Here’s what I’veb been find out so far in my research:
Get the 90 Day excempt visa when you arrive in Taiwan.
Have that converted to a visitor visa (possible visa run at this point PLEASE HELP NOT SURE).
Once the Visitor Visa has been obtained; then, it can finally be converted to a working visa.
Thus: it seems to make more sense to get a visitor visa before coming to the country even though it may cost a couple hundred. That seems cheaper than flying in and out of the country, which is something that I’ve done before. Trust me its no fun…
Please contribute or correct what I have found. I’m still not totally sure.
Multiple people have reported that teachers don’t need to do a visa run to convert visa exempt to a resident visa. It seems that students need to leave the country.
One thing that is even more frustrating is that even if you have a visitor visa you will likely have to buy another visa before converting to a resident visa. That might only be applicable to Americans since we impose all kinds of massive fees and Taiwan returns the favor.
Here are the steps that our Canadian teacher had to go through.
In August 2013, arrived in Taiwan with no visa, and airport immigration stamped her passport visa exempt 90 days.
We went through the usual steps to apply for her English teacher work permit.
Received her work permit and took it to the passport/visa section of the Min. Foreign Affairs. Using the work permit, applied for a visitor visa. Paid for it, of course. Applied Wed, picked up the passport with the visitor visa the next week.
Went to immigration and applied for her ARC as usual. Picked up her card in a week.
Very easy. The staff in the Chiayi/Taibao offices of MFA and immigration were really nice. And no lines! The advantage of taking care of all this stuff in little old Chiayi.