Hi Arrived in Taipai only yesterday. And i am staying at a a YHA for 500 bucks a night. Have a 2 month visitor VISA. Starting to worry - if i don’t get some work in a week or 2 then i will have to accept work already offered to me in China. This means i will have the hassels of getting another VISA for a country i recently left to save money. Damn! It would be a sad waste of money if i do leave.
You are cutting it mighty fine with the new regulations for getting a work permit. 8 weeks, you need to find something fast. It will take about 6 weeks to get things through to the not having to do a visa trip stage. Find a school a.s.a.p.
Tangent,
You can save yourself some time by getting the medical exam done. Normally, people wait until they have found a job then go to a hospital for a check up. However, the paperwork for the work visa gets held up waiting for the medical to come back from the hospital.
DO NOT DELAY. Going sooner could be the difference between having to do a visa run or not.
You need to take
1.your passport
2. Two passport photos
3. 2000 NT (costs about 1600 but take more just to be sure)
4. A full bladder and full lower colon – for the samples.
5. An address for them to mail the results to (better than coming back to pick it up) This would usually be a school address but you can give your hotel. Or you can come back to the hotel and pick up in person.
It takes about a week to get the results.
The order and things you have to do vary from hospital to hospital, but here is the usual procedure.
Paperwork
- You get a form and fill in the personal details, show your passport, give them the photos. They will give you a bill.
- Take paper to counter and pay bill
The medical examination consists of
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taking a blood sample, blood pressure. (You will carry the medical form around with you and the hospital staff will write in the appropriate info.)
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weight and height, both taken while you stand, without shoes, on a set of scales.
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eye examination; reading a chart. It’s not necessary to read Chinese characters, as the eye charts uses rows of U-shaped symbols; as the nurse points to a symbol you use your finger to motion which way the open end of the “U” is facing; whether up, down, left or right.
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Urine and stool sample – you’ll be given containers and pointed in the direction of the toilet. Be warned – you can’t rely on there being toilet paper, so take your own. There’s usually a tissue packet vending outside the toilet, but once again don’t take any chances. If you can’t perform under pressure, you can come back with the goods the following day, “Hello. This is my stool sample.”
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Doctor’s examination – this is a rubber stamp job, and you don’t need to get undressed. The doctor will look at your tongue, throat, use a stethoscope on your back/chest, and perhaps ask a few questions about your medical history and health. Now hand in your medical form, and take a card.
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chest x-ray, hand the card to staff in the x-ray room, wait until they call your name, they’ll x-ray your upper body. You don’t need to strip for this.
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anal examination – just kidding! I recall using an old form, which had a section with the ominous words “genital and anal examination.” Thankfully, they did not use that part.
You are now free to leave the hospital.
I’ll post a list of hospitals/addresses in an hour. Stay tuned.
John.
There are many hospitals in Taipei that do the medical exam for foreigners. Go early on Monday morning.
Here are two:
Taipei Veteran
www.tealit.com is full of places desperate for teachers. get a place that’ll pay you cash weekly. are you functional in mandarin chinese?
[quote=“almas john”]There are many hospitals in Taipei that do the medical exam for foreigners. Go early on Monday morning.
Here are two:
Taipei Veteran
Apparently Ren-Ai is a good place to go because everything is close together.
Excellent post about it here: forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?t=12287
Almas John gave good information but he lives outside of Taipei where the rules are different from elsewhere including the counties close to Taipei City. A stool sample is only required in the counties.
I took a friend to Renai Hospital this past week and she neither had to give a urine nor a stool sample. Also, her bill was under NT1000.
Why have the hospital mail you the results? It is ready in 8 days: mailing it would only add on another two or three days. Just go to Chunghsiao Fuxing MRT stop. Go out the Fuxing side of Exit 2, turn right so you are walking south along Fuxing, walk to Renai, cross over the road to the other side, do a 1/4 left turn so that you are now going to cross over Fuxing and walk along Renai. The Hospital is a huge, white bldg on your right (look for the ambulances in the open garages as you approach the bldg.
If you aren’t particular about what age level you teach, you should have a job within a week of arriving here.
Good luck.
You arrived yesterday and you’re starting to worry already?
How do you get through life?
Make sure that whatever school you go to can get a work permit now. With the recent changes to obtaining a work permit it is not so easy anymore. Many schools that qualified for teachers in the past can no longer get teachers. They may only find this out when they apply, by then it could be too late. I heard form the CLA that most applications that come through now are being declined because people are not aware of the new regulations. This is good for me though because most of my competition won’t have any idea until it’s too late, not good for their teachers though, perhaps I should be a nice guy and pass on word to their staff through the grape vine.
There is not much work around now. I have a good friend who is looking, and every time he rings tealit, apparently they say they will ring him back, but then they don’t bother. He rings them again and they say they have found a teacher. Be ready to revert to plan B.
Here’s how you get a job teaching English in Taipei:
1.Put on a nice, clean shirt and a nice pair of pants and shoes.
2.Put 20 copies of your CV into a folder.
3. Take the MRT, a bus, or a taxi to a busy area. Ask friends at the hostel where to get started. I like the Hsin Yi district, the Shi Da area, or the Taipei Train Station district (Nan Yang Jie and outlying streets).
4. Walk into a every bushiban you see, ask to see the manager, tell the person you’re a highly qualified, experienced, confident English teacher (hopefully, this is actually true).
5. Tell the person how to contact you, or arrange a follow up meeting.
6. Repeat until you’ve got 5 good offers. Take the best one.
If you don’t have 5 good offers in a week, you’re either dead, you can’t speak English, or you’re basically helpless.
Seriously, it is that easy. If you get lost, post again and we’ll try and help you.
[quote=“Tomas”]
If you don’t have 5 good offers in a week, you’re either dead, you can’t speak English, or you’re basically helpless. [/quote]
Or not caucasian.
:s
Try the agencies. You have to put on a demo on the spot, and you don’t get any prep time, which is hard, but you usually get paid weekly, they don’t ask for the “perfect” qualifications, they give you a bit of experience, and you can use your off hours to find your dream job. Just be sure to get one that gets paid by the school to place you, not one that takes hidden costs off the top of every cheque. There are good ones and bad ones, but you wil get something.
With the new rules and regulations, morning kindy is out (my preference) but there are always the afternoon/evening cram schools. Working Saturday will help, too.
Hang in there. I’m only working 15 hours a week at this method, but it’s valuable time to me, I live cheap, see a lot, and get amazing experience in this beautiful country, and could work 50 hours a week if I wanted to. The kids so far are great, and are way smarter than I was at their age.
Find some expats who will show you how to rent a scooter for a month (around 2500 NT) and get a good map. Get working and have some fun when you can…
smashy