Yes I know. Perhaps I didn’t put that very well. If the validity is up to the officer’s discretion, then there is a lot of room for flexibility on different grounds. It’s obvious that flexibility is often used to benefit favored groups or individuals. I raised the observation that holders of certain passports always seem to need to produce evidence of sufficient funds to obtain visitor visas, while holders of 1st world passports seemingly never need to do so, even though the regulations state that everyone may have to provide these documents. It’s well known that this kind of thing is institutional and it is naturally unpopular. I’m suggesting that in this atmosphere of distrust, it may well be that the agency now responsible for handling ARC applications have issued blanket instructions to their officers rather than allowing them to use their own discretion, in order to avoid the charges of favoritism / racism which are often levelled at the consular service.
Well, in this case they are at least treating us all equally badly. I’d been in Taiwan for over 10 years when I first applied for a JFRV and most of that time I’d had an ARC, a steady job, and paid my taxes on time. They still only gave me one year.
Maybe the answer is that they are just making work for themselves to justify their staffing levels and budgets. Maybe we are looking for signs of logic where none exists.
I’d be interested to hear how your friend got 3 years though…
The lady at MOFA said most people don’t know about this document and fail to bring it. Not sure if it’s a new requirement or what.
