Well, In Taichung City, it seems they are still giving three year ARCs. I went on Monday and they said no problem. I am going to pick up my new ARC next week.
Taichung City’s FAP seems to be very foreigner friendly.
[quote] TNT:
However our friend said that they can do it in Keelung (Jilong) (Jilong) and wouldn’t need the Clean Criminal record as I have been here so long or the health cert, so this would make JFRV less complicated and cheaper to get and I would get the 3 years no problem
[/quote]
Brian:
Sounds like dirty deeds done dirt cheap in which case you may well be in the clear. There does seem to be some. erh, flexibility on offer here.
Interested in the household registry living there thing. Many Taiwanese of course are not living in the place in which they are registered under this snoopy scheme. Thus the rush to get back to home towns for elections. Can’t imagine they’d necessarily impose a two-tiered system.
My guess (note the term carefully) would be that you could proceed with Uncle Wang’s generous offer and later your wife does the shift to Taipei thing (buying a house?) and all that will be expected of you, if you choose to be an upstanding citizen, is to wander down with the relevantly altered docs and have the address change duly noted on the back of your JFRV.
HG BA. Shylock. Occasional wanker.
[quote=“Feiren”]Taoyuan is a “friendly” police department even if they are a bit disorganized. They continue to issue three year ARC extensions and willingly process permanent resident applications.
Please DO NOT file an administrative complaint against them, and please be nice to them when you go there. We don’t want Taoyuan to turn into another Taipei County.[/quote]
What?!?!?! :shock: Friendly?!! You must be joking right? Everyone I know in Taoyuan hates that police office. I used to live in Taoyuan as well and had nothing but problems with them. They throw things at you, give you very vauge instructions, and are less than helpful even with simple requests or questions. A friend of mine was just refused a visa extension, but my friend lost their passport and can’t leave the country, I believe this is grounds for an extension. (maybe I’m wrong but it seems justifiable as my friend has no other choice but to wait for their passport.)
I once took a police friend with me there to renew my visa, he told me afterwards that they are really very very rude and are not doing their job, I believe he filed a complaint. I have never had any problems with the people in the Taipei County office, they are always friendly to me and very helpful, a complete opposite of what I got in Taoyuan.
Cranky, it’s unfortunate you only got a year, I would
suggest you ask them first how many years they will give you, if they say one, say okay and come back another day and talk to someone different.
TNT, indeed it is bullshit, you need the CCRD, please view my website for the correct procedure.
Well, to confirm, Taichung is still giving three year ARCs. I went this past Tuesday afternoon to pick it up and it only took five minutes to get the ARC and the re-entry permit. Very friendly. They started speaking English with me, but when I answered back in Chinese, we just started chatting in Mandarin (and a little Taiwanese which I have recently begun learning). Very friendly and helpful. Has anyone else here had experience with the Taichung City FAP?
Yep, the Taichung office has been and still is giving out 3 year arcs/renewals. The people at the FAP here are great- helpful and fast. Last time I transferred my ARC between employers,for example, it took them 5 minutes.
Last time I extended/renewed my ARC they gave me 3.5 years-no idea why, but i’m not complaining.
Just to let anyone who needs to know, Kaohsiung is giving 3 year extensions on family based ARC’s. I’ve got my ARC through my wife, and it was to expire in October. I went to the foreign police and had a three year extension done in about 15 minutes. Just take your spouse’s ID card, your passport and ARC. My head was swimmng. I’ve never gotten anything in this country without a hassle before!
You didn’t even need a medical?
Brian
Bugger. I went and got my ARC (spouce ARC/JFRV) renewed today and discovered I needn’t have got the medical and pooed in the cup. What Idid need was my wife’s Household Registration Book or a recent transcript, and my lease/rent book in order to change my address. When asked, the woman admitted freely that requirements are different at different stations.
What was nice was that she just asked me straigh up how many years I wanted. $100NT a year up to three. I only had 2000NT 
Brian
Just came back from the Taoyuan cop shop with the three year extension in hand for both myself and my daughter…No questions asked.
I did ask about this new rule saying we can only extend one year at a time now on our Ji lio Jen…And I quote: “Who told you that?”
Later
Bump.
What’s the latest ? Anyone in Taipei County got their ARC renewed lately ?
Father Fluffy.
Off to do just that this week, tomorrow afternoon in fact.
(As discussed here: http://forumosa.com/3/viewtopic.php?t=3659&start=15)
I’ll be keeping ya’ll posted. But suffice it to say, that should you hear a loud. “what the fuck” emminating from the Ban Qiao area sometime mid afternoon Thursday, things haven’t been proceeding well.
HG
Huang Guang Chen: so what happened ? Do you have an JFRV ? In case that makes a difference.
It’s an embarrasing tale.
I planned to go last Thursday, cur me some time from the office and all. However, the night before I lingered too long at the Brass Monkey and lost my bag containing of all things my passport. Murderous hangover mixed with the agonising thought of what a nightmare it was all going to be to sort out the passport, visas, etc. Mercifully when the Monkey opened I dashed in to find someone had found it the previous night. Too late to get off to Banqiao by then unfortunately.
I’ll be trying later this week. I will keep you posted.
Yeah, it is a JFRV, first renewal. I burnt a good two year working ARC to get a one year JFRV. I’m just hoping upon hope they grant me a three year.
