My school cancelled my ARC on me approximately one week ago and I have a very short time to leave the country or find possible solutions. The owners informed me that when we mutually decided to end the contract that they would not cancel the ARC and give me time to transfer/change to another school in order for me not to have to rush around or fly out of the country to avoid a possible overstay. I then contacted them and they told me that it had already been cancelled to allow the “new teacher” the chance to receive an ARC with them. I really do not have the cash to be flying around if there are other options that someone may know of. I have also read in another forum that your work permit could be cancelled and not your ARC, thus avoiding the fines that accompany an overstay here in Taiwan and giving you the option of remaining here for a period of time - is this true??? If anyone knows anything about this or about extensions, ARC vs. work permit cancellations, other possibilitites, etc. please contact me ASAP!
Your school was in violation of the law for not reporting the cancellation to you ASAP. You should have received a notice from the police notifying you that you had 7 days to leave the country. Did you ever receive this letter from the foreign affairs police?
Your work permit is issued in conjunction with your ARC. When one is cancelled, the other is also cancelled automatically. I’m sorry, but you will have to fly to Hong Kong.
I’m in the same situation right now as well. I called Foreign Affairs in Taipei to find out if she had actually cancelled my work permit / ARC and they informed me that I would have to contact my local Foreign Affairs Office. They also told me that they are not required to send me any official notification, that it is the responsibility of my former employer to give me verbal or written notice - what ever she chooses.
My former employer will not tell me anything!
I went to Foreign Affairs here in Hualien last Friday. They informed me that they had received no notification at that time ( I was told by the office manager (in a fit of anger) at my old school the previous Tuesday). They also told me that "with the new system in place:
the cancellation had to be sent to Taipei,
it would then be sent to Labour Affairs to approve or not,
notifcation would be sent to Foreign Affairs in Haulien,
Foreign Affairs in Hualien would determine a departure date,
They “think” they will sent me a notice.
This could take two to three weeks - they don’t know!"
I don’t know what to do either!
I am currently looking for a new ARC/ work permit with another school but as of yet, no luck.
Questions:
If I leave Taiwan before my ARC / work permit is officially cancelled will I be able to come back on a new visitor visa? Does my current one automatically stop because I have left?
How long will I have to leave for in order to get a Visitor visa?
I am absolutely SCARED SHITLESS!
Can anyone give me some urgently needed advice/help? Please?
My entire life is here!
totallytika I was in the same situation about 18 months ago. The system has changed since then but for what it is worth this is what I did.
First you can fly to HK and get a visa and be back inTaipei in one day. It is very stressfull and to me much easier to stay overnight.
If your work permit has been cancelled you should not be able to get another one within the duration of the cancelled one. Some counties may have had different sytems and some may have slipped through the net. Maybe someone with more info on what the situation is now can advice you on this. I told Kojen to go and fornicate with them had my ARC cancelled and got another one from another school with no problems. This school then turned out to be even worse and I decided to take the student route.
Go to an approved school. The one I used was the ex flag place by the foreign affairs police in Taipei. I can’t remeber the name of it now but I am sure someone can. Pay the NT9000 for a 3 month course. Get all the officiail stamps on the certificate they give you. Make sure you have at least 100000 nt in your bank account. If you do not borrow it from a friend put it into your account and get your book updated, then withdraw the money from an atm and give it back to your friend, do not withdraw the money over the counter, your passbook will be updated to show this.
Grt two passport photos, you can get this in HK very easily. Get a return ticket to HK and another onward ticket within the 3 months of your chinese course. You must have all of these. If you do not have them the HK harpies will give you a realy hard time and not give you the visa. Fly to HK and stay overnight. Get to the lippo tower before 11am, better to be there at 9am. Apply for the visa, make sure you have an adress and phone number of someone in Taipei as a reference. Dress smartly and be polite. Be prepared to explain why you want to stay in Taipei. My girlfriends contract exires in 3 months and then we both want to go back to the uk as she is pregnant worked for me. Make sure you aske for express servive, pick your visa up after 3 pm and fly back to Taipe.
You can do the same in BKK but they sometimes only give you a one month non extendable visa, this in fact can be exteded I did, you have to write a suck up letetr explaining why you want to extend it.Your chineses school can help with this.
You now have a visitor visa for study purposes. This can be xtended for up two six months and you have to do it all again. You have to go to the foreign affairs police every month after the first two months but it is quite painless. If this visa takes you past the expiry date of your old ARC you can then apply for a job and get a new ARC and change this visa to a resident visa without leaving the country, again I did this.
Now the big issue is how has all this changed under the new sytem, sorry I don’t know but I am sure there are more knowladgebale people on this forum who can comment.
The first5 time this shite happened to me I dropped a load in my pants, but it is solvable and if you can scrounge up the cash and put up with the running around it is not to bad. Hope this helps.
number one: relax. the worst that can happen is that taiwan deports you. not a biggee. will provide howls of laughter at cocktail parties just years (or months) down the road back home.
the mistakes you have stumbled across are not exclusively of your making. don’t beat yourself up because many of taiwan’s bosses are scheming, prevaricating bags of scum.
has your ARC been cancelled? if not, jump on a plane to HK and do a visa run. go directly back to start. must be tax time. did your boss collect 20% in taxes? did he not provide you with tax receipts? kiss it goodbye.
when you are in the HK visa office, the official will notice your present day visa. she will ask if you want to cancel it. answer in the affirmative. she’ll kill the old one and issue you a new one- no questions asked. in the taiwan system ther eis some adminstrative lag time. use it to your advantage. you can then return to taiwan on a thirty day (usually) visa and continue the contrived carousel of an existence that is being a “laowai” in taiwan. until you collect some serious connections, for example marriage, there is little reason to expect such managerial shenanagins to halt.
it seems there are three cri de coeurs here on one thread. regarding the one who doesn’t have the money: i am sorry. you are in a tough spot. if you desire to stay in taiwan you are gonna have to borrow it from someone.
as a former victim of the ageless “hualien shakedown” i can assure you that you shall recover from this minor (though jarring) speed bump in the road of life.