We were issued 90 day Visa’s for visiting family living in Taiwan, these expire in February 2021, does anyone know if they could be extended, as we would rather stay here than go back to a seemingly uncontrolled covid situation in South Africa?
Only advice I can give you is head in to see the friendly immigration people. They may give you COVID compassion.
You have family here? Are you married to a Taiwanese person? Are either of you ROC nationals or of overseas Chinese descent?
Thank you, we going to see them tomorrow with that hope.
No, it’s our daughter that has lived here for over 10 years, she is married to a Taiwanese person.
On a facebook group for foreigners in Taiwan, somebody a few days ago said that it was rather easy to prolong his 90 day visa. But did not give any details.
Perhaps see if there are any special ways for direct family members to stay? Ask immigration.
Thank you, will do.
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NIA will almost certainly give you a 30 day extension.
Thank you for the positive thoughts. Holding thumbs might also work 
Yes, most likely. Doing the same this week. You have to wait until within two weeks of your special covid entry visa’s expiry though. The mofa people are really nice, at least where I live.
Ah, ok. Thank you, though I will still pop in to see them tomorrow to make certain, which will give us a bit less stress.
We going to the Hsinchu office.
Maybe have the son in law go with you
Are there special visa/migration-related provisions for individuals of Chinese descent? If so, how do you go about proving ancestry?
My family left China (Qing/RoC) four (five?) generations ago. But everyone who was born there is dead.
Can you prove a lineage? Almost all countries have jus sanguinis laws. You might need to contact a TECO for more info in proving that to them.
I’m not Taiwanese or overseas Chinese so I cannot go any further than suggesting to ask them what their requirements are and seeing what you can find.
But I am Overseas Italian…so to speak, so I have done a similar process before.
old ROC passport or travel document or hukou of the ROC national, and birth certificates of lineal descendants from the ROC national to you.
So I asked a relative about this, who unhelpfully said: “Just point at your face; what other ethnic descent can you be?” To which I said: “Uh … Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and - like - a hundred others…” So that didn’t go anywhere.
But yeah, I’ll ask a TECO. Maybe they’ll accept a DNA test or something. We have jus sanguinis laws in Australia, but it’s a bit different in the context of remote ancestry (the closest thing to this being regulations around proof of Aboriginality).
Hmmm … these would be a bit difficult to find since at least one of my grandparents was born in the Qing empire (before the RoC even existed) without proper documentations and was taken away from his birth family by a child trafficker as a toddler.
Anyway, I’ll ask around - lol. I was just a bit intrigued by the idea that being of overseas Chinese descent might make a difference as far as immigration is concerned.
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there was a period when that was enough. The law was amend.
We just visited the NIA in Hsinchu and they looked at our visas and said they are all being automatically extended to 27 February. So, that’s good news.
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and will likely be extended again after that 