So, the school holds the work permit?
Physically yes a copy or maybe one of the originals. I assume their are two or more originals, one sits at the school and the other at the Minstry of Education or the FPA.
You should keep a copy too. I keep a copy of everything as a rule, contracts work permits everything, get a friend to translate it to you. (I am a distrustful person when it comes to business, I like to see a hard copy of everything.)
The work permit is granted to you by the Minstry of Education. So the work permit has your name, passport number etc, and the name of the school. As the name says its a permit to allow you to teach in a certain school
However to the question of who holds it?
I guess nobody holds it, it is released to the school and to you by the Minstry of Education
Some employers will ask you to sign something that allows them to do everything for you. I did, and they went and told whatever lies they deemed necessary to get the ARC. I’ll never do that again.
As I understand it, your would-be-employer first obtains permission from the relevant government ministry to employ you. If you’re teaching 100% legally it should be the Min of Ed that grants you permission.
My first job here was apparently as a writer for a publishing company many miles from the place where I was teaching. The permission came from the Min of Economics, not from the Min of Ed. Most of you know which agency arranged that little deal. I left that job not long after, and talked to the police about the fact that I had been misled into getting an illegal work permit etc. They shrugged and said “You got an ARC, didn’t you? What’s the problem?”
Once your employer gets permission to employ you they get a letter which you have to take to the Foreign Affairs people to get your residency. Once the FA people are done processing you you have to go to the police to get your ARC. That’s your ID card that says you live here legally. I think the police also issue the multi-entry visa that allows you to come in and out of the country freely.
Once you have your ARC you are free to go and try to get a phone line, register your motorbike etc. You’ll probably wonder why you bothered going legal at this point!
Becoming, and staying, legal is not difficult, nor does it cause undue difficulties. I think anyone that insists on breaking the law when there are better options available is plain stupid. Why make trouble for yourself?
Hey, and remember that the TECO’s will be closed during CNY!! Your visa run has to be done during work time. How much does that cost you?
And I believe ‘deport’ translates as ‘throw you in jail until someone buys you a ticket’.
I forgot about all of the steps to get the resident visa. It’s been so long since I’ve had to go through the process of doing more than just renewing my ARC. Is it that technically, the resident visa has no limit and it’s just the ARC that needs updating every year or is it more complicated than that? I can’t imagine how people working illegally can afford to save money. I think the measly 6% taken out of my monthly salary is still less than the cost of a visa run and a whole lot less stressful.
when you extend your ARC at the foreign affairs police department they will stick a new visa in your passport. the visa and the ARC had mirror expiration dates.
When I extended my ARC, I kept my original Resident VISA. It does not have an expiry date on it.
This just in…
SSETT Work Advisory Warning for Taiwan!
The foreign affairs police of the Republic of China
are currently conducting a police sweep across the
island of Taiwan for foreign teachers.
In the last week there has been a alarming rise in the
number of foreign teachers apprehended and deported
for teaching in schools with a valid Alien Residency
Certificate. All of the foreign teachers that have
been apprehended and deported to date have had an
Alien Residency Certificate issued through a third
party.
All foreign teachers currently holding a valid Alien
Residency Permit are strongly advised to ascertain
that there current employer is the issuing authority
annotated on the back of the ARC card.
Merry Christmas and Good Luck
Aristotle
They update your multiple entry visa and stamp your ARC with a new expiration date, but they don’t do anything to the actual resident visa because it has no expiration date on it. It just has a used stamp on it or something (don’t have my passport handy so I don’t know what’s on it exactly). I like the stamp on my old visitor visa that says, “cancelled without prejudice”…surely there must have been a more concise way of saying that I didn’t do anything wrong to have it cancelled. Do they stamp that when people leave Taiwan for good?
Everyone’s dirty IMO - English schools, illegal teachers, Chinese langauge schools.
Taiwan govt just wants to start collecting on the tax they’re loosing.
If they want to stamp out illegal teaching they ought to give foreign teachers the right to work at more than one school. And make kindergarten teaching legal, as well. I know plenty of people who work minimum hours at a ‘visa school’ while making ends meet at several part-time jobs. The way the rules are now, it’s discriminatory against smaller buxibans that want a foreign teacher but can only afford to offer a handful of classes a week.
