How to get an ARC renewed/extended

yuli · August 10, 2011, 1:03am

[Last edited: 2011-08-13]

This post is meant to be a reference (resource), and i will edit it from time to time to reflect the available information (see “last edited” at the top).

The preliminaries

A) About applying for an ARC:

[quote]

Get a resident visa (see other threads and websites for the required information - these details vary depending on your situation)
Take your resident visa to the NIA office within 15 days of receiving it and apply for an ARC

Required:

your passport
duplicates of some of the documents you submitted for your resident visa (check for details with the office in your area)
the application form
2 photos (smaller than the ones you needed for the visa)
something with which you can confirm/ verify your residential address (a business card or receipts for rent payments may be accepted, at least one case is known where the NIA staff made a phone call to the owner of the applicant’s apartment to get the confirmation, a rental contract will always be accepted)
the appropriate fee (1000NT$ for a 1-year ARC or 3000NT$ for a 3-year ARC)[/quote]
B) About the validity period of the ARC: the current information is that language students can only get an ARC with a few months validity (covering the study terms they have paid for) while regular students and people with a work contract can get ARCs with at least 1 year validity.

About extending/renewing an ARC:
If you are eligible to extend/ renew your ARC you have to do that before the expiry date shown on the card, and you also need to renew your ARC whenever you change your residential address.

[quote]
Go to the NIA office to apply for an extension/ the renewal of your ARC

Required:

documents proving your eligibility (these details vary depending on your situation)
your passport
your old ARC
an application form
2 photos (like when you applied for the ARC for the first time)
the appropriate fee (extensions/ renewals are free within the period of time for which the initial fee has been paid)[/quote]
[color=#FF0000]Caution:[/color] If you have changed your address but do not apply for a renewal of your ARC you may have to pay a fine at the time the NIA finds out about the matter.
[color=#FF0000]Caution:[/color] If the conditions change on which your resident visa and ARC have been granted, your visa may become invalid and with that your ARC - regardless of what date is shown on the card.

Services that require a minimum ARC validity of 1 year:

getting a VISA debit card at the bank (see A guide to Taiwanese VISA Debit Cards for a detailed explanation)
being able to make postpay contracts for telephone and internet services
getting a Taiwan driving licence.

Beware of outdated information on various websites: there appear to have been changes made to the law or the applicable precedures in recent years, and some websites have not been updated to reflect those changes. If you find information that conflicts with the information available in this post, check the date it was posted - it is a few years old, no need to mention it here, if it is recent, feel free to ask about the matter…

A question that comes up again and again is “How can i open a bank account without an ARC?”. Please don’t ask that again but read the information that is already available on Forumosa. One thread with the required information is here: When to open a bank account and there is a search funtion that will dig up many more…

To all who have helped and are helping to keep this information up to date: :thanks:

tsukinodeynatsu · August 12, 2011, 5:37pm

I’m surprised nobody’s answered you yet…

OK, we’re not including JFRVs here because I don’t know quite how they work yet.

For your ARC, you need:

Photographs
Money ($1200 last year when I renewed)
Proof of having a reason to be here (i.e. a letter of enrollment (NOT acceptance), work contract, etc.)
Passport
Proof of Address - a business card may suffice, rental contract is best if you have it. They’re fairly lenient though.

To ‘extend’ / ‘renew’ your ARC you need the above.

PLACE: NATIONAL IMMIGRATION AGENCY

(Though they had a window at MOFA with ARC/Visa stuff when I visited, you can get them at the NIA just fine)

For Uni students/Workers, usually you have a one-year ARC which you have to renew before it runs out by taking the above documents and applying for an extension/renewal/whatever they call it.

For language students, your ARC is only issued for the months for which you have PAID YOUR TUITION already.
The fee is the same as a yearly ARC fee - you pay for a year. Since the programmes are usually divided into 2/3/4/6 month blocks, most people pay block by block. Your ARC will only be valid up to a week or so after whichever term you have paid up to runs out. You need to take all the above documents back each time to get it extended.

BUT because you pay for a year, you can go back and extend it free of charge when you’ve paid for the next term’s classes. You don’t have to pay again until the year is up.

A bank account shouldn’t need a year’s validity; I opened mine at the post office just fine with three months’. Private banks might be less accommodating.

Mobile companies don’t like to give cell phones to language or undergraduate students. Look for the newbie in the shop and try your luck (it’s how I got mine). Or get a friend to get you a phone. Or live with pay-as-you-go.

The licence is a pain in the ass - they won’t let you get a licence unless you have at least a year’s validity on your ARC. Which means if you’re paying for language classes once every three months, you can’t get your licence until you’ve been here for nine months (and are thus paying up until the end of the 12th month). And then your freakin’ licence runs out as soon as your ARC runs out anyway (and they wonder why so many people drive illegally?).

You get a new card every time you extend/renew/change your ARC, so you need new photographs for each one.

Change your address as soon as you move; it’s really not worth copping the fees for (and they are pretty big). Take photo, ARC and proof of address and apply.

