What are my rights if my employer refuses to give me a letter of release which is needed for getting a new ARC?
If I am not mistaken, you don’t need one any more.
You don’t need a letter of release. Just find a new job, and add them to your ARC. Then you can laugh at your other employer as you walk away without any penalty.
Maybe that’s not the best way, but you can still do it.
This is my situation: I have 25 days left on my ARC and contract. I have already applied for a new job (more than a month ago) and immediately supplied all the documents they required. My boss knows about the other job I applied for. My prospective employer informed me this morning that the government requires that I supply a (without which the application process cannot continue).
I’m quite sure your prospective boss is simply wrong.
Or else you’re former boss got to him and had “words”.
I join the chorus of - you don’t need a letter of release.
Most likely your new employer is not aware of the change in regulations. I suggest that you ask your employer to contact the CLA for the paperwork relevant to a transfer and they will likely set the employer straight.
Provided that you have a new work permit in place before your current employer cancels your current work permit then you will be able to effect a change of details on your current ARC. If you don’t get it done in time you run the risk of having to start from scratch.
[quote=“brian”]I join the chorus of - you don’t need a letter of release.
Most likely your new employer is not aware of the change in regulations. I suggest that you ask your employer to contact the CLA for the paperwork relevant to a transfer and they will likely set the employer straight.
Provided that you have a new work permit in place before your current employer cancels your current work permit then you will be able to effect a change of details on your current ARC. If you don’t get it done in time you run the risk of having to start from scratch.[/quote]
I did all I could to get the letter out of the school but they did it very reluctantly because the new employer told them I had to be released immediately. I’ll probably get the letter tomorrow morning, but it has soured relationships at work and I still have one score and five days left. The other problem is that I don’t see how the new employer will be able to get an ARC in those few days. I can actually smell my meal I’ll be eating on September 1st.
[quote=“aubrey”][quote=“brian”]I join the chorus of - you don’t need a letter of release.
Most likely your new employer is not aware of the change in regulations. I suggest that you ask your employer to contact the CLA for the paperwork relevant to a transfer and they will likely set the employer straight.
Provided that you have a new work permit in place before your current employer cancels your current work permit then you will be able to effect a change of details on your current ARC. If you don’t get it done in time you run the risk of having to start from scratch.[/quote]
I did all I could to get the letter out of the school but they did it very reluctantly because the new employer told them I had to be released immediately. I’ll probably get the letter tomorrow morning, but it has soured relationships at work and I still have one score and five days left. The other problem is that I don’t see how the new employer will be able to get an ARC in those few days. I can actually smell my meal I’ll be eating on September 1st.[/quote]
Just enough time. You need the work permit - 10 days (give or take a red tape week). Don’t need a new resident visa (saved one week). ARC to Foreign Affairs Police = Home and hosed.
Disclaimer: - This is how it’s worked for us more than once, but … milage may vary.
[quote=“Bassman”][quote=“aubrey”][quote=“brian”]I join the chorus of - you don’t need a letter of release.
Most likely your new employer is not aware of the change in regulations. I suggest that you ask your employer to contact the CLA for the paperwork relevant to a transfer and they will likely set the employer straight.
Provided that you have a new work permit in place before your current employer cancels your current work permit then you will be able to effect a change of details on your current ARC. If you don’t get it done in time you run the risk of having to start from scratch.[/quote]
I did all I could to get the letter out of the school but they did it very reluctantly because the new employer told them I had to be released immediately. I’ll probably get the letter tomorrow morning, but it has soured relationships at work and I still have one score and five days left. The other problem is that I don’t see how the new employer will be able to get an ARC in those few days. I can actually smell my meal I’ll be eating on September 1st.[/quote]
Just enough time. You need the work permit - 10 days (give or take a red tape week). Don’t need a new resident visa (saved one week). ARC to Foreign Affairs Police = Home and hosed.
Disclaimer: - This is how it’s worked for us more than once, but … milage may vary.[/quote]
With my previous application I made it very clear that the employer should apply months in advance and I still had to go home for a month. While there my flight ticket had to be extended, when that couldn’t be extended any further I flew to HK hoping the work permit would come and after about five days it did come. This whole process took at least two months. Was I taken for a ride? Did their procrastination cause me all that grief?
2 months can be normal for those that don’t have their act together. The guy who handles it here is so pedantic that the CLA just love him and flash the permits through.
You probably weren’t taken for a ride.