HG
Just wangled a three-year extension in Taipei County. First up, many thanks to all that posted info on this thread, and to this very forum.
I went down with:
hu kou ming bu - household registry - the original.
Current ARC
Passport
Money
Knowledge from this thread.
Arrived at the counter and was told I needed a hu ji teng ben - a printed out copy of the household registry from a local government office (forgot to ask if I could have used the one I used first time around, or whether it had to be within the past three months - apologies). Fortunately, I managed to duck over to the place in Banqiao and cut a couple of copies.
When I returned I handed the chappie all the requirements and said in Chinese I want a three-year extension. He replied no, the rules have changed and now the extension is for one year only. I replied that I knew from a web forum for foreigners on this very issue that people in Taichung, Taipei City and other places were getting three-year extensions and that Banqiao was well known to only give out one. I then asked what rule change meant that I could not get three years, and if he could please write it down or show me in the statutes. I then went and grabbed a document from their own counter and pointed out where it said in Chinese and English “ARC extension 3 years and under” (though in Chinese this is ambivalent - san nian yi xia). The guy got all smiley and nervous and said that well the reason was that in Banqiao there were too many foreign brides grabbing the three year extension and splitting from hubby.
I asked if this was the reason and he said, yes indeed it was, so I asked for a document outlining the reason (with due attention to the appropriate legal article) I was being refused a three-year extension. He reiterated the san nian yi xia and said what about two years? I said no, I want three years because that is what the law implied when I burnt a year of my previous two year ARC obtained through employment, to accept a JFRV. I then brought up Forumosa and said that there were many foreigners, like me, who didn’t think this was fair and that I had it on legal advice to obtain this document to put the question before the courts. I actually said sue (gao). I also resorted to the old "are people in Taipei County considered second class citizens?
Flurry of activity. The chap starts talking to the folks on the left and the right. Gets up and some smartly dressed arrogant tosser walked over who I overheard say in Chinese “give him one year”. My man came back and offered me two, “go on, its better than one”. Again I refused and insisted on a written explanation for the purpose of presenting it to a court. I pulled out a random name card (Alien
Good on you for putting up a struggle Huang.
Brian
Cheers Bri.
Many thanks for the advice and guanxi. I’ll be sure to spread the former widely and the latter wisely!
HG
(There’s a bit of cross threading happening on this over here:
http://forumosa.com/3/viewtopic.php?p=112842#112842)
So they can give 3 years if they want too, so much for their ‘rules’ 
Seems it’s a good idea to have some logical arguments ready, they seem defenseless against logic, and now we can say “I know someone else who got 3 years from you, why not me ?” 
Luckily, my ARC still has 2 years left, and I don’t live in Taipei County, but I might be in 2 years.
Have some guanxi from me too, but I’m a European so I’m more stingy.
Yikes, my stocks are indeed up! Many thanks.
Yeah, actually I think the important thing was to be willing to challenge them, politely of course. I’m always polite when an offical has my passport in one hand and a rotating date stamp in the other.
In a nutshell these were in hindsight what I thought to be the key issues:
(1) They had instituted a policy from their own branch and that I was aware of it, effectively through this site.
(2) Willingness to push them with the law. Ok, I was bluffing, when I said I had a lawyer, but I still would have filed a complaint and followed through if I didn’t get what I wanted.
I think there are still serious issues for spouses from other countries, such as Vietnam. I mean, the law is the law, and I would like it known to these folk that they are probably getting routinely screwed from the Banqiao and undoubtedly other offices.
Guanxi’s going into the Time Deposit thingy and will be doled out routinely.
Cheers.
HG
Well, well, well. It appears that Banchiao’s generousity lasted the good part of 12 hours. I just got back without a 3 year extension.
Conversation with Mr Huang went something like this :
Amos - Hi I like to extend my ARC, 3 years if it’s possible.
MR H - Sorry, you can’t.
Amos - Why?
Mr H - Policy.
Amos - Then why can my friends do it in Taipei City and Taichung.
Mr H - mm, well, it’s our policy.
Amos - Oh I see. How about my friend who came here yesterday and got 3 years.
Mr H - What was his name?
Amos - Huang Guang Cheng, also an Aussie in fact.
Mr H - No I need his English name.
Amos - Why?
Mr H - Anyway he has a disabled child, so he can get 3 years.
Amos - You’re lying to me!
Mr H - Watch you mouth!
Amos - I’d like to see your supervisor.
Mr H - He’s not here.
Arrogant man - Oh yes I am. What’s the proble.
Amos and Mr H both explain their sides.
Arrogant man - We can actually only give you a year.
Amos - Can you write down or show me your policy so I can go and show it to some people?
Mr H - Show who?
Amos - Richard Hartzel and someone that may be able to get some kind of reasoning behind why a government office can have regulations differing between offices.
Arrogant man - (grab dairy and about to show me some imaginary policy)Listen, I’ll give you two years now, and next time I’ll give you three.
Amos - I don’t believe you.
Arrogant man - Why.
It goes on. I was tired and pissed. They were pricks. End result. 2 years. At least I got more than the guy in front of me. His was stamped for 1 year.
Amos 
Amos.
That’s a bummer.
Certainly a lie about the disabled child. and one I’d be willing to back up for you. Give me any details of what you might need. I can photocopy my passport and ARC etc if you want to pursue it.
Sorryperhaps I shoulld’ve past on my English name. But you know half of it, right?
HG