Yesterday I went to my local National Immigration Center to switch my Visitor Visa to a Resident Visa. I expected to have to get the Resident Visa and then come back a few days later for my ARC. Turns out the system has changed to streamline the process into one step.
Old Procedure: (for those with a Visitor Visa from THE UNITED STATES)
Go to local National Immigration Agency with work permit, $140usd ($4,200nt), and fill out form to switch Visas.
Receive Resident Visa.
Go back to National Immigration Agency a few days later and apply for ARC. Provide housing contract, Resident Visa, and etc. Pay $1,000nt for one year ARC.
New Procedure: (for those on a Visitor Visa from THE UNITED STATES)
Go to local National Immigration Agency with work permit, another paper from your employer that I cannot remember the name of, housing contract, passport, 4 photos, etc. Fill out form that says “Multiple Purpose Application Form” and check off “Transfer to Resident” and “ARC”. Pay $3,200nt ($105usd).
Walk away and go back a few days later to collect your ARC card.
Note: This change applies only for Americans. I’m not sure if the process is the same, changed, or always has been this way for other foreigners.
A few tips on how to get your application approved:
I brought EVERY piece of paper I could think of. Diploma, health exