Deported. Options?

Legal Visa & Residency
1

This is a fairly convoluted situation:

I have never been legal at my school. It is licensed as a Kindergarten/After School Care facility. I am aware that foreigners cannot legally teach Kindergarten (in most cases) and my school technically never could provide me with an ARC/Visa as a result - because of zoning regulations, my school’s construction type makes it impossible for them to apply for an bushiban license, but I digress… However, I continued working because arrangements were in place to get me an ARC by proxy through another school friendly to ours. No, this still wouldn’t make me any more legal at my own school, but it would give me an ARC and make me legal insofar as showing proof of ID or having to leave the country. I know: a dodgy siutation. In any case, my less than legit ARC was due to arrive this month.

Last Thursday, the foreign affairs police raided our school - this at the behest of our former manager who narcked our school out (he’s a disgruntled fucking prick is what he is). Anyway, at the school one of the cops tells me that nothing will happen to me and the problem is really with the owner. He says I only need to go to the station office to fill out a report. Well, when I arrive at the police station I am told I will need to leave in a week and I am going to be banned from Taiwan for the period of one year.

In an eleventh hour solution, my school has now made arrangements to rent a room from an art school across the alley from ours. That school, properly licensed, has agreed to issue me the ARC (though I would still be getting paid by my own school) and I would only work on their premises, never setting foot in my own to teach again. In the interim, I still need to leave.

So, here I am: I am either going to return to Canada for good (or briefly) or I am going to go to Thailand (my school has agreed to pay for the ticket there). In Bangkok, I am exploring applying for a new passport at the Canadian Embassy. After I have the new one, ten days later, I would then photocopy every page and mail it back to Taiwan so that the new school could begin processing it for an ARC. This would take another three weeks. That would run directly into Chinese New Year, so I’d probably be gone about six weeks total.

However…

I am now told that the local foreign affairs office will transfer my paperwork to the main police office and from there it will be transfered to the airport police who will then pass my information along to immigration control. The question is, basically, can I get back into Taiwan again, even if I have a new passport? I would hate to come back in six weeks, more or less broke, and then stopped at the airport and told I could not enter the country.

I’m mostly wondering if anyone has any SOLID experience with deportation. Right now, I am being fed a bunch of hypothetical maybe situations and I can’t handle that anymore. I would like to return because, really, I am not ready to leave on a variety of fronts. But I’m wondering if all this hassle will pay off. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

2

I know people who ahve been deported, and if they say you’re out for a year, then you’re out for a year.

I don’t know if getting a new passport would help or not. They probably check the name.

Brian

3

I know someone who got deported, changed passport and came back only to get stopped at the airport and kicked back out. He eventually went back to his home country and changed his name before getting a new passport. He made it in on the new name.

Sorry I can’t be of anymore help.

Good luck. Shitty tale.

HG

4

Are you sure it’s not just a case of not being able to get a landing visa for a year ?

If you change your surname and get a new passport that might work. It worked for a friend of mine (so he says).

5

I’m really not sure I want to change my name.

6

As I am indeed being issued an ARC from a new school, and legitimately, what that school mailed me that ARC and letter to wherever I am in Thailand. There, I could bring the letter into the Taipei Consular Office in Bangkok and get the Resident Visa there, which would hopefully counter whatever problems I might have upon returning to Taiwan. That’s the current hypothetical gamble I’m looking at.

7

What exactly are the options of somebody who wants to get back in Taiwan, but they’ve been deported, and can not come back for five years? Is changing your name and coming in on the new passport an actual option? What else have people tried…that worked, that is?

8

A friend came back on a new passport. It worked for awhile (she was doing regular visa runs to Hong Kong). After the third or fourth visa run, the customs agent at the airport hit a few extra keys on his computer and up popped her deportation. They refused to let her in and people had to go to her apartment and pack up her stuff to mail to her.

9

This last trip I took to Bangkok landed me a wealth of information in regards to how the whole immigration computers work.

I got a peek behind the screen of the immigration computer at CKS and an inside peek at Bangkok TECO. They both use the same computer system now. I have been told that all TECO locations will be getting this upgrade. Before, TECO had to wait for a fax to be sent from MOFA / FAP identifying deportees and the delay allowed some foreigners to slip back into Taiwan undetected.

What they do now is enter your pasport number into a database by sliding it through a barcode reader device. Your picture pops up on the screen if you have any kind of Visa in Taiwan. They then check you name against what you have written on your entry papers and your passport.

If you have been deported and banned for any length of time it will show at both locations - TECO and Immigrations at CKS.

Getting a new passport and changing your name wont help because your passport number will not change. Sure you may have a clean book, but that string of numbers will identify you as a deportee no matter what stamps you eliminated with a new passport.

If you fly to Bangkok, pay the application and visa fees - you will end up losing all that money and precious time. My advice is to heed the consequences of the deportation order and go back to your home country or other destination of your liking. Lay low, work legaly and save your money…then if you still have a hankering for Taiwan, come back in a year. A year will go by in a flash.

Good luck!

10

Wrong. I’m a UK passport holder and I can assure you that my old and new passports have different numbers. I’m not saying this would help in slipping through the net (in fact, I know of someone who tried that approach and failed), but the numbers are definitely different.

11

Wrong. I’m a UK passport holder and I can assure you that my old and new passports have different numbers. I’m not saying this would help in slipping through the net (in fact, I know of someone who tried that approach and failed), but the numbers are definitely different.[/quote]

Really? Perhaps it is different for US Passports? Would hate to pass along false information. The que at the immigrations desk at CKS was pretty much empty and I chatted with the officer. He told me that the number in the passport confirms your identity in the computer…he swiveled his screen around and showed me (friendly chap, I was surpised)…anyways, I shot him a question as to what would happen is john smith got a new passport…the officer said that passport numbers dont change.

perhaps he was feeding me a line of BS to get me to shut up, or to save face since he didnt really know, or to discourage me from passing along information as how to skirt the system. Best weapon is to feed the enemy disinformation they say…

However, a chat with the lady at TECO Bangkok also confirmed the same information the immigrations officer told me.

I am looking at my passport now…on the last page is a barcode with a string of 9 numbers that dont match any other numbers in my passport, including my official passport number. This is the barcode they swipe through their machine like a credit card. Perhaps the barcode in your passport doesnt change…or when you get your new passport, the barcode in that one will link you to your old one. Those are the only logical explanations I can think of if the information given to me by TECO and immigration is indeed accurate.

Thanks for the heads up though…

12

um, erh, speaking from experience…you have been busted for working illegally, presuming you have a stamp in your passport saying “the holder of this passport has been requested to leave by …” and a letter “A” B" or “C” next to it this means the airport will enter your info into their computer systems; date of birth, place of birth etc.

change of passport (even to a different countries in my case) doesnt work; if you are banned then your name will trigger an alert when the incoming flight manifest is scanned and they will be waiting for you when you try to pass immigration…change of name on the other hand is easy and works like a dream…

13

Sorry, wrong information. I just got my new US passport from AIT Taipei and it’s a new number. Pretty lousy to remember compared to my old one.

As for the computer synching together, that’s probably true (as it should) and they could probably easily cross reference your name, new and old passport number. Heck they do it for my Taiwan (clearly marked with my US passport information in the inside flap) and US passports so I don’t see why they couldn’t do it for your old and new passport.

14

you also get a new letter/number string when renewing cdn passports …

15

What do those letters stand for? I overstayed for a bit, and got a stamp with a big “C” on it, but no “You’re not welcome for a year” stamp.

16

German passport numbers also change.

17

To do what you plan to do will definitely require your to legally change your name. You’be got no chance of getting in under your existing name. None.

18

i dont have the very latest type of US passport, but every single one iv gotten before had a different number.

19

Tommy525,
Why did you change my qoute? You added words I didnt say.
My passport is about 8 years old. It has the barcode in the back. I’m running out of pages so probably going to get a new one soon since it expires in a year anyways. I’ll see if there is any difference between the two.

But please, if you are going to quote, do so accurately. Thanks!

[color=blue](Moderator’s note: previous post has been edited to remove the botched quoting.)[/color]

20

To the OP:

Consenus seems to say that unless you do a name change you are out of luck for a year. Don’t sweat it though. Like I said before, a year goes by fast.

I really wouldnt try to change your name, come back on a new passport, etc. It just seems too sketchy and the chances of getting the boot at the front door of Taiwan seems very likely. If they do let you in, you run the odds of all this eventually catching up to you. Then you end up getting the boot in the middle of your stay. Don’t waste your money and time. Wait a year then come back trouble free. :sunglasses: