Help! Visa app being denied. Only one more day to try again!

Legal Visa & Residency
1

Just got back from my second trip to the NYC TECO office after having my visitor visa application denied for the second time. This time for not supplying a “Letter of Employment” on company letterhead stating my annual salary, that I am a full-time employee, and that they know I’m leaving for “two months vacation” in Taiwan.

Trouble is, I am not employed full-time, get payed by the hour ($10/hr), have only been at the company for a couple of months and my employer will not lie for me. The man behind the TECO counter said the payslips I showed him weren’t good enough and remained adamant about receiving a letter with those three conditions met. When I called the office back for more information, the woman who answered only said that she was not allowed to provide any advice regarding my situation, as only by submitting my visa to the Taiwanese consul are they allowed to pass judgment on the merits of my case. :s

I know, my fault, but my flight leaves in two days, so I only have tomorrow to go back to New York and get it right. Judging from how anal they’ve been so far, I don’t feel very optimistic about my LofE passing muster. Would they be happier if I just left it blank? Certainly it can’t be a requirement that you have a full-time job before so much as visiting Taiwan. Should I try to pass as a student and list my Employer/School as Rutgers, even though I graduated in the Spring? Would I need more proof for that too?

Please, please help! :help:

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[quote=“laszlo”]Just got back from my second trip to the NYC TECO office after having my visitor visa application denied for the second time. This time for not supplying a “Letter of Employment” on company letterhead stating my annual salary, that I am a full-time employee, and that they know I’m leaving for “two months vacation” in Taiwan.

Trouble is, I am not employed full-time, get payed by the hour ($10/hr), have only been at the company for a couple of months and my employer will not lie for me. The man behind the TECO counter said the payslips I showed him weren’t good enough and remained adamant about receiving a letter with those three conditions met. When I called the office back for more information, the woman who answered only said that she was not allowed to provide any advice regarding my situation, as only by submitting my visa to the Taiwanese consul are they allowed to pass judgment on the merits of my case. :s

I know, my fault, but my flight leaves in two days, so I only have tomorrow to go back to New York and get it right. Judging from how anal they’ve been so far, I don’t feel very optimistic about my LofE passing muster. Would they be happier if I just left it blank? Certainly it can’t be a requirement that you have a full-time job before so much as visiting Taiwan. Should I try to pass as a student and list my Employer/School as Rutgers, even though I graduated in the Spring? Would I need more proof for that too?

Please, please help! :help:[/quote]

#1: I certainly hope you have not paid $100 US twice (once for each application that was denied). The reason being, because you can easily come here with only your passport for a month, do a cheap visa run and come back with a new visitor visa or with your passport again.

#2: Have you showed them that you have at least 2500 USD in savings? This will eliminate the need to show employment.

#3: What is the reason for your visa? Visiting Family, Tourism, School, Work? It does make a difference.

#4: What ethnicity are you? Its sad, but its true that it may have an affect on your application.

#5: Did you show prrof of a confirmed return flight ticket?

#6: If you don’t need to be here for 2 month’s consecutively, I would strongly reccommend coming visa free with your US passport, and then just fly out and fly back in for your second month or do a visa run. US TECO offices (contrary to some reports) are notorious for being difficult. SE Asian TECO offices, such as Bangkok, are easier to obtain visitor visas from.

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  1. Did they accept your application and then deny your visa? Or did they just turn you away at the desk? The former goes on record and leads to interviews and crap. The latter is fine.
4

No, I didn’t pay for the failed attempts, though it has been extremely stressful spending half my time commuting or talking with unhelpful people when I really, really just need to pack.

For real? I have enough to do that.

Tourism. Is there a better choice?

White.

[quote]
#5: Did you show prrof of a confirmed return flight ticket?[/quote]
Yes, I’m pretty sure I have everything they’ve asked for except the employment/proof of $2500.

I’d like to avoid that if possible. Don’t you still have to pay for the landing visa? ($124 if I remember correctly). Extra flights and visa fees will eat up my savings a lot faster than all these train fares to New York.[/quote]

Just turned me away w/o accepting. One good thing I guess. :slight_smile:

5

Good. At least you havent thrown away 200 USD. Hang in tehre, its a bumpy ride, but you can do it!

Yes, for real. But (there is always a but), you need to show that you have had this amount of money for at least 3 months via bank statements. They want to make sure you didnt just deposit the money in your account as a last minute thing. It does not make sense to me…money is money. But thats the way they do it. I would gather your stuff together and get those bank statements then show them one last time.

No, no better choice. But, US TECO office are notorious for not issuing Visitor Visas for Tourism. They figure that A) Taiwan is small and you can see it in a month and B) You can just use your passport which means less work for them.

Landing visa is just a stamp in your passport (you get when you arrive) that says you can stay for 30 days. It is FREE. You pay nothing.

If all else fails, and you have to come with your passport only…
You dont need to do a “Visa Run”. you just need to leave the island (get an exit stamp in your passport) then come back and get a 2nd 30 day entry stamp at the airport. You can easily fly to Hong Kong and return the same day for about or under $250 US.

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Landing visa is just a stamp in your passport (you get when you arrive) that says you can stay for 30 days. It is FREE. You pay nothing.[/quote]
There is no landing visa unless your US passport is valid for less than 6 months, in which case you need to pay (USD124): Landing Visas

What you probably mean is the Visa-Exempt Entry.

7

Tell the Taiwanese immigration to get fucked and go and pick yourself up a visa for China. You’ll have that in your hand before tea.

Hopefully one day you’ll have turned yourself into a highly bankable dude. When that day comes, be sure to drop the Taiwanese authorities a line about how you intended to come to Taiwan as a new graduate but was fed through their beauracratic bullshit wringer and that although you now have zillions to invest anywhere on the planet. Taiwan will never ever see a single cent of that given the ill will created all those years ago. Sod it, send that letter now!

Sorry this doesn’t help your immediate concerns, but a landing visa is always an option and you can get cheap flights to HK to grab a second one if you so need.

HG

8

They can be pricks … and I have no clue why they would not issue a visa … it brings money to pay for their rents and utilities, salaries … but hey, Taiwan is a rich country and doesn’t need income from visas

9

come on, own up, you really intend to stay here and work illegally, maybe getting a work permit and changing your visa after you arrive, or just staying over time without a visa… then you’ll cruise the bars, go to work (in a kindergarten) drunk, and have sex with as many young women as you can (hopefully not at work), dealing drugs to local pop stars (also hopefully not at work, but you never can tell with barbarians like you), and all the while sending your hard-earned cash overseas to suport a third wife in the philippines.

we get crazies like you here all the time.

10

Have you been following me urodacus?

The advice would be to get a single entry tourist visa for 2 months or a student visa if you don’t want to work later. The tourist visa is the easiest to change into a work visa here. If you come in on the free “Visa exempt entry stamp” , what some are calling the landing visa though its not, then you will have to make at least one “run” to a Taiwan trade office to change it later to work.

11

Thanks for all the advice. To let you all know, today everything went down without a hitch. The only things I did differently were to print out two extra months of bank statements and bring in a two-sentence letter of employment that just mentioned that I was a good employee since starting in November. Though by far the biggest change from yesterday was, I’d say, the person behind the counter.

She was very nice and presumed everything was in order before actually checking every detail. For example, she removed the staple attaching my two photos and taped one to the form, the other to the back of my passport–even before scanning the visa app line-by-line for omissions/errors. I tried to act polite and confidently casual, but in my mind I was holding my breath, waiting for her to spot a showstopper like the past two consulate employees had done telling me once more to come back another day with another crucial item.

Anyway, it didn’t happen that way. She waved away the wad of NTD I showed her to explain that the $1600 in my account was not all of what I had. “Not necessary,” she told me. She even joked at the end about the huge Eisenhower dollar coin I gave her as part of my payment. Paid for rushed completion, got a haircut, lunch and some backup scans of documents in an internet cafe, then received a call after three hours saying it was ready. That 60-day stamp did a lot to lift the sleepless stress of the last few days.

OK, now just six more hours to pack…

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[quote=“laszlo”]Thanks for all the advice. To let you all know, today everything went down without a hitch. The only things I did differently were to print out two extra months of bank statements and bring in a two-sentence letter of employment that just mentioned that I was a good employee since starting in November. Though by far the biggest change from yesterday was, I’d say, the person behind the counter.

She was very nice and presumed everything was in order before actually checking every detail. For example, she removed the staple attaching my two photos and taped one to the form, the other to the back of my passport–even before scanning the visa app line-by-line for omissions/errors. I tried to act polite and confidently casual, but in my mind I was holding my breath, waiting for her to spot a showstopper like the past two consulate employees had done telling me once more to come back another day with another crucial item.

Anyway, it didn’t happen that way. She waved away the wad of NTD I showed her to explain that the $1600 in my account was not all of what I had. “Not necessary,” she told me. She even joked at the end about the huge Eisenhower dollar coin I gave her as part of my payment. Paid for rushed completion, got a haircut, lunch and some backup scans of documents in an internet cafe, then received a call after three hours saying it was ready. That 60-day stamp did a lot to lift the sleepless stress of the last few days.

OK, now just six more hours to pack…[/quote]

Nice. Congrats.

13

I learned my lesson, alright. If at first you don’t succeed, try try again (Preferably on someone else’s shift :slight_smile: ).

14

This lesson will serve you well here. Go back tomorrow and get a different answer. Ask 5 people and get 6 different answers. Its the lotto game today you lose and tomorrow you lose a different way :slight_smile: .

15

Sorry for butting in… but I read this thread with some horror… is getting a 60 day visa often this complicated? I noted the comment about TECOs in SE Asia and posted of my experience in Saigon recently.

I’m British and was in Saigon and had planned to come here on 30 day visa-exempt entry, but my plan changed at short notice so wanted to come here for >30 days. I went in and got the “standard” form. Fortunately I had two photos with me. OK queues were terrible, so was the heat etc. A woman told me they needed a “guarantee” from Taiwan (I was applying as a visitor). So my friend faxed a copy of her ID card with a comment that she will take care of me during my stay. I just filled in the form and wrote in the comment box “want to stay until Chinese New Year before returning to the UK”.

No problem… 60 day visa.

No bank statements, flight tickets or any other supporting stuff needed… I did ask when handing in my application if they needed anything else. The women flicked through my passport (looking for overstay stamps and the like I suppose) and said no. Just the fax. They didn’t even seem to care about the wording of the guarantee - and I was surprised they took a fax.

I should add… during my 2 visits to that office, I never saw anyone who wasn’t Taiwanese for Vietnamese (mainly brides).

16

In Canada I got a 1 year multiple entry Visa good for 60 days each time. No problems but had to jump through a few hoops (show ticket and bank book with $).

After working here for more than a year and doing many visa jumps I was turned down a Visa in HK for no good reason that I could tell. Had to do a visa-exempt landing then another run to HK with a work visa application.

Some are easy and some are hard. Not way to tell so go to the temple first and by-by to make sure your lucky.

17

[quote=“Chicken”]
After working here for more than a year and doing many visa jumps I was turned down a Visa in HK for no good reason that I could tell. Had to do a visa-exempt landing then another run to HK with a work visa application.[/quote]

After all the posts here about how incredibly fucked up the TECO office is in Hong Kong, I just don’t understand why you guys continue to go there. :loco:

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All TECO’s are fucked-up, one of the worsed being Manila …

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The lady in Bangkok was very friendly - I had all my doccies in place (faxed copies of invitation letter and bank statement) and only an itinerary (not an actual ticket).

I also explained I’d overstayed and had just served out my one year ban. She didn’t seem to mind about that.

Back on Monday to pick up my passport (hopefully stamped with a two-month extendable).