Hi everyone. I am married to a Taiwanese lady. Do I need a work permit? I have heard a lot of conflicting reports. Could someone clear this up for me?
Much obliged.
Hi everyone. I am married to a Taiwanese lady. Do I need a work permit? I have heard a lot of conflicting reports. Could someone clear this up for me?
Much obliged.
No, if you have an ARc through marriage you don’t need a workpermit …
BTW, could you make your patriotic flag avatar a little bit smaller in size, it takes up about halve my computer screen …
To be precise: Those who have an ARC based on marriage to an ROC citizen where the ROC citizen has residence in the ROC (i.e. household registration) do not require any work permit.
Thanks very much for clearing that up,Jlick
Yes, it is true that you can get an ARC based on your marriage to a Taiwanese Citizen. I know a number of foreigners who are married but still have their ARC through work, mostly because they haven’t taken the time to change it. But you should definately get one based on your marriage, so you can change jobs or start your own business and come and go with ease.
Have a laugh at funny pictures taken in Taiwan
Yes, thanks for that, Jeffreyinilan, it’s DEFINITELY good advice.
as far as i know you can not start business by yourself (aka company owner) even if you have ARC based on marriage.
correct me if i’m wrong.
[quote=“tairus”]as far as i know you can not start business by yourself (aka company owner) even if you have ARC based on marriage.
correct me if i’m wrong.[/quote]
Sure you can. You don’t even need an ARC to start a company.
Important info on the limitations of open work permits:
I asked at Immigration today and they said that although one does not need a work permit once the JFRV-based ARC is in hand, one still faces certain restrictions:
2. Professions with other required professional qualifications, SUCH AS TEACHERS, still require those qualifications. Although your bushiban, for instance, will not have to get a work permit for you, in order to employ any teacher, the bushi will still be required to turn in evidence of your qualifications (I’m not sure if it’s to Labor or to the MOE). However, after the first time, if you continue in the same job the employer might not have to turn this in every year – it can be extended for 3-5 years or something. I wasn’t clear on the details here, as she was speaking quickly in Chinese. Perhaps Dragonbabe can correct me later, as she was there too.
Similarly, if there are particular professional qualifications required for a particular position at a government institute such as the GIO or Academia Sinica, you may be required to present evidence to that institute that you qualify for the job, and the institute might have to submit those to Labor (again, I’m not quite clear on this), but according to Immigration, the Academica Sinica has the right to issue its own work permits, and in theory you don’t need a work permit anyway. (Confusing? Sure.) (This doesn’t fully jive with what another officer at Immigration told me just 4 weeks ago, which is that although AcSin can issue its own work permits, they can only do so for a certain range of positions such as researcher, consultant, etc. – these do not include English teachers; so if you get a job as, say, a proofreader and editor there, you might try to get your job listed as “consultant”.)
With an open work permit, you may teach at a bushiban after submitting evidence of your qualifications. HOWEVER, that bushiban may NOT send you to a separately registered kindergarten to teach, even if the two schools (the bushi and kindy) are affiliated and/or under the same management or owner. The Immigration officer was quite clear about this.
You may apply for government permission (once you have an open work permit) to work at a kindergarten, but the kindy must apply for permission to hire you. There is an EXTREMELY small number of slots allocated to foreigners for this, and the likelihood of your particular kindy getting one is effectively zero. Therefore the vast majority of FOREIGNERS WITH OPEN WORK PERMITS effectively CANNOT TEACH AT A KINDY. The officer was quite clear about this.
Caveats: The answer you get from a particular officer or agency may vary. Unfortunately the situation is still not clear. This is the best info I’ve been able to get from the officials to date.
[quote=“Dragonbones”]Important info on the limitations of open work permits:
I asked at Immigration today and they said that although one does not need a work permit once the JFRV-based ARC is in hand, one still faces certain restrictions:
2. Professions with other required professional qualifications, SUCH AS TEACHERS, still require those qualifications. Although your buxiban, for instance, will not have to get a work permit for you, in order to employ any teacher, the bushi will still be required to turn in evidence of your qualifications (I’m not sure if it’s to Labor or to the MOE). However, after the first time, if you continue in the same job the employer might not have to turn this in every year – it can be extended for 3-5 years or something. I wasn’t clear on the details here, as she was speaking quickly in Chinese. Perhaps Dragonbabe can correct me later, as she was there too. [/quote]
That’s old news, and not something I think one needs to be concerned about, as it applies to Taiwanese as well. I don’t believe the gov’t is about to start mucking around with qualifications for foreigners as they would have to do the same thing for Taiwanese, and that opens a big can of worms.
Maoman is right, the open work rights means you don’t have to worry about work permits, but you do have to worry about other qualifications and licensing just as any citizen would. On the other hand, just like any citizen, you could be hired by a buxiban not as a teacher but under some other title, as most buxiban staff are. Also from what I can tell, the penalties for hiring an unqualified applicant are all on the employer, not the employee, not that those things are ever enforced. So while Dragonbones is technically correct, in practice the foreigner with open work rights shouldn’t have anything to worry about.
Good to know; thanks, guys!
That’s the theory, but it all depends on how it works in practice.
My friend’s kindy boss was specfically told that with a JFRY he was allowed to work in kindergarten.
The MOE inspected my kindergarten recently. I got the situation carefully explained to me. All teachers at the kindergarten have to be qualified, but the MOE isn’t going to care about Taiwanese ‘assistants’ who are not properly qualified. On the other hand they believe that children under 6 should not be learning English and that foreigners are not allowed to work in kindergartens. So basically if they find foreign teachers in a kindergarten, that kindergarten is not going to get its licence renewed. I got the day off.
As for penalties, police have reiterated many times that foreigners with JFRVs are nopt going to get deported, I had practical experience of this 2 years ago when the police dropped in unannounced. They told me I was fine because my wife was Taiwanese, but then added that I should take the rest fo the day off anyway :loco:
Remember, this is Taiwan. Rules don’t apply. Forget waht the immigration officer said. Practically speaking with a JFRV you’re going to be fine teaching in a kindergarten. You might be breaking some rules - it’s impossible to live in Taiwan without breaking some rules. There’s illegal and then there’s ILLEGAL. It’s not ILLEGAL.
Brian
Excellent! I think I’ll set up a law firm now, and get rich.
Sticky? This is pretty flippin’ useful.