thanks. just tried messaging you direct but i may have not managed it. i’m tired. will keep you posted anyway
Someone just posted this on another forum:
Does this mean I won’t have to (or simply can’t?) apply for an extension until early May?
Good point.
You should go down and find out, or someone in the same boat. They may say when those new 30 days kick in that the 90 day extension you’d be potentially given (before your original 90 had ended) is no longer allowed.
Yeah, I’ll go at the end of March as planned.
This might help.
I’ll go and ask on Monday. By the time the 30 free extension days are up, you’ll be well over the 180.
I’m guessing now that if you go and apply for the extra 90 and they don’t allow it, instead of a denial they just give the 30. Again, I’ll check.
Yes, please let us know. No, I will be still under 180 days after the “free” 30 day extension. I entered Taiwan at the end of January so I’m a little more than a month from my 90-day expiry date. I was going to apply for a 90-day extension at the end of this month when I’m within a month of the expiry date. Now with the automatic 30-day extension, I can stay until end of May without an extension… I’m just not sure if I can still apply at the end of March as originally planned or do I have to wait until end of April to apply.
I applied for the British & Canadian passport holders visa extension on Thursday, picked up my passport today and the visa was approved. It’s valid 180 days from last time I entered Taiwan. Definitely more people at the office then when I applied for the visa but luckily there is no need for queueing when picking up the passport.
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That’s great. Now that we have the automatic 30-day extension, I won’t have to apply until the end of April.
BTW, what reason did you use for your extension? Did you provide an onward ticket?
If you’re going to apply for the visa extension anyway I see no reason to wait until last minute. Think you should ask them if you can apply during the automatic 30-day extension time if that’s your plan.
I wrote one line that due to the current virus situation I rather stay with my GF in TW as she has work obligations making it difficult for her to go anywhere else.
Didn’t give them any copy of onward ticket (they are cancelled anyway). Only gave them bank statement and visa photo (if you are applying in Taipei they have photo booths at ground floor).
I was not sure if they would give me a visa because I did stay more then 180 days in Taiwan last year. This is the first time I have applied for any kind of visa here. I normally stay less then 30 days before travelling out of TW, I don’t make my money here and have travel insurance in case of medical needs.
Would you also get the added 30 days?
I didn’t ask because if you read the announcement from BOCA it states
“The total period of stay cannot exceed 180 days.”
https://www.boca.gov.tw/cp-220-5436-37c0d-2.html
But I’m sure if there’s no way of leaving TW or not possible to get to your home country you will be allowed to stay longer without penalty. But let’s hope that won’t be necessary. I predict we’re going back to normal in less then 6 weeks
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Just picked up my passport from the office, also got the extension (applied Wednesday afternoon, British citizen that has spent more than 180 days in the last year here)
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This is great.
What reason did you use for the extension?
I wrote it in the other thread on this - that I was concerned to fly during the pandemic and would like to stay to continue self-studying Chinese.
This was my first extension and I did get my application handed in a few hours before they announced they won’t be allowing visa extensions, don’t know if this matters or not.
Did they announce they won’t be accepting visa extension anymore?
Just going off the various news articles people have linked on other threads, here’s one I found from a Google:
“This has left a lot of non-citizens in Taiwan scrambling, as previously they could ask for an extension of up to 180 days at the immigration agency. This is no longer possible.”
i also got the 90 day extension. hope you do too. i get the feeling if you haven’t overstayed or broken the law in any way you’ll probably be alright.
@Shaozhi
@Southernboy
This is good news. I’ll definitely apply when the time comes. Thanks. Btw, did you provide an onward ticket?