Last time it took us 21 days till passport handed in to immigration for a resident visa. Including time taken for the medical check.
Took me three days, including an unelpful previous employer.
Get the document that shows you are applying for a new work permit (the one with the blue 3D cube as background, which your employer gets on submission of the papers) and head off to the police station. They will give you an extension of your current ARC, just in case. Then, once your work permit arrives (takes three days usually), saunter off back to the police station and get your ARC changed and extended by one year or three years or whatever.
I know someone 
who did all of this one month after the first work permit was cancelled, and still had no problem extending it. Be friendly, well-dressed, and don’t be forthcoming with info that might get you in trouble. If you find someone particulary helpful at the police station, always go back to that person. Thank them for their help last time, now, or whatever, and always compliment them on their English. 
As a last resort, mention my name. 
Cheers!
Stray Dog
[quote=“Stray Dog”]Took me three days, including an unelpful previous employer.
Get the document that shows you are applying for a new work permit (the one with the blue 3D cube as background, which your employer gets on submission of the papers) and head off to the police station. They will give you an extension of your current ARC, just in case. Then, once your work permit arrives (takes three days usually), saunter off back to the police station and get your ARC changed and extended by one year or three years or whatever.
I know someone who did all of this one month after the first work permit was cancelled, and still had no problem extending it. Be friendly, well-dressed, and don’t be forthcoming with info that might get you in trouble. If you find someone particulary helpful at the police station, always go back to that person. Thank them for their help last time, now, or whatever, and always compliment them on their English.
As a last resort, mention my name.
Cheers!
Stray Dog[/quote]
3 working days? Is this only if you pick up the papers yourself?
Taipei city based school? School?
Other industry based?
English Teacher
I wouldn’t have expected much change from 10 days with the CLA for an application for a foreign teacher work permit. 
From the day my school submitted the papers to the time I got the work permit took three days on both the most recent occasions.
Isn’t that normal? Maybe I’ve skipped a bit? :s
Thanks for the advice Bassman and Stray dog. Because of the typhoon I’m losing another few days though.
I just received my pay for July and instead of getting extra pay for a month’s “summer camp” work, I got a a week’s extra pay. When the manager handed me the money, she disappeared through the front door. So, tomorrow there gonna be show down at the not-so-OK-corral.
As always, there are the rules, and then there is what really happens.
I had to provide documents to show I had left my previous job (fu wu zhen ming 服務證明), this had the date that I finished so was effectivly the same as a li zi zhen ming. This wasn’t good enough at first and I had to go and get it in Chinese. I also had to supply a certificate of tax payment, not just the receipt, a fully chopped and stamped certificate issued by the tax office.
Aparently it takes 5-7 working days to process applications at the moment, your company can track the progress online. I’m expecting to finallly get mine (or some further request for esoteric documents) tomorrow because my old work permit/ARC runs out today :s. Luckily if you print off the page showing the date the office recieved your application and take it to the foreign affairs police along with copies of your application reciept, they will (may) extend your ARC :raspberry:
[quote=“Rik”]As always, there are the rules, and then there is what really happens.
I had to provide documents to show I had left my previous job (fu wu zhen ming 服務證明), this had the date that I finished so was effectivly the same as a li zi zhen ming. This wasn’t good enough at first and I had to go and get it in Chinese. I also had to supply a certificate of tax payment, not just the receipt, a fully chopped and stamped certificate issued by the tax office.[/quote]
Thanks Rik for the info.
Question, where are you? Also, did you go back to the Tax department for this tax cert? Normally, you’d only get the little orange tax receipt slip after you’ve filed that has the chop from the Tax Department that it was filed. Also Did you owe taxes the previous year?
I’m in Taipei.
Reading some other threads it looks like the tax certificate is becoming a more common requirement for work permit applications/ARC renewals.
Yes, you have to go back to the tax office to get it. I took the little orange (for this year) tax receipt that I got after filing and filled in a form, and they tapped away on the computer for a few minutes then gave me the certificate. It isn’t a difficult process and you don’t pay for the certificate, it is just an extra annoyance having to take the time to do it.
My taxes are fine, but I have been rather promiscuous in my jobs since coming to Taiwan. I have no doubt that I am on some sort of blacklist, and that this, along with the complete incompetence of the woman at my company in charge of making the application added to bad luck getting one of the jobs-worths at the labor dept handling the application is the reason why I