US))
Any help you can give would be appreciated; similarly, if I get any updates, I’ll keep you in the loop…
The main aspect of this is that it affects those under ECCT jurisdiction. I wonder if a similar change is about to happen for those in the US to boot. I ask because I’m just about to send in my app for a Visitor Visa.[/quote]
I don’t think we have established that there is any change whatsoever.
I don’t know why you think it ‘affects those under ECCT jurisdiction’.
Following our messages, the MoFA has invited ECCT for comments from its members. If your company has experienced any problems related to these tightened measures, please kindly advise, including examples, to us at your earliest convenience.
We hope to send MoFA our consolidated comments by the end of the week.
Thank you very much.
Best Regards,
Kelly Chung
Member Relations Officer
European Chamber of Commerce www.ecct.com.tw[/quote]
Following our messages, the MoFA has invited ECCT for comments from its members. If your company has experienced any problems related to these tightened measures, please kindly advise, including examples, to us at your earliest convenience.
We hope to send MoFA our consolidated comments by the end of the week.
Thank you very much.
Best Regards,
Kelly Chung
Member Relations Officer
European Chamber of Commerce
TEL: 2740-0236 ext. 14
FAX: 2772-0530 www.ecct.com.tw[/quote]
No it’s a major change. It’s saying you can’t come in on a visitor’s visa and change to a residency visa (as almost everybody does). Now you’ll have to go to HK to get your residency visa.
Should I get told to get a Resident Visa (or some other hogwash), where would I need to go? San Francisco? (I live in Minneapolis, MN (northern US).[/quote]
Hi Mindmixer,
You are probably familiar with the TECO website in the U.S. (quasi-embassies). TECO is the whole organization, individual offices are TECRO’s. The closest TECRO to you is likely Chicago. Address is tecro.org/content.php?section=offices .
By the way, it is important to find out WHICH office handles business from your state. The reason is that they seem unusually rigid about only handling customers from their own region. I lived in the southeastern part of the U.S. when I was there but was on travel to California when it was time to do my visa paperwork. I had to convince the California offices to help me. Initially, they weren’t very interested in helping me if I wasn’t from California. In the end, they helped me and did just what they said they would.
That said, they all ALSO seem to do business by mail (Fedex, etc). However, you have to be willing to send your passport and other important documents in the mail to take advantage of that.
When I was in the States, I had no luck getting them to answer email. I had a little luck getting info over the phone.
No it’s a major change. It’s saying you can’t come in on a visitor’s visa and change to a residency visa (as almost everybody does). Now you’ll have to go to HK to get your residency visa.
Brian[/quote]
Sorry, I didn’t put that very well. I know what the original email copied from ECCT says.
Since this supposed to be a ‘new policy’ that is already in effect I asked (a few posts earlier) if anybody had been put through the new procedures. You asked about that too.
This was announced as an established new policy already in force last week. This week the MOFA is inviting the ECCT in for tea and sandwiches to discuss things. Of course, this is how policy, such as it is, is made in Taiwan:
1 - Announce your new rules.
2 - Wait for protests.
3 - EITHER drop new rules OR amend them so that the original purpose is not served but the initiator still saves face.
I’m just saying let’s wait and see what actually happens… because I have my doubts that anything will… that’s all…
The regulations for teachers in 1996 may have been like this. I was on a resident visa with an ARC through a university here but had to go and do a HK trip to change my status to “teacher”. I picked up the piece of paper in HK and got my R visa at the CKS immigration counter.
I know that when my wife and I went to HK they gave the impression that they were not authorised to issue anything longer than a 2 month visa off their own bat and anything more exciting would have to be done in Taipei. Are they upgrading the Taipei office [correction after kategelan posted: I meant to write “HK office”] ? The London office told me they have “never” issued a resident visa, it was always a V visa to be converted in TPE. A massive and pointless change if it is true.
This won’t I assume apply to residents changing employer ?
[quote=“hexuan”]Are they upgrading the Taipei office? The London office told me they have “never” issued a resident visa, it was always a V visa to be converted in TPE. A massive and pointless change if it is true.
[/quote]
Yup, hexuan… that’s why I don’t really buy it until I see it in practice. I’ve never been able to get either the Dublin or the London TRO to issue a Resident Visa even with contract, work permit and everything in hand! They will not ‘be arsed’ checking with Taipei and issuing Resident Visas as long as Visitor Visas are ‘convertible’.
It would have to mean extra staff overseas and cutbacks at the BOCA in Taipei.
As you know, strictly speaking ‘da rulez’ have ALWAYS said that if you’re coming to work for more than six months you are supposed to apply for a Resident Visa before you arrive.
It could just be that someone, somewhere, has just read ‘da rulez’ and got in a flap.
If something is really afoot, the biggest change would be a health test for ‘MOEA rules’ work permits! And I just don’t believe that Taiwan will be making the directors of AmCham and ECCT and the Country Managers of big foreign multi-nationals poop into cups and be blood tested any time soon (especially if they have to go to HK to do it!)
But maybe, just maybe they will… (stupider things have happened…) It would hardly be unusual for the drafters of a Taiwan government policy to have absolutely no clue how that policy would work out in practice.
When was the exact date that this Visa/ARC change took place? I do not see it being practiced either as a friend of mine returned on the 17th from Thailand with a Vistor Visa and is getting his paperwork for an Resident =ARC done now. I’ll bet dollars to donuts most of the employees at BOCA, Municipal police station etc.etc don’t know about this and couldn’t tell you squat about it. :loco: Ahhhhhhhh Taiwan!
P.S. I’ll bet offices in Hk,Bangkok, Japan and…don’t know about this change.
Well I just picked up my new resident visa in Kaohsiung yesterday. Went through the usual procedure and nobody mentioned anything about a change in policy. (Though see above for what HK visa office said)
The KL TECO office follows these new rules. You’re going to have to prove you’re either in the (1) work category or the (2) permanent/immigrant category such as for wives. The KL TECO office would not issue my Malaysian wife a 60 day visa unless she could show either category.
See my story here. Note Fortigurn and my experiences. They are tightening up the rules now but not every office is complying at the same speed (typical Taiwanese bureaucracy at work, naturally).