End of 180 days, can't do visa run or change to work visa due to covid. Options?

Better than the alternative of going back to a country with mass infection no?

Not at all. It is still on your criminal record in Taiwan. If you were to come back and then live here, they might add that to their consideration, especially for citizenship.

If breaking the law was recommended to me, I’d be flipping tables angry at such a lazy suggestion.

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I think I would put my health and possibly life in higher regards than maybe having an issue coming back to Taiwan in the future.

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also in the same boat. from what i’ve been told by the NIA and other places i spoke to - once your 180 days are up - that’s it. the 180 day extension usually states explicitly that it cannot be extended further. i thought in this instance that might not still be the case but apparently it is.
i’m starting to think overstaying might be the way to go too

And then what? It’s been more than 91 days already. Assuming they didn’t grant automatic extensions, now what? Jail time?

Absolutely not. I’d be escalating. You are already risking your health and life by overstaying. Even if they ‘recommend’ it to you, they can easily kick you out and force you to go back.

You escalate and continue to find legal ways to stay. You just don’t sit there and put yourself into a legally risky situation.

Number 1 thing is to protect yourself.

You need proof. You need records. You need documents. You need signatures. You need stamps. Don’t ever take the words of immigration at face value. Always have papers. Always have proof. If you find yourself on the wrong end of the legal stick and you’re without proof, you have nothing. Same thing with the banks. Demand proof.

Mr Chen behind the counter isn’t going to lose sleep if he says something wrong cause it’s your word against theirs.

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I have to agree with Marco here. As much as I want to stay in Taiwan, I don’t plan to overstay if I can’t find a legal way to stay (visa expires on July 20).

I recently received an IT-related job offer (one-year contract). The company will apply for a work permit, but they won’t start the process until mid-June (contract won’t begin until July and according to them, the application takes about 10 days).

My question is: I entered Taiwan visa-exempt in January and applied for an extension in April (Brits and Canadians can apply once for free). Once I get the work permit, will I be able to “convert” my visitor visa to a resident visa without leaving Taiwan?

Whatever you do, DO NOT overstay, this is not an option to take. I have overstayed in another visa-exempt country for just a few days on a previous passport years ago and it is still giving me problems to this day whenever I travel to that country even though I have changed my passport.

They are not issuing student visas currently due to Covid, so a study/student permit isn’t an option. The only seemingly legal option is to get a work permit or get an investor visa which I believe you need to have 250k in a Taiwan bank account (theres another topic on the front page on this with more information).

For visa runners hoping they will just decide to open up borders to everyone all at once in July/August/September/etc, please be aware that they will be opening in waves, in which Visa Exempt/Tourist Visa entries will be the last wave to be allowed in.

Take a look here at some of the other countries that have previously offered visa-exempt/tourist visa entries and how they are opening up slowly: https://www.koreanair.com/global/en/2020_02_TSA_detail.html?fbclid=IwAR0JnLH-Ldp2UOzSLXX0cq65rtfLnVPYeRdpPXWMNhtpouIJiD7V5olpBK8
(The Korean Air website has a pretty good list of current border restrictions worldwide and visa details)

I guess it depends on the persons future plans. If they are leaving Taiwan anyway, then staying the overstay maximum to give their country hopefully enough time to sort itself out seems like the easiest step.

Things like investment plans and getting jobs just don’t make sense for people here on holiday!

No, not at all, but do you fill out that checkbox when finding another visa for another country? Do you want to admit you broke the law when applying for new visas? Do you want to tell future immigration authorities you were an irregular migrant?

Have you previously overstayed?

Always cover your ass and you’ll never have to worry.

It’s been 6 years and I’m still getting bitten by a traffic collision that I had to accept responsibility for cause I didn’t want to move my Taiwan flights and Ontario required me to show up to court. It wasn’t even my fault and I could’ve won easily. I could say I never want to return to Canada again, but, who actually knows what I will do in 10 years?

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This has turned really dumb. Marco is right, no matter what some low level govt cronies told you to clear you off their plate ASAP, Don’t break the law.

You are not risking your life by flying to some other country - believe it or not Taiwan is not the only place left on Earth amidst a mass Extinction event.

I think your underlying problem is you just believe the first thing you are told no matter how dubious or absurd and then reject any further contradictory evidence. “First come first served” is not a way to orient yourself in life, let alone succeed in it.

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As far as I know once you do this you can’t change your purpose of stay again

That’s too bad!!! :cry: I shouldn’t have applied for the extension because I would have gotten the three automatic extensions anyway.

Once I have my work permit, I’ll go to BOCA and NIA and ask again. :frowning_face:

Well these are all hypothetical, I’m simply saying what the immigration centre said when I went there (which is what everyone was suggesting to do).

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You and I are smart people and you know that this is indisputably the stupidest reply anyone could have received.

Please. Do not be afraid to escalate.

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thanks, i appreciate what you’re saying here. i was seriously thinking about overstaying

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I accidentally overstayed once, I just wasn’t paying attention. Every time I have had to get a visa I have to write a letter explaining and saying I’m very sorry and I’ll never never do it again. It was 17 years ago.

To the OP and everyone else in the same situation, look at my post above about leaving and coming back and what to do before you leave. You’ve got time to stay in quarantine before classes start for the summer. I’d get started.
Also, there are countries without any cases at all if you can support yourself.

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This has been a really useful thread. Thanks to all who have contributed.

I’m in a similar boat to the OP. We arrived in January on a landing visa to spend CNY with my wife’s family and have basically been sitting tight, waiting for things to calm down… My wife is Taiwanese but I do not have a marriage visa/ARC so am collecting the paperwork to do a visa run. The question is, where does one ‘run’ to??

It seems the options for visa runs are pretty thin on the ground for people in our situation: 1) Hong Kong- currently still letting passengers from Taiwan in providing they do 14 days of quarantine. No idea what this is like so if anyone has any experience, it’d be good to hear. Political unrest at this time is another issue to think about (especially taking children), but I’ve heard for most people in HK things are fairly normal. 2) South Korea- the advice at the moment seems to be they are letting people in but they may need to have some sort of medical certificate … I need to do more research with this one. 3) Home country- which for me is a long way and at least one stopover in the ME. Not the end of the world but do not fancy it at the moment and would much prefer option 1 or 2.

I can’t find any other flights to countries in Asia letting non-citizens in, with a Taiwanese consulate. Palau sounded great but there are no flights until July. Would definitely consider this if I had more time. I have to be out by mid-June.

Good luck to all :+1:

so did you not go or you got whacked or what?

I wouldn’t be worried about political unrest in HK, but are sure they let you enter without HK ID or HK passport?

You can get a ticket with transit in Hong Kong, Seoul or wherever suitable, to a country that still let you inn based on your passport and the fact you have stayed in Taiwan the last 14 days. Then buy a one way ticket form let’s say Hong Kong - Taipei a few hours after your Taipei - Hong Kong flight. This way you don’t need to spend 14 days in quarantine, except on arrival in Taiwan. Just be careful that some airlines don’t do online check-in at the moment, so make sure you can get a boarding pass online at departure airport in TW or at transit area.

This just came out two days ago, unfortunately I don’t think there is an English version yet.

https://www.immigration.gov.tw/5382/5385/7445/211420/211422/227593/

Hopefully this will be of help to some people.

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