Hey everyone~
I really hope i’m posting this in the right section, if not please correct me ^^’ I’m facing quite the problem right now and I hope someone can help me.
So~
I’ll be studying at the chinese culture university in Taipei next semester, and i already sent in the application form through my home university’s office (in germany) in May. Back then, i thought i would only be able to study there for a single semester because i had a scholarship for that, however now i saved up enough money to pay for the tuition for another semester by myself. the problem is, now that i plan to stay a whole year and not just a semester, my passport will expire too soon. it expires in june 2016, and if i stay at ccu for a year, my flight back to germany will be sometime in february 2016. and normally the passport needs to be ok for at least 6 months after the return flight, right? so i issued a new passport last week (which i still haven’t got).
i have not booked my flight or applied for a student visa yet.
Now i’m sure some of you studied in taiwanese universities before, right?
my question is, when i apply for the visa in taiwan, which documents will they need for a student visa? will the acceptance letter that i got from CCU, which only contains my name (and their stamp and so on) be enough or do they require documents from ccu that could possibly include my old passport number?
and is there anything my passport number is needed for that is university related? (saying, that the university will issue? like a student id or something)
I’m a bit scared because i don’t know how to contact the person in charge for those application forms at CCU, since my home university’s office did all the paperwork (and they’re as unhelpful about student’s problems as one can be).
do i have to keep my old passport because of that, and not accept the new one once it’s issued?
or can i, even if i can’t contact anyone at ccu, just get the new one, fly there, and tell someone once i arrive at ccu’s campus?
thanks in advance for helping ;-;
Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. Get the new passport and apply for a visa. Since you want to study for a year, make sure that’s what the acceptance letter says (instead of just 3 months). Make sure you bring the letter of acceptance with you to Taiwan. You can always bring the expired passport as well, but that shouldn’t be necessary.
There is no student visa as such. There’s a visitor visa (with an FR endorsement), and a resident visa. There are some advantages to coming on a resident visa, so try to make the TECO (“embassy”) issue you with one. Coming here for a year, that’s what you’re entitled to anyway, but it’s always at the discretion of the local mandarin.
If for some reason all they can offer you is a visitor visa then it might not be worth it to apply for it, considering that as a German national you’re now allowed to stay here visa-free for up to 90 days (then leave the country, come back even the same day, and the clock starts anew), while the visa will be valid for 180 days and might set you back around €80. Save yourself the hassle and instead do a trip abroad every now and then (which is what most foreign students here do anyway).
Apply for the visa with the letter of acceptance, scholarship certificate, and perhaps the proof of sufficient funds (bank statement) but that’s optional. What kind of scholarship do you have? If it’s the Taiwan Scholarship or Huayu Enrichment Scholarship, the visa should be free of charge.
thanks for answering so quickly ^^
the thing is, i have not yet gotten the acceptance letter for the full year, as i’m trying to apply for the scholarship again. so i’ll probably be going to taiwan on a visitor visa or just visa-free and then travelling. most of my fellow students who are just staying for one semester go on a visitor visa and then extend that one. i planned to spend the summer between those 2 semesters travelling anyways, so i’m not sure if it would be better to do a visitor visa twice or go abroad every 90 days (i’m on a quite low budget so i’m not sure if i can manage that).
the scholarship is just waiver of study fees, i’m not even sure whether the scholarship is issued by my university or by ccu, so i don’t really have a certificate for that D:
If you come here on a resident visa, it makes certain things easier because you will have an ARC card (a form of ID for foreigners). And after 6 months, you will be eligible for health insurance.
There is no practical difference in your status whether you come on a visitor visa or a visa-exempt entry. Neither will give you an ARC. A visitor visa can can eventually be converted to a residence permit (with an ARC) but it’s a long and cumbersome process, which you will not want to go through if you only come here for one year.
With a visitor visa, you’ll need to go to the immigration agency every 60 days with your most recent transcripts to get an extension of your stay. This is free but a major waste of time. You can get such an extension twice and then you should apply for a residence permit, although at that point (halfway through your year in Taiwan) it’ll be more practical to just leave and re-enter, either on the visitor visa (if still valid) or a visa-exempt entry.
Since yours is not a government (Ministry of Education) scholarship, you will need to shell out on any visa from your own pocket. If you go for the visitor visa, make sure to choose “multiple entry” (this doesn’t matter for the resident visa because as soon as you come here, you apply for an ARC and then the visa doesn’t matter anymore).
Disclaimer: I did all this sometime ago so things might have changed.
Also, get yourself an international driving permit in case you want to drive here.