Accidental Overstay

Hi,
I have accidentally overstayed 2 and half months. I forgot (yep - I don’t know why) ,after changing my school and gettin a new ARC, to go to the police station to get my ARC details changed.
I did get everything else done but I just didn’t go in and get my ARC stamped. So now I have just found out instead of being legal I have been overstaying. They told me to leave, pay the fine and reapply for a new visa.

I have been in Taiwan for 11 years and I want to keep living here so I am worried that I may not be able to come back. Any advice or info?

I can show the papers showing that I did have a work permit and everything so I think I will get a new visa or even (a long shot)convince the police here to just stamp my ARC and let me stay. There’s also a chance they may say bad luck see ya later and I will be barred for 2 to 3 years.

I searched the old posts but my connection is really slow so I haven’t had any luck yet (but I will searching anyway) so any help or info would be really appreciated. Thanks for reading this far,
cheers
Ant

My guess is that you apologise, promise to never-ever do it again, pay the fine, hop on a plane, turn around, come back, and file it under lessons learned.

Let us know how everything turns out after you get back.

I know that the foreign affairs police have known to be forgiving if you approach them with acceptable documentation within 15 days past ARC expiration – though not always. Past this, they are rather unforgiving about allowing one to stay, regardless of circumstances. However, if you go in now and explain the situation and show that you had a work permit but forgot to update your ARC, you may be able to make it out of the country without a dreaded ‘May not return to Taiwan for xx years’ stamp. If that is the case then you should be able to apply for a new visa at an overseas representative office on the basis of your current work permit. Good luck.

If you are caught overstaying it’s a 5 year ban. If you walk in it’s a 1 year ban. I forget when the one year ban starts, but you’d want to get down there ASAP(ish) to sort it out.

2.5 months is already pretty long, but don’t let it get to three. And be sure to go down there with all the paperwork you can.

  1. Pay your fine. :s
  2. Be contrite…we all bugger up some time.
  3. Check the NEW requirements in Hong Kong for your ARC app. Have them on hand.
  4. Bring your Work Permit!!!

Good Luck

I think it has been well established that the Hong Kong offices uses a random number generator to set policy on a daily basis.

Hey, I did the same thing quite a while ago. I had overstayed about a 2 months or so. I turned myself in, the told me I had to leave and would have to get a new visa. They stamped my passport with an overstay stamp but did not put in a “cannot come back” stamp in my passport. They told me I could just go to Hong Kong and get another visa. A slight problem is that in Hong Kong, they told me that they could not give me another visa because of my overstay stamp unless Foreign Affairs approved my re-entry. When I told them that the FAP were the one’s who told me to just come to Hong Kong and get a new visa they told me I needed some written documentation from them and from my employer. They told me my employer had to go to the FAP and apply for me to come back to the country. My employer was out of the country for the next few weeks so I asked the consulate what I could do. They stated that since I did not have the “you can’t come back stamp” in my passport, I could just hop on a plane and get a landing visa and then sort it all out. This is what I did, although I still had to leave to change my visa over( this was a long time ago and I don’t think you have to do this anymore). Everything was fine after this.

Same thing years ago. They stamped me No Come Back for One Year. I freaked. But it just means you vant get a landing visa. Went to Guam, got robbed, got a visitor’s Visa. badaboom badabing.

hi,
thanks lots for all the replies. it’s a bit of a shock to overstay when you weren’t expecting it. i went to the police station with my my paperwork for my new Arc, job. they fined me 5000 and stamped in mypassport that i cannot come back for a year unless i have a visa.
so i’m in thailand applying for a new visa tomorrow. hopefully they’ll give me one.
i will write tomorrow ot let you know what happens.
cheers aghain for all the advice.
Ant

[quote=“wasabipeanut3”]Hi,
I have accidentally overstayed 2 and half months. I forgot (yep - I don’t know why) ,after changing my school and gettin a new ARC, to go to the police station to get my ARC details changed.
I did get everything else done but I just didn’t go in and get my ARC stamped. So now I have just found out instead of being legal I have been overstaying. They told me to leave, pay the fine and reapply for a new visa.

I have been in Taiwan for 11 years and I want to keep living here so I am worried that I may not be able to come back. Any advice or info?

I can show the papers showing that I did have a work permit and everything so I think I will get a new visa or even (a long shot)convince the police here to just stamp my ARC and let me stay. There’s also a chance they may say bad luck see ya later and I will be barred for 2 to 3 years.

I searched the old posts but my connection is really slow so I haven’t had any luck yet (but I will searching anyway) so any help or info would be really appreciated. Thanks for reading this far,
cheers
Ant[/quote]

best thing to do for long staying foreigners is to get married to a local (provided you have someone ). Or if you end up staying more then 20 years, you may as well inquire bout changing your citizenship??

No shit, any dipshit can get the keys to the kingdom just by getting some daft girl to marry him. But where’s the the sport in that?

‘Competitive permanent residency’ should be an Olympic sport. You can choose your target country but breeding couples get disqualified.

Even if you are married to a citizen, you still have to go through the whole process all over again if you forget to renew your ARC on time. Citizenship or Permanent ARC are the only way around that problem.

So, am I getting that right now? If one overstays without plausible reason only a few days or less than one month, one needs to pay a fine and gets the stamp “cannot come back for XXX years”?

good luck!!! Maybe you can also try to apply for citizenship?

hi, thanks a lot for the advice. I went to thailand and they were nice enough to give me a 60 day visa. i just have to go in now and finish my ARC. cheers again for all ya help
Ants

That was nice of them. I’m in Bangers now, will apply in a few days for my 60 day visitor visa.

I’ve got the letter of invitation from my girl, bank statement, air ticket (itinerary only), passport, passport photos. Anything else?

My old passport had a great big “C” stamped in it when I left a year ago - I still haven’t got clarity on what length ban that is.

A century? :slight_smile:

A century?!

:astonished:

Let’s hope not, I’ve only got about another 40 left on the clock…

[quote=“wasabipeanut3”]hi,
thanks lots for all the replies. it’s a bit of a shock to overstay when you weren’t expecting it. i went to the police station with my my paperwork for my new Arc, job. they fined me 5000 and stamped in mypassport that i cannot come back for a year unless i have a visa.
so i’m in thailand applying for a new visa tomorrow. hopefully they’ll give me one.
i will write tomorrow ot let you know what happens.
cheers aghain for all the advice.
Ant[/quote]

did you get that visa???