I talked to a a few friends in CAA, NIA,etc. When you enter the country yes you’re lying to Immigration and Customs from what you have said,a big No-No. You are also working here under the radar another big No-No and not paying taxes a big big big No-No. You don’t have to worry about getting photos for the immigration officers since you posted quite a few here. Yes they view sites like this. Everything you posted in this thread is the exact reason NIA is cracking down and making everyone’s life a pain in the ass.
Do all your fellow expats a favor by doing things the right way. And do all your gay brothers and sisters the same courtesy they’re looking at you harder than anyone else.
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Did upteen visa runs to HK in the past. Wasn’t visa free in those days to Taiwan, i had a 60 day mulitiple entry visa good for five years. One time the immi occifer in Hk was kind of thumbing through my passport. I said I am doing a visa run. He said you have an overstay stamp in your passport in Taiwan (paid a small fine for that) I said , yeah, made a mistake calculating my days (i was a day late out of taiwan ). He said “i am worried you may overstay in HK, to which i replied, are you kidding? I can’t afford to overstay in HK” He laughed a bit and stamped my passport.
Another time the HK occifer was thumbing thru this huge book ( i suppose its electronic now) seeming to look for my name in the “black book”. After a few minutes i said “you won’t find me in there, I’ve been to HK over 100 times” And he stamped my passport reluctantly, still believing he had missed my name in that book.
The one time i went to okinawa, it was a last minute “get out of dodge” situ. as it was the last day of my 60 days i believe. Ran to CKS (well the bus actually) and paid for JAA roundtrip for 6500nt i think. I guess I looked kinda ragged, no suits. NO hotel booking in Okinawa, was going to wing it. The customs man was suspicious and was checking through my one bag for about 5 mins (seemed very long). ASked me why i had no hotel booking , told him last minute visa run. Finally I said , fed up at his poking through my small travel bag, here’s the way to do it, take out everything from the bag, turn the bag inside out, and feel all over the lining . That’s how you check for illegal stuff". He was not impressed but let me go. I guess that was a cheeky thing for me to do. very lucky I didn’t go in for anal probing !!!.
Immi occifers live a boring life. It sucks to sit there all day long looking at passports 8 hours a day until you retire in 50 years. do NOT MAKE THEIR DAY.
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Lots of people would kill for a job like that.
id go absolutely bananas, i would make everyone wait minutes so i can check everything. haha.
The only trouble I’ve ever had was in england. Got my luggage looked at, to which i pointed out the guy was going through my underwear. Another time a guy wanted to question me for my repeated (it was one) trips to china. I’ve also had dick heads slow me down when going through security too. Never had any trouble in asia. Ah the benefits of being british.
Thank you @Excalibur.
@bkemp See Employment Service Act Art. 43 就業服務法第43條. If you don’t have a work permit or work permit exemption, don’t work in Taiwan. Don’t lie to immigration officers. Don’t evade tax. If any of this is unclear to you, I recommend searching for more information (we have discussed these things many times before) instead of intoning the mantra it must be a gray area, it must be a gray area over and over and hoping that you will somehow bend reality to your will.
@ everyone else, don’t give tips on how to get away with illegal activities.
Thank you and good day.
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[quote=“hanna149, post:4, topic:180271, full:true”]
Honestly, he might have just looked kinda sweaty and nervous so they decided to pick on him in case he was trafficking drugs/doing something actually bad.
He is doing something actually bad, he’s lying to.immigration, working without paying taxes while using the resources we tax payers pay for and on a tourist visa while he’s not a tourist. In Singapore he could get a year in prison. He should apply for a multiple entry business visa. He’s lying to immigration don’t say that isn’t bad when it is.
And then come on here asking for advice how to lie about it. geez
Is what he described technically considered working illegally in Taiwan? He said his friend works remotely for another country’s (in this case, China) company while living in Taiwan. I know someone else who does something similar; he works for an American company, pays taxes here, and does visa runs, and has never had any trouble aside from the time that he failed to pay his taxes on time and was slapped with a fine.
Doing freelance work here without a work permit is illegal, this much I knew and informed the OP. I would be more than happy to learn more.
American company may be ok depending on situations. Providing some service for people/companies in China without work permit or its exemption is illegal. China is not a foreign country.
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So does this count as working illegally for this Shanghai-based company, as well?
I think so, but it should be confirmed with MOL or NIA.
At least, the income should be filed.
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Try to get a work visa/permit when saying that it’s for your, freelancing 
Concerning the Workforce Development Agency quote below, I’m not posting it to make any claim, and I’m certainly not advising anyone to rely on it; I’m just adding it to the thread in case anyone has anything worthwhile to say about it:
https://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?post=23767&unit=12,29,33
I should add that I haven’t been able to find anything in English on the Workforce Development Agency’s website to verify the above quote of that agency. I’m not saying that there’s nothing on the agency’s website that verifies it (I searched in English and briefly attempted to do a search in Chinese, bearing in mind that I don’t know Chinese); I’m just saying that I couldn’t find it.
Here are a couple of links to the Workforce Development Agency’s site:
https://ezworktaiwan.wda.gov.tw/en/
I should also add this–again, not for a claim on my part, but merely for the sake of discussion:
Exactly. If it were a gongwen from the MOL, that would be one thing, but a claim in a link that doesn’t even appear to work anymore (maybe it’s just my connection?) is not reliable, especially when it appears to contradict the law.
Even if bona fide digital nomads were de jure exempt from work permits (and I’m skeptical of that, even though I tend to think it would be a good thing), the person we’re talking about would not fit in that category, because
for a Shanghai based company, and that company may be in violation of Art. 40-1 of the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, which may also make the clueless foreigner liable under Art. 93-2, on top of the penal provisions in the relevant employment and immigration laws.
(For formal advice, of course, ask a lawyer.)
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Edited to add:
Yes, Article 93-2 of the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area looks very serious:
That sounds like very good advice.
The stuff below, which may not have any application in this thread, is what I posted before the “Edited to add” stuff; I apologize for the irrelevance, and for helping to create the potential for much more harm than good:
Well, actually, I didn’t originally get the link from @tando. I had me a little adventure arriving at @tando’s post. Originally I read a Reddit post which contained a dead Taiwan Info link. After failing to find the above-linked article in the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, I tinkered around awhile, somehow wound up on Taiwan Today, browsed the past articles on that site, somehow wound up here, clicked the most likely-looking title, and got the article in question. I then Googled the quote in the article, which Googling led to @tando’s post.
Apparently the article is by Steven Crook (or that’s what the copyright notice indicates). It’s my understanding that Mr. Crook is an old hand in Taiwan. It would be nice if someone could somehow find out what or who his exact source was for that quotation.
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Arriving in 91 is hardly old hand, that’s practically still a virgin.
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