Am I here legally?

Please read my comment above where I thanked Northcoast Surfer by name. No snarkiness was intended. If I had known that the policy had merely changed, I wouldn’t have posted that other site at all.

Northcoast Surfer, that background check procedural package sounds wonderful now. Is there ANY way to tell them to expedite it? Paying an additional fee, perhaps?[/quote]PM me and send me your regular email address and I’ll help you step by step.

I love you, too.

Marriage doesn’t give you the right to work, it’s only after you get your ARC you have work rights.

… and I don’t think that as a student on a VV that you have the right to work … ask your employer to show you the work permit … :ponder:

[quote=“dashgalaxy86”]Is there ANY way to tell them to expedite it? Paying an additional fee, perhaps?[/quote]Alas, no.

[quote=“FBI CJIS Department”]

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Do you have procedures for expeditious handling?

[color=#FF0000]No. The CJIS Division does not expedite requests.[/color][/quote]

[quote=“dashgalaxy86”]So, I just realized something: I don’t know anyone else in my current situation. I think I’d better check and make sure this is legal.
I’m here on a visitor’s visa, though I am a student at NCCU and also a worker at Kid Castle. Kid Castle has my work permit, so they say it’s legal for me to work there, and I never bothered to apply for resident status or an ARC because I’ll be getting married in June and won’t need any of it.

But suddenly I’m nervous about if I should actually have an ARC. I know you can have a student ARC and still work legally providing the workplace has a work permit for you, so I assumed that it was the work permit that makes the whole thing valid, not the ARC. I have an expired ARC number from my last job. That’s it.

Am I OK until I get married or should I worry?[/quote]

If your visitor’s visa is for employment purposes, you should have no problems (and you work with what your work permit is for).

Employment laws go by work permit, if you/employer have a been awarded w/p for you, you are not working illegally.
Immigration laws go by visa status, if you have a valid visa and do what your visa says/allows, you are legally in the country.

(And I am not a lawyer, just a layman who has read the laws on this topic).

There are two originals, one for the employer and one for the employee. Both have the multi-colored box on the edge.

Will people please STOP saying this.

An ARC is simply a document that serves as an ID card so that if you live here you don’t need to carry your passport. It does not entitle you to work here.

There are three distinct seperate items being discussed here, and they should be tattoed on the forehead of anyone that insists on screwing them up:

  1. A visa - this is permission to be here. It may be issued because you’re here to work or because you’re here to study, or as a tourist, or because you’re married.
  2. A work permit - permission to do a job, usually a specific job at a named location.
  3. Alien Resident Certificate - something that certifies you are a foreigner who lives here. You can have an ARC as the spouse of an employed foreigner, or as a long-term student, without the right to work.

Why is this so hard for people to understand? Every time you confuse these issues you make it harder for anyone to make sense of them.

  1. The OP has a visa as a student. He is allowed to be here, and after he gets married he can apply for a different kind of visa.
  2. He may possibly have a work permit, but he hasn’t seen it. How did he get a work permit when he only has a student visa? Normally, once you get a work permit, you are REQUIRED to change your visa to reflect this. After he gets his JFRV, he will apparently not need one any more.
  3. After he gets his JFRV, he will be able to apply for an ARC so that he doesn’t need to carry his passport everywhere. The ARC is a certificate, not a permit.

The difference between these things is important because you have to go to different offices to get them. You can’t rock up at the court and ask for an ARC, or the immigration department and ask for a work permit. You have to go to the right people with the right application forms, and get the right paperwork. Knowing what things are called is the basic first requirement.

To get married, you first need to be here. Hard to do if you get deported.
Then you need permission, hard to get if you have a record of breaking laws here.

After you get married, you need to get a visa permitting you to stay. To get that you need to prove that you have never done anything bad in your own country. It takes a lot of time. Until then, you’re still here as a student.

Only after you obtain that can you get permission to just take any job. Until you get that, you need a work permit for any work you do.

When you have everything else, you can apply for an ARC. I’m not sure, but I believe this will state on it that you’re allowed to work in any job. But the ARC doesn’t give you permission. It merely certifies that someone else gave you permission. Big difference.

