i just arrived in taipei here on a five-year multiple entry visa. i don’t know specifically what in particular led the kansas city (us) teco office to give it to me, but this is what i submitted by mail:
passport, app, $100 fee for visa (of course), and…
an explanatory letter of my purpose of going to taiwan: ie. to learn more about taiwanese culture and to help enrich my previous educational experience in beijing.
i don’t know if mentioning the fact that i was planning to continue my study of chinese in taiwan rather than the mainland helped me out. i don’t know if the increase in visa fees - from ~$35-65 US to $100 US flat fee - is enabling the teco offices, or at least my teco office in kc, to issue 5-year visas. perhaps it was a gift since i arrived during lunar new year.
at any rate, that’s what i got.
but here’s a few questions: does this mean that for the next 5 years that all i need to do is leave the island and go into international waters every 60 days? can i extend it to 6-months without leaving the island? and has anyone else recently received the 5-year?
5 year visas are great. I only have a 1 year visa.
You can
Get 60 more days by leaving the island and coming back
Extend each visit to up to a total of 180 days
I’ll be trying to get my 5 year next time I visit the states. My 1 year visa gets me through a lot and lets me go with few questions asked. Before you ever trade it in for an ARC, think long and hard about it. Do you really in heart trust that employer that much to put your stay in their hands?
Your stay is in their hands anyway. If you work illegally (which you are doing if you are working while you are in Taiwan on a Visitor Visa) and you make your employer unhappy, your employer may report you to the police. You will then be summarily deported without a hearing and blacklisted.
I really think an ARC and a legal work permit is a better choice if you can get it.
I went through the Kansas office too, and Terry, who is the director there, gave me a multi-entry visa for as long as my passport was valid. It is about two years, and if I had a passport that was valid longer, he would have given the 5-year. You do need to leave ever 60 days though, unless you can submit documentation that says why they should extend it. If you are going to language school, they will give you all the stuff you need. Also, after being in language school for 4 months, you can apply for an ARC. Then you don’t have to leave at all. The timing is set up so that if you are really studying, you can extend your visa twice, and then apply for the ARC without ever having to leave.