I am married to a Taiwanese lady, so I am allowed to work legally in Taiwan. I do not know if it is easy to get a legal position. so should someone, for any reason, offer me an illegal work (teaching English on good conditions – few hours a week), I accept it and the police catch me, do I have to leave Taiwan, pay a fee or something else? My point is – is there a danger I would be separated from my wife?
Thank you in advance
[quote=“richi”]I am married to a Taiwanese lady, so I am allowed to work legally in Taiwan. I do not know if it is easy to get a legal position. so should someone, for any reason, offer me an illegal work (teaching English on good conditions-few hours a week), i accept it and the police catches me. do I have to leave Taiwan, pay a fee or something else? my point is - is there a danger I would be separated from my wife?
thank you in advance
r[/quote]
It is NOT illegal to teach Engish with a JFRV. Only the idiots at the MOE will tell you that you need a permit. So, it is NOT illegal because the law says that you can do it.
This is a bit confusing. If you’re legally allowed to work, how can working be illegal?
If you’re here on a JFRV, then you are on an equal footing with any Taiwanese citizen. Teaching English is certainly not outside the purview of a JFRV. Or at least, if it is, I’m in a heck of a lot of trouble. I’m on a JFRV and I own and operate an English cram school.
Lee Kaiwen, Chiayi
[quote=“KaiwenLee”]
This is a bit confusing. If you’re legally allowed to work, how can working be illegal?
Lee Kaiwen, Chiayi (Jiayi)[/quote]
If one is allowed to work here, but works at an illegal buxiban, would that not be illegal work?
So if one is married to a Taiwanese and is teaching English at an illegal buxiban can they be sent out of the country or made to pay a fine, etc.
We were told by the CLA that if you are married and have an ARC, you will not be deported if you are working illegally in a Buxiban. The reason is that you are not in violation of the Labor Standards Law. If you are in violation of an MOE regulation, you could be fined.
This kind of distinction is unlikley to be understood by the police though. If you found yourself in this situation contact the CLA immediately. It would probably help to contact a lawyer of Hartzell.
Kaiwen: You need to find out in writing from the Chiayi Bueau of Education whether or not they require a permit. It varies from city to city.
The entire situation of the “eligibility” or “permissability” of foreign spouses to work at any job at any location has been discussed over and over in this Forum, the Marriage in Taiwan Forum, and occasionally in the Open Forum or other places. Many foreign spouses in Taiwan have noted some differences in interpretation of the Employment Services Act between central government ministries and local city, county government departments, and in regard to this confusion several people have also pointed out certain procedures and/or methodology whereby these matters could be fully cleared up . . . . . .
Therefore I personally want to say that I find it most encouraging and enlivening that (apparently) no one has bothered to follow up on those investigative suggestions . . . . and everyone is still satisfied to post the same questions (albeit from somewhat different perspectives, or different angles) in these Forums over and over again, hoping (or praying) that someone will provide some definitive documentation or other analysis.
I personally feel that Research (with a capital “R”) is needed . . . . . and some further suggestions are as follows:
(1) Why doesn’t someone contact a Legislator to arrange a Public Hearing on this issue?
(2) Why doesn’t someone contact the CLA and request a full and comprehensive explanation on this issue?
(3) Why don’t some of the concerned foreigners here in Taiwan WHO ACTUALLY WORK IN LEGAL OFFICES try to get some coordination from other personnel in their offices on clearing up these issues? (I hope I am not too far out of line with this last suggestion . . . . . . )
In response to (3):
It’s really difficult to get anybody to work on this for free. They’re simply not interested. They’re more interested in doing pro-bono work on other issues. I’m always told that a very small of relatively well-off foreigners don’t need free help. I’m inclined to agree. If foreigners wanted to get together and pay, that would be a different question…
The suggestion/question was not out of line. I just thought I’d relay the response I’ve gotten in the past.
Richard’s absolutely right: the situation is confusing and there are no definitive answers. All we can tell people is that you will get different answers from different agencies in different places.
These are great suggestions. Does anybody want to do anything about it?
In Response to (2);
I wrote one of the threads before that I called the CLA in Taipei (2-85901236). I am not an Engilish teacher but I also asked them this issue. They told me “If you are married to Taiwanese, you do not need a work permit for any job including teaching English at buxibans”.
As long as you have an ARC based on JFRV, CLA okeys working legally in bushibans.