There are two illegal teachers in prison. Deportation would be the least of your problems. This issue will be stepped up next year.
And how did you derive this inside information? Dude, this is Taiwan - Incompetently Disorganized Corrupt Semi-Anarchy. Too many hands in the buxiban scam till, for one, for cops to go off on a crusade against foreign teachers - whom nearly all, knowingly or not, are in at least some minor way at least technically breaking the laws [I guess you trust your laoban who files your tax returns?] because the laws in Taiwan make it unnecessarily difficult to mind every legal p & q. This is a country where it’s technically illegal to turn left on a red light but as we all know everyone living on this island completely ignores all traffic laws. The situation reminds me of reading about how someone calculated that if a Russian businessman paid every tax he was legally bound to he’d be paying a rate of 110%. The situation in Taiwan isn’t nearly that drastic, but let’s face it - the government is run by incompetent morons that enact laws that force honest people into ‘cutting corners’ around the law just to make it. How many law-abiding Taiwanese do you know? Half the pubs and dance clubs you party in aren’t licensed and don’t pay tax. None of those street vendors, either - technically they’re all working illegally. Even some major chain restaurants such as Subway are ‘outside’ the legal system (at least in my burg, because I noticed their receipts didn’t have lottery numbers on them, and I asked one of the workers about it).
Who controls the police?
Who owns most of the buxibans?
I don’t really think we need to worry long-term about teachers taking heat for not having an ARC.
Short-term. Short-term IMO.
Who said only teachers ? It is common knowledge if you are a Philippino.
yes, the SEAsian laborers get shafted quite a bit. at a factory near me if one misses the 10:00 PM curfew, they get fined AND deported.
isn’t there a march set for the 28th somewhere addressing the rights of foreigners?
can anyone provide a link verifying that two teachers are being held ? i had heard the raid happened in taoyuan at a specific school. i asked teachers of that school and they said nothing of the sort has happened. anyone have solid evidence or are we just blind men feeling up an elephant?
If all taxes were collected here and all laws enforced the economy would grind to a halt.
Would someone please direct me to the country or countries where:
a) everyone pays all their taxes honestly therefore their tax bereau never audits
b) everyone drives so safely that their police departments have disbanded their traffic enforcement departments to concentrate on more serious crime
c) everyone in the government is so honest, civil-minded and beyond reproach that there hasn’t been a case of coruption for, let’s say, 10 years
d) they welcome immagrants or laborers with open arms and no prejudice
I’m guessing North Korea.
One of those squeaky-clean Scandinavian welfare states, or Switzerland. Maybe Luxembourg. Some tidy little Euro country with a homogenous population of cheerful blonde people and practically no social problems.
What do I win?
[quote=“mod lang”]One of those squeaky-clean Scandinavian welfare states, or Switzerland. Maybe Luxembourg. Some tidy little Euro country with a homogenous population of cheerful blonde people and practically no social problems.
What do I win?[/quote]
Sorry to dissapoint you, but AFAIK all the “squeaky-clean” Scandinavian countries fail on at least a, b and d, I am not so sure about c.
I’m sorry to disappoint you, too, but with 37,3% of the population being foreigners and many locals not being blonde, Luxembourg can’t be that place “with a homogenous population of cheerful blonde people”. 
However, from my experience it gets closer to d) than any other place I know. Doesn’t mean it’s perfect, though.
As for the rest of the points:
a) Tax rates are reasonable, so - unlike in Taiwan - I couldn’t accept the excuse that “if all taxes were collected here and all laws enforced the economy would grind to a halt.” Still, illegal employment and tax evasion are widespread in certain sectors of the economy.
b) There are few traffic cops and controls, unfortunately, that doesn’t mean people drive safely (oh well, compared to Taiwan, they certainly do).
c) Luxembourg’s got a rather good score on Transparency International’s index. However, there are some cases of corruption involving EU institutions.
Anyway, I’m confident it’s a better place to live than North Korea!