You get at least 14 days after your last work permit is cancelled to leave the country if your ARC hasn’t expired. However, if your ARC is expiring as well, then the expiration date is your deadline to leave, renew, or have a new work permit applied for. In other cases you might be able to get an extension by visiting the foreign affairs police in advance. No guarantees though.
Based on my one single experience of this, there is an unpredictable lag between when your employer notifies the “Labour Office” (I think that’s who they tell) and when the police get to hear about it and action things. I actually left Taiwan and returned later expecting to get a landing visa - but on entry my “re-entry permit” and ARC were still live. I went to the police station (Banciao - I was living in Taipei County) and it was still sitting in the tray. They were happy to fix an expiry date that suited me - but of course if they’d cancelled it promptly I would have had 30 days on a landing visa anyway.
You could try phoning the police and ask them if they’ve received notification yet - and if they will give you a bit more time. My impression is that they can be quite flexible about this.
There’s a lag between when you leave your job and the employer notifies the CLA.
There’s a lag between when the CLA receive the notification, cancels your work permit and notifies the police.
There’s a lag between when the police receive the notification and actually gets around to cancelling your ARC.
Technically you are supposed to have 14 days from leaving your job to leave the country, but often the police give you 14 days from when they notify you. Plus they’ve been known to be flexible about things if you go in and ask for more time. However, there is no guarantee you will get more than 14 days from termination.
Kneelweighed, I highlighted some bits of jlick’s post. I don’t think you’ll have enough time to get to Kaohsiung, find a job, and get the paperwork going before your visa and any extension to it expire. I get the impression that the police are more likely to give extensions if you already have a job lined up.
That’s right. If you have a new employer who has submitted an application for a work permit, even if it hasn’t been approved yet the police will usually give an extension. I haven’t heard of anyone getting an extension just to look to work, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. Persistance is the key as with most things in Taiwan. Go to the police early and see if they’ll give you an extension. If the answer is no, come back a couple of days later and try again. Repeat as needed.
Whatever you do, report back here on what worked and what didn’t so that future posters will have a better idea what to expect.
I have heard of people who are leaving Taiwan being given 14 days to sort out their affairs. I have not heard of anyone being given time to look for work. However, I was told myself after a job finished unexpectedly (firm went under) that they would give me 14 days if my work permit was cancelled by the government, and that I’d better hurry up and find another job. They said (Taipei FAP) that if they got an official job offer letter they would consider giving me a further extension on my ARC to allow the new work permit application to be submitted. However, that is working in a non-teaching job. I know people (including myself) who have been treated with much less generosity as English teachers (whereas of course it should make no difference). Sorry if that’s irrelevant - can’t remember the OP’s line of work. And also that is dealing with the Taipei FAP, who I’ve always found to have an OK attitude if you go to them well in advance and tell the truth.
Just speculating… but isn’t it the case that if your ARC is linked to a single job (I wasn’t an English teacher), seeking other work is a violation?
Someone more knowledgable than me can answer this - but I feel “I want to find another job” is probably the weakest argument to put to the police. How about “I need to tidy up my affairs and whilst working here I didn’t get much of a chance to see Taiwan - so would like to stay another month to tour round before leaving”. That seems more positive…
--DB[/color]