I think this should answer all your questions - I apologise for any lack of clarity, I’m really sleepy.

Lili · August 12, 2011, 6:13pm

Concise guide:
Read, understand, and fill this out found here.
There you go.

A little bit more info:
For students, read D under “Required Documents”.
Bring all (2 copies and original). Bring cash money. Bring a good attitude.
Look put together (ie maybe you could put on a friggin button down shirt, people), and smile when asking for the maximum amount of validity time.

Walking around my TECO has shown me you can get anything done (even if its against the written restrictions) with a good attitude with Taiwanese.

{For jimi: #4 for 8/12}

yuli · August 13, 2011, 1:53pm

Hm… maybe too many people have been busy keeping up with the goings-on in the “Dating” section… or they have to feed the ghosts?

[quote]For your ARC, you need:

Photographs
Money ($1200 last year when I renewed)
Proof of having a reason to be here (i.e. a letter of enrollment (NOT acceptance), work contract, etc.)
Passport
Proof of Address - a business card may suffice, rental contract is best if you have it. They’re fairly lenient though.[/quote]
Thanks - let me clarify this: the first four points refer to the resident visa, which is the precondition for getting ARC. At the time of applying for that visa i was not asked for a proof of address. And the amount of money and the method of proof they ask for doesn’t seem set in stone: i was asked for a local bankbook with, for example, 50,000NT$ (from the they way the lady at the MOFA office told me that, i got the impression that she made up that amount while talking to me).
By the way, where did you apply for your resident visa and where for your ARC?
(I was told to apply (and applied) at the MOFA office to get the visa and was told to apply (and applied) at the NIA for the card.)

OK on all the rest: that covers the ground very nicely, and i’ve incorporated it into the post at the head of this thread… many thanks!

[quote=“Lili”]Concise guide:
Read, understand, and fill this out found here.
There you go.[/quote]
Thanks for trying to help, but i have gone through the procedures already, and there was a reason why i wrote the following in my initial post:

zyzzx · August 13, 2011, 4:09pm

If you are working (don’t know about student ARCs), you don’t actually need to go get a resident visa - I never got one. If you have a visitor visa, you can skip that step and just bring all your stuff (as listed above) to NIA, and there you go. Your ARC is your residence visa.
I did have to show a rental contract as proof of residence when I applied for my first ARC, and they wanted to see it again for the renewal I just did, but for some reason they didn’t need to see it for last year’s renewal, so apparently it can vary.

If your work permit doesn’t show up in time to renew before your current ARC expires, I’ve found that it’s no problem to get a short extension on the current ARC.

Also, a useful tidbit - if you are planning to leave Taiwan while you are in ARC limbo (you’ve applied, but don’t have the card yet), just tell them this when you’re doing the renewal and they will put a re-entry stamp in your passport. You can use this to enter Taiwan without your ARC.

Oh, and a Post Office debit card only requires 3 months, it definitely doesn’t require a full year (I was late renewing my ARC last year, and ended up w/ one that was a few days short of a year, so I’ve particularly sensitive to the full year thing)

yuli · August 13, 2011, 5:00pm

Would you be so kind and elaborate a bit on that over here? TIA!

And thanks for the other info!

strider · August 30, 2011, 1:18pm

Not sure what my situation is. My ARC expires tomorrow, yes yes I know. And my health exam is going to be ready for pickup…also tomorrow! I was told I need to go to Taipei and submit my renewal/transfer documents (I’m switching to another school) tomorrow, thenstraight to a police station to apply for an extension. Is this accurate? Is there any possibility I can do this at a local immigration office? Will I indeed be able to avoid having to do a visa run?

zyzzx · August 30, 2011, 1:41pm

So you will be ready to apply for your renewal tomorrow? If so, you should have no problem. Even if you are a few days over, it shouldn’t be a huge deal (not that I’d recommend it). A few years ago I applied for the renewal 3 days after my ARC expired (expiration date was Friday, got my stuff in on Monday). I had to pay a 2000 NT fine, but that was it. No visa run and no other penalties. Once you have the application in, you’re good to go.
If you will not be able to get your stuff in tomorrow, go down to the immigration office (not sure why you’d go to a police station?), tell them what’s up, show them whatever documentation you have, tell them the rest will be ready really soon, and ask for an extension. I had to do this last year and had no problems.

strider · August 30, 2011, 5:06pm

But it takes 30 days for the new application to be approved right? And my current ARC expires tomorrow. The question I was really hoping to answer most of all is if I have to go to Taipei to turn in this paperwork or not. I was told that after submitting the documents in Taipei(I wasn’t told where exactly to do this), I would receive a document certifying I had submitted the documents, which I then have to take to any police station in order to apply for an extension on my current visa.

strider · August 30, 2011, 5:08pm

If it’s not clear, I don’t live in Taipei, so I’m asking if I can do this locally. I live in Hsinchu.

zyzzx · August 30, 2011, 5:47pm

Who is telling you all this? Where did you get your original ARC from? Wouldn’t that be the place where you go to get the new one? Doesn’t Hsinchu have an NIA office? I do live in Taipei, so I can’t help you with that part.
It’ll take a while to get your new ARC card, but you definitely don’t need to have that much time remaining on your old ARC. Once the application is in, you should be fine. For my current ARC, the “date of issue” is 7/28, the day I applied, even though the actual card wasn’t ready until 8/11. I have never applied for a new ARC with more than 3 days left on my old one (and once with -3 days left).
Just go the NIA, hand in your stuff, and ask them about it. They’re the only ones that know for sure, and they’ll tell you what to do.

strider · August 31, 2011, 12:31am

Well but I’m changing jobs so my old job wouldn’t have anything to do with it right? I’m basically being told things by my old employer, my new employer, and the foreigners I currently work with…

yuli · August 31, 2011, 1:43am

In addition, here is similar information i got via PM:

[quote=“someone”]You mentioned resident visas. But in my experience not many people need them. I had ARCs through work for 9 years and I’ve just changed to an ARC based on marriage. I never had to get a resident visa. It used to be re-entry permit + ARC, now it’s just the ARC.
I did of course have to get work permits in order to get the ARC based on work.[/quote]
And this takes me back to the information we got at the beginning:

[quote=“tsukinodeynatsu”]For your ARC, you need:

Photographs
Money ($1200 last year when I renewed)
Proof of having a reason to be here (i.e. a letter of enrollment (NOT acceptance), work contract, etc.)
Passport
Proof of Address - a business card may suffice, rental contract is best if you have it. They’re fairly lenient though.
To ‘extend’ / ‘renew’ your ARC you need the above.[/quote]
I can’t help but find it quite amusing that there are not only two procedures, at two different offices and each with different fees, but that both procedures seem to have co-existed for a long time already, without anything to that effect being mentioned in the official explanations and on the application forms. I am going to go to the two offices i had to deal with and discuss this puzzle in detail with them and then post an update…

scomargo · August 31, 2011, 2:13am

Dude, did you just post something from a PM? I hope you had permission from the sender before you did that.

If I’m mistaken about this, please accept my apologies. I just want to make sure everybody knows that PMs are meant to be confidential and not publicly shared. Otherwise they wouldn’t be called “private messages”

yuli · August 31, 2011, 2:19am

Thanks for your concern - there is nothing confidential i can detect there, but just in case the sender prefers not to see a name attached to the contribution here i’ll remove the name.

scomargo · August 31, 2011, 2:54am

Thanks for your concern - there is nothing confidential i can detect there, but just in case the sender prefers not to see a name attached to the contribution here I’ll remove the name. [/quote]
You’re right that it appears to be nothing too personal, but you never know.
Thanks. If nothing else, I just wanted to remind everybody (not just you) about the policy on PMs.

annmt · November 22, 2011, 1:09pm

First of all I’ll say that this thread has been ridiculously helpful and I’m very happy (and grateful) that it exists!

I’m most likely going to have to file for an ARC extension and it appears that you need a reason to be here, no matter which way you go on getting it extended. I might be between jobs at that point in time, so I won’t have a reason like a contract or work permit or anything. But, I plan on getting another job in Taiwan. Does this mean that I probably won’t be able to get an extension on my ARC and that I will have to leave the country and get a new visa? Sorry if this is already posted somewhere, but I’ve spent quite some time looking for this

yuli · November 23, 2011, 1:31am

That’s a very good way of putting it.

It looks like you have already answered the question that is in that observation But if you think your situation is exceptional and you are therefore looking for an exceptional solution, please read on.

I doubt anything can be found on Forumosa or anywhere else on the web that could answer your question, which we can read between the lines - all you will find is information about the rules and reports of individual experiences that reflect how those rules have been implemented. However, what might happen in cases that people think of as exceptional cannot be deduced from what we (collectively) know.
The only way to find out is to go to the NIA office and discuss with them your situation and get their advice and directives as to what you can/ have to do. (And please don’t be shy and tell us afterward what you learned… )

Good luck!

annmt · November 23, 2011, 1:39pm

Thanks so much for the response

Sooooo, I doubt my situation is exceptional in any way shape or form currently.

But, what I pretty much really, really, really don’t want to hear, but need to confirm: Do I really need to leave, get a tourist visa, and come back? I’ve done a visa run once but found out it wasn’t necessary - I’m just trying to avoid an unnecessary flight/etc.

DINGO_DEANS · November 23, 2011, 1:48pm

[quote=“annmt”]Thanks so much for the response Sooooo, I doubt my situation is exceptional in any way shape or form currently.

But, what I pretty much really, really, really don’t want to hear, but need to confirm: Do I really need to leave, get a tourist visa, and come back? I’ve done a visa run once but found out it wasn’t necessary - I’m just trying to avoid an unnecessary flight/etc.[/quote]

Being unemployed and looking for a job is not, well, exceptional. Extending an ARC with a contract in hand would be fine. I dount you would get an extension because you are looking for employment. Better check wityh the NIA and have some $$ put aside for a visa run just in case.