It’s now 7 years i am living in Taiwan. Due to recent change in Govt. Law for APRC application i went to enquire for my case in Bancao Immigration office, they said i am not eligible for APRC because my visa is broken during 2007.
I got my first resident visa on 08 Aug 2002 (My First Entry into Taiwan with visitor visa is on 04 Jul 2002). During 2007 on 29 Jul 2007, i had to leave Taiwan to get a new visa due to my HR delayed in applying for Work Permit. I got a new Resident Visa from Hong Kong on 30 Jul 2007.
According to the First cluase in the law one has to stay continuously 5 years and second clause says 183 days in each year.
I am bit confused about the first cluase 5 years continous stay. In fifth year i have lived more than 183 days does this fulfill the first cluase or do i need to stay until 08 Aug 2007
(according to my resident visa) to complete the 5 year.
It’s now 7 years I am living in Taiwan. Due to recent change in Govt. Law for APRC application I went to enquire for my case in Bancao Immigration office, they said I am not eligible for APRC because my visa is broken during 2007.
I got my first resident visa on 08 Aug 2002 (My First Entry into Taiwan with visitor visa is on 04 Jul 2002). During 2007 on 29 Jul 2007, I had to leave Taiwan to get a new visa due to my HR delayed in applying for Work Permit. I got a new Resident Visa from Hong Kong on 30 Jul 2007.
According to the First cluase in the law one has to stay continuously 5 years and second clause says 183 days in each year.
I am bit confused about the first cluase 5 years continous stay. In fifth year I have lived more than 183 days does this fulfill the first cluase or do I need to stay until 08 Aug 2007
(according to my resident visa) to complete the 5 year.
Please someone help me to clarify.
Thanks in advance,
Techie[/quote]
This is a really frequently-asked question. But as we don’t have an FAQs section it’s understandable that you’ve missed reading all the answers to it.
Briefly (and in a non-reliable, non-lawyerly kind of way): The law says 183 days or more legal residency over five consecutive years is fine. However, many bureaucrats don’t see it that way and insist it has to be continuous residency without any breaks. If they refuse your application, you could try getting the refusal in writing and then appealing it. Other threads have more details about that. I haven’t tried it myself.
I am aware of one very similar case where an appeal was successful. To appeal, you will need to submit your application and receive an official notice of rejection. Then you have grounds for an appeal. You will probably need a lawyer at this point.
If you want to follow up on this, don’t let them persuade you that you should not apply because you will be rejected. This is just a tactic to prevent you from establishing the grounds for an appeal. In other words, if you don’t apply, you can’t appeal.
I suspect that they resort to these tactics because they have unofficial caps on the number of APRC’s each year.
The law says you must legally reside in Taiwan continuously for five years. This basically means you must have been in Taiwan on the same visa (ARC) for five years in a row. The second part of the clause means you must have been physically present in the country for 183 days of each of those five years. It’s a bummer you were so close, but in their eyes 4 1/2 isn’t five. You met the second requirement but were 1/2 a year short on the first part.
[quote=“thebayou”]The law says you must legally reside in Taiwan continuously for five years. This basically means you must have been in Taiwan on the same visa (ARC) for five years in a row. The second part of the clause means you must have been physically present in the country for 183 days of each of those five years. It’s a bummer you were so close, but in their eyes 4 1/2 isn’t five. You met the second requirement but were 1/2 a year short on the first part.[/quote]I don’t think the law says anything about it having to be the same visa/ARC. How could it? No-one gets a five-year ARC/re-entry permit from the get-go. Everyone has to renew it at some point. (I’ve actually got seven years’ unbroken residency but have had three physical ARC cards and a number of re-entry permits over that time.) And as for the one-day break, see the posts above.
They told me when I got my visa by marriage that the clock started over, that even though I had been a resident more than two years, I would still need to be a resident for five more years, which is strong indication that if the type of visa changes, the accounting changes. Furthermore, there is a time window for APRC–it’s begins at five or seven years, depending on type of visa, and ends two years after the eligibility begins. AFAIK a person can no longer receive APRC after that window has finished.
Yeah but they’ll tell you the first thing that comes into their heads. Ask five “officials” and get five different answers, all of which amount to “meiyou banfa”.
OP, get a written refusal and then make an administrative appeal.
