Any advice on how to stay in Taiwan?

Legal Visa & Residency
1

Hello reader,

I need your eyes on my situation maybe you might know or see something I don’t. I came to Taiwan 7 years ago to study. I have been teaching for almost a decade now. With sheer bad luck, poor decisions, and several illnesses, I found myself at the end of my last year with the dreadful possibility I might not graduate.

I decided to start over and go to another university. However, it is said that a foreigner can only apply for undergrad in Taiwan once. I was working as an English teacher then. My boss offered me a permanent position for when I graduate. I told him I wouldn’t be able to get my degree. He said that as long as I have a teaching certificate, he can apply for a work permit for me. I checked on the official website. It is indeed stated that you can apply to be a full-time foreign teacher in a cram school without a bachelor’s degree.

2.Be graduated from colleges or above. If foreigners have not obtained bachelor‘s degrees, they shall have qualification certificates for language teaching.

https://ezworktaiwan.wda.gov.tw/en/cp.aspx?n=071CCB097CD05FFF

I even called an officer from the MOL -Ministry of Labor- to confirm what kind of certificates I needed. I got a TEFL certificate. My boss applied, but they rejected the application saying that I needed a proper diploma or a degree. It took me a while, but I finally got the TEFL diploma plus 2 other certificates in TEFL. When we applied again, they asked for an accreditation letter and plenty of other proof. Finally, after submitting everything they asked for, they said that they do not accept online diplomas, and the diploma needs to be completed in the span of 2 to 3 years to be valid. So many things were contradictory.

According to the MOE, Regulations Governing the Assessment and Recognition of Foreign Academic Records by Institutions of Higher Education - Article Content - Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China (Taiwan),

Article 7 With regard to the courses that must be completed referred to in Article 4, Subparagraph 2, if the academic credential conferred by a foreign educational institution is obtained by completing courses in distance learning mode, the course credits earned shall have been taken at an educational institution that satisfies the provisions of Article 4, Subparagraph 1 or with a domestic university under an international academic collaboration program. The number of credits shall also satisfy the regulations governing domestic distance education.

I thought I was missing something, so I hired a layer. After 2 months he sent a letter and their response was essentially the MOL has different rules than the MOE.

Now I am between a rock and a hard place.

What are my options?

Any suggestions are welcome.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2

A working holiday visa or Chinese studies at a Mandarin Training Center might be a temporary fix. You would have to wait for a year I think in the latter case to get a work permit.

Your lawyer might be able to help you figure out a way to get an exemption or workaround to the rule about not applying to a new Taiwanese university. I have never heard about this rule before but I’m not surprised it exists. There could be an exception you are unaware of. Is it really impossible to resume your old program. Again, your lawyer might be able to help you make inquiries if they are willing to provide this kind of non-legal service. [Update: see @tando’s comment below. She (?) is a very reliable source of information about this sort of thing. Asking your lawyer to look into exceptions might well be a waste of time and money.]

Otherwise, I think your run in Taiwan teaching English legally is finished for now. You need to figure out where you can get a degree and come back to do it the right way. If you don’t want to go back to your home country, I would suggest looking at South Korea or possibly Vietnam. It appears to me that you may be able to the same thing in South Korea–go to school and teach English on the side. South Korea appears to be similar to Taiwan in many ways. Surely they have a programs in ‘Applied English’ or the like that you could complete without too much effort. Taiwan generally recognizes Korean degrees so you would be able to come back in four or five years if you really want to teach and live in Taiwan again.

If it were me, I would be more interested in Vietnam. It is dynamic, warmer, and a lot more like Taiwan in the go-go days. But you would have to do a lot of due diligence about whether this is feasible. In particular, can you go to school and get a work permit to teach at the same time? Also, make sure the university you study at is recognized by Taiwan.

Four years isn’t very long. Go get your degree and come back. Learn Korean or Vietnamese. Get some other skills. Try to figure out how to get teaching certification from your home country. Have some other adventures in another country and decide if Taiwan is really for you. This may seem like a disaster now but could open up new opportunities and perespective. Taiwan will (probably) always be here.

1 Like
3

cannot as a foreigner. i believe you could take the routes for taiwanese students. some options for taiwanese students who took atypical education might be applicable to you.

add
but you need an independent residency, so it won’t work in your case.

4

Have you burned any bridges there? Is there any chance for leniency where you could finish your original undergraduate degree?

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5

many schoold limit the extension up to 4 years.

some corrections

the one I thought of is a Special Talent Admission, and it seems only for taiwanese.

On the other hand, if you are accepted through the usual admission procedure for locals, maybe you can get an arc based on the acceptance.

it still be pissible you graduate? if so, it might be the easiest.

the regulations governing domestic distance education say the credits by distance education should not be more than a half of total credits you need to complete the course.

6

Unfortunately I already extended my tudy twice so in total I did 6 years which is the limit given.

7

Thanks a lot for the information. I am thinking about starting over in another country. I did not put Korea on my list. I’ll add it.

8

What is an Independent residency? My previous university told me I can apply for a Master in another university. I’ll try that, but my chances
seems pretty low.

10

Not possible anymore. I put all my oranges in getting the work permit.

11

Pretty difficult to get permission to teach English without a degree I imagine. Korea would require a degree as well (I just googled to confirm that), Thailand or Vietnam you might still get away without one

Have you considered getting married?

12

I am trying to avoid this option since I am not sure what this will entail.

13

Open work rights, for sure.

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14

Love, companionship, and maybe eventually a few children. It will also entail a of arguing, that’s for sure.

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15

Entrepreneur visa? Potential option without a degree maybe

16

Thanks. I’ll take a look