My god I hope someone can help me with this one, its been making me tear my non-existent hair out. How do I navigate visas in Taiwan???
Here’s my deal:
I’m Australian (So I can enter visa exempt for 90 days)
I want to move to Taiwan permanently and work as a teacher (Im a TESOL teacher in Australia, so hopefully finding a job in TW won’t be too hard)
I want to be able to actually visit the schools before I sign up to work for them.
I don’t want to have to pay for a return airfare that I’ll never use.
Basically my question is: How can I enter Taiwan, shop around for a good school and then get my ARC and necessary resident visa, without having to pay for a needless return ticket or having to leave Taiwan for a new visa application?
If you can help me I will buy you steam boat
If you can’t help me I will buy you stinky tofu
I still don’t understand is there anyway I can get a visitor visa without needing an airfare that shows I plan to leave? That seems to be one of the requirements of the visitor visa, that you have a ticket to leave. But I want to avoid having to buy that.
Just buy a cheap throw away ticket for another destination like Philippines. Tickets one-way are around US$100 right now. Or buy a refundable ticket and the get your refund after you arrive. Eva Airlines for example only charges US$30 to cancel and get a refund. Some other airlines may charge nothing.
Thanks, yeah I guess those are the options. I suppose it’s fair enough. Taiwan is a hell of a lot more generous with its immigration policies than many countries.
If you do a search you will see that other people asked more or less the same question that you did. My conclusion is that yes, arrive on a visitor visa and you don’t necessarily have ti fly out again. But that’s just how I read it, and how I did it too. But… that’s no gaurantee. If you check skyscanner you can get a throwaway for 1000nt, or else keep your options open for an actual visa run by booking Eva. Like tango said
You don’t need a return ticket. Worst case scenario Immigration would let you buy a HK ticket from the CAL desk or on your smartphone. But I’m a Kiwi and I haven’t been asked for an onward ticket for nigh on 40 arrivals. Also you can convert a visa-free arrival no problem once you receive a work permit.
Edit: Should mention you’ll be hassled on check-in for an onward ticket. Tell them you want to fly to Ishigaki from Hualian (or some such story) and can only buy the ticket in Taiwan. Ask to sign a waiver of indemnity.
Yea immigration almost never asks for a return/onward ticket. It’s the airline that asks on check-in. Most airlines will not check-in and board you without it. I usually get asked about 90 percent of the time on the airlines that I fly. Its the same for travel to many countries. Philippines and Thailand are a few in SE Asia for example.
Yea, I’ve also never not been asked for the ticket by the airline at check in. Once they forced me to buy one on the spot because i didnt have a ticket to show. I wondered why immigration never asked for it and someone told me its because the airline inputs the ticket details onto their system and the immigration gaurd can see it when they scan your passport.
Those airline people can be funny. One time, they eventually let me sign a waiver of indemnity, but first they tried to get my credit card number. As if!
A post suggesting fraudluent behavior was deleted. I agree the airlines can be very, very annoying, but we don’t advocate or condone illegal behavior here.
I support the suggestion to buy a ticket that’s either fully refundable or changeable without a fee. Check the fine print.