I just was searching the 'net and found: In June 2008 the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) published a newsletter that suggests that there will be new “Measures for Attracting Outstanding Foreign Personnel to Taiwan” that lowers the number of years to three for APRC. The only thing they forgot to say is when this is supposed to happen.
For the full newsletter see CEPD Newsletter - June 2008. It’s obvious that it’s a direct result of the poor rating of Taiwan in terms of doing business in Taiwan on a recent survey.
It is a response. The CEPD has the disagreeable job of responding to pesky foreigners and their complaints. It regularly promises all kinds of things and then has to go back to the Ministries that actually control these issues (such as the notoriously conservative Ministry of the Interior) and work out the details.
They told me when I got my visa by marriage that the clock started over, that even though I had been a resident more than two years, I would still need to be a resident for five more years, which is strong indication that if the type of visa changes, the accounting changes. Furthermore, there is a time window for APRC–it’s begins at five or seven years, depending on type of visa, and ends two years after the eligibility begins. AFAIK a person can no longer receive APRC after that window has finished.[/quote]That interpretation of the window thing is incorrect–although apparently some officials make that same incorrect interpretation.
I think it’s the same with the “changing type of visa” thing. There’s quite a recent thread about this.
But anyway, the OP doesn’t mention changing type of visa.
Your visa and ARC are linked. If your arc expires your visa is cancelled. When I got my APRC after seven years I had two physical cards and seven re-entry permits but they were all the the same ARC number and linked to the same visa. In fact, it was my old expired ARC that helped prove that I didn’t have any breaks because you can see that the same ARC had been renewed each year. Renewing a current ARC is not considered a break nor is getting a new card (unless it is under a new visa).
As for one day breaks, my girlfriend had a one day break. Her APRC application was formally rejected and our appeal to Taipei was also formally rejected. Both the Koahsiung and Taipei offices politely and very cordially went to great lengths to explain the same thing: You must continuously reside in Taiwan for seven (now five) years. It doesn’t matter if you legally resided in Taiwan for 183 days for five years in row, you must have been on the same visa for five straight years with no breaks. However, if you are married to a local the rules are different and you don’t have to continuously reside for five years, you merely have to legally reside in Taiwan for 183 days 5 years in a row (breaks are fine).
As an aside my girlfriend and I went into the office two weeks ago to apply for her APRC and other than some shmuck who wasted an hour of our time, four fingerprint cards, and stained my girlfriends hand black, there wasn’t a question or pause to her being able to apply for her APRC.
Your visa and ARC are linked. If your arc expires your visa is cancelled. When I got my APRC after seven years I had two physical cards and seven re-entry permits but they were all the the same ARC number and linked to the same visa. In fact, it was my old expired ARC that helped prove that I didn’t have any breaks because you can see that the same ARC had been renewed each year. Renewing a current ARC is not considered a break nor is getting a new card (unless it is under a new visa).[/quote]I see what you mean about the distinction between visa/ARC. I was really responding to twocs’ point about changing type of visa, though.
That’s tough that your girlfriend’s appeal was refused. I wonder whether that’s the same kind of appeal other people mention? I’m pretty sure Feiren or Citizen K or Rotalsnart have mentioned successful appeals against this misinterpretation of the written law.
It’s pretty much typical Taiwan. Couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery. There’ll be a law along in a few years no doubt voiding all APRC cards and sending everyone home. Full ROC nationality is the only thing worth having.
[quote=“techie”]
I got my first resident visa on 08 Aug 2002 (My First Entry into Taiwan with visitor visa is on 04 Jul 2002). During 2007 on 29 Jul 2007, I had to leave Taiwan to get a new visa due to my HR delayed in applying for Work Permit. I got a new Resident Visa from Hong Kong on 30 Jul 2007.[/quote]
Techie, I was in a similar situation (a “break” of a few weeks because of an accidental overstay) and was rejected on those grounds the first time I applied for the APRC, but successfully filed an administrative appeal with the help of lawyers.
There are two possibly important pieces of information you haven’t given us:
(1) How long had you overstayed your ARC when you left for Hong Kong on 29 July 2007?
(2) You write that you got a new Resident Visa from Hong Kong on 30 July 2007, but when did you actually return to Taiwan using that new visa? (Did you return to Taiwan on that same day? If not, then on what date did you return?)