I figured this would be a decent place to document my experience acquiring a visitor visa for studying Chinese (code FR) this month at TECO Manila. Anyway, general information about the requirements for this visa can be found on TECO Manila’s website so I’ll focus on timelines and tips.
Background
- 22 y.o. when I applied, single, PH passport holder
- Graduated university last year
- Financially supported by my parents (relevant for later)
- They gave me a 60 day extendable visitor visa (so in my mind that means my application was decently correct…)
1. Things I did in advance, before I even applied for the visa online
- Obtained my transcript and certificate of graduation (my diploma wasn’t available yet at the time) from my university, the physical ones with the dry seal, etc. — Might depend on the university but do this ASAP because it can take weeks or months. Also, this is a new-ish requirement. Prior to April 2023, it wasn’t needed for this visa…
- Obtained a PSA-issued birth certificate. Not sure how long this takes nowadays since I got mine last year.
- Signed up for the actual Chinese course at a Taiwanese university to receive the certificate of admission via email. One main requirement here would be the financial capacity thing, but thankfully no need to apostille (DFA) + authenticate (TECO), straight from the bank was fine (3 months bank statement + signed letter of support). I got my bank stuff and submitted my application one day and got my certificate of admission the next day.
- Wrote my study plan with motivations. I took Mandarin and other Chinese-related electives in university so I made sure to include that. Also I talked about how I plan on extending the visa, getting an ARC, career, etc.
2. Things I did nearing the application itself
- Applied online (Online visa application form). BTW, the application is valid for a month. After that you need to fill it up again.
- Got another set of bank statements + bank certificates (bank statements were just system generated, the certificates had signatures) up to 6 months before the month I was going to TECO to apply (basically as recent as possible)
- This was a little risky on my part but just in case they asked for it (“Other additional documents may be required during processing.”) I booked flights to and from Taipei and reserved a place. I figured if the visa fell through, I would just go on a vacation with the tickets and forfeit the reservation. They didn’t ask for this though, lol.
3. Application at TECO
- There’s no point in going to RCBC Plaza (where TECO is located) way earlier than 8:45 am because they won’t let you go up anyway. But if you get there early, there are plenty of places to kill time so no worries.
- Make sure to bring another government issued ID to be left at the concierge before you go up to TECO.
- I was kinda scolded for having two bank accounts (same owner but different account because different currency) on the same bank certificate page. So if you’re doing that, make sure the certificates are separate.
- I also almost got in trouble because even though the bank statement was supposed to be from January 1 to June 30, the first transaction listed wasn’t until January 27. But I cleared it up by pointing out that it says January 1 to June 30 on the statement anyway.
- In general they seemed pretty strict with the financial stuff!
4. Claiming at TECO
- After 8 working days, I went to TECO to claim my visa. You can only go up for claiming by 1:45 pm, so again no reason to be there really early.
- You give your claim stub/receipt thing to the visa counter and they line you up for claiming. However, be prepared to wait a while because I noticed they let the travel agents handling a lot of people claim their things first. So even if I was second in line (bar the agents), I waited around 1.5 hours inside TECO.
Technically speaking, I feel like this should be a pretty easy visa to get but also I understand why they seem kinda strict (like with the financial aspect) because it could be an easy gateway to illegal work (since you don’t actually need to pay for the tuition yet to get the certificate of admission). So my advice is to make sure you prepare that part diligently. I called them a few times to make sure I was headed in the right direction.
Anyway, hope this helped someone out there prepare for their application or at least gave you something to do for a few minutes 