Converting Tourist Visa to Student Visa

Hi everyone. I came here from the US in early January on a tourist (P) visa (two months, extendable). I would like to enroll at Shi Da in March and will receive my acceptance letter soon. They told me that I will have to take it to the appropriate government office to see if I can convert my current visa to student status. They also said that I might have to leave Taiwan to do this. Does anyone have any experience with this or advice?

Thanks a lot.
:notworthy:

Hey,
My boyfriend had the old ā€œPā€ visa and he had to go to Hong Kong to get a student visa. However, if you check the old index here in Overseas Residency Rights, it seems that there may be a difference between getting a student visa through the Taipei city police station and the Taipei county station. Some people are getting fake addresses in Taipei county to go through their police station it seems.