And when they catch you without an ARC you go … out … you’re working illegally …
According to you, every person with a work permit has thrown out money and time to get an ARC …

He has not student visa … he has a visitor visa … and studies, so he can’t work legally … and not every student has work rights automatically …

We can make this really short … go to the authorities and inform … they ‘know’ … ask your boss to see the work permit, than go to the NIA and ask if you’re still allowed to stay in Taiwan, simple, really … you don’t need to rely on the people that ‘know all’ …

I wonder why people ask all these questions about ARC’s and work permits … is the outcome going to be less severe if they know, or do they want to go underground and never turn up again …

Just follow the rules … never mind how inconvenient it is … don’t try to outsmart the system

[quote=“Tapani”][quote=“dashgalaxy86”]So, I just realized something: I don’t know anyone else in my current situation. I think I’d better check and make sure this is legal.
I’m here on a visitor’s visa, though I am a student at NCCU and also a worker at Kid Castle. Kid Castle has my work permit, so they say it’s legal for me to work there, and I never bothered to apply for resident status or an ARC because I’ll be getting married in June and won’t need any of it.

But suddenly I’m nervous about if I should actually have an ARC. I know you can have a student ARC and still work legally providing the workplace has a work permit for you, so I assumed that it was the work permit that makes the whole thing valid, not the ARC. I have an expired ARC number from my last job. That’s it.

Am I OK until I get married or should I worry?[/quote]

If your visitor’s visa is for employment purposes, you should have no problems (and you work with what your work permit is for).

Employment laws go by work permit, if you/employer have a been awarded w/p for you, you are not working illegally.
Immigration laws go by visa status, if you have a valid visa and do what your visa says/allows, you are legally in the country.

(And I am not a lawyer, just a layman who has read the laws on this topic).[/quote]

Where does one find the “purpose” on their visitor’s visa? Mine is not printed on it anywhere in English or Chinese.

What do you mean?

What does it say, ‘visitor visa’ … purpose tourism, visit friends, family …

In big somewhere … not allowed to work …

I’m looking right at it now. There is no purpose, no words such as tourism, work, study, business, or whatever on this visitor’s visa. I promise. My girl is looking too. No English or Chinese indicator of the purpose, and it’s definitely not in big print.

Question: where did you get the ‘visa’?

Hong Kong. It says on the visa in Chinese that I’m a student at NCCU, but it doesn’t say that’s the only usable purpose. Furthermore, my boss at work just produced an original of my work permit. So what now?

It used to be like this in Belgium …

Mind you, I was married since 1997 and had no ARC … just a visitor visa …

Look at the bottom, no working!

They may have different visa per country but at least on the application it would say … no working!

To be honest, it says unapproved … maybe you can when approved … it’s kind of weird.

[quote=“Belgian Pie”]It used to be like this in Belgium …

Mind you, I was married since 1997 and had no ARC … just a visitor visa …

Look at the bottom, no working!

They may have different visa per country but at least on the application it would say … no working!

To be honest, it says unapproved … maybe you can when approved … it’s kind of weird.[/quote]Mine, too. But I got mine way back in 1999, so perhaps they’re not stamped like that anymore.

My last three visitor’s visas all look nothing like that! hahaha
All of them have been used legally and two of them have been taken into the NIA for extensions. Thanks a lot for scanning and posting your visa! That’s really nice of you.

Anyway mine has no warning about employment. I’m going to check with the NIA tomorrow. I’ll just bring in my work permit along with my visitor’s visa and then say “Am I OK or not?” and if they say it’s not OK to work, I’ll just quit the job immediately and let one of my friends take it.

Hong Kong. It says on the visa in Chinese that I’m a student at NCCU, but it doesn’t say that’s the only usable purpose. Furthermore, my boss at work just produced an original of my work permit. So what now?[/quote]

When it says you are a student then it’s not a visitor visa as you stated in your OP …
ask the authorities. I know a while back you needed to be in Taiwan studying for a while before you could get employment, normally that would be linked to an ARC … but who knows

[quote=“dashgalaxy86”]My boss at work just produced an original of my work permit. So what now?[/quote]Hmmm. :ponder: But, has he declared your income to the tax bureau and withheld taxes on your behalf? Have you received your white statement of Withholding & Non-Withholding so you can file your tax return by May 31, 2011?

I wouldn’t know, because I started working in January… I’ll have my girlfriend ask with me, though, tomorrow.

I wouldn’t know, because I started working in January… I’ll have my girlfriend ask with me, though, tomorrow.[/quote]Well, then…you should be ok.

  1. You are here legally on a Visitor’s Visa which hasn’t expired.
  2. You have a work permit which allows you to work.
  3. You have no declared income for 2010, so no need to file a tax return this year.

So, we’ve successfully answered your OP. Are you here legally? Yes. Are you working legally. Apparently, yes.

About the only thing that I think might be amiss is that you probably should have converted your Visitor’s Visa to a Resident Visa once you got your work permit and started working and then took that Resident Visa to the NIA and gotten yourself an employment based ARC.

Will you get in trouble for not doing this last little thingy? Shrug…I have no idea. :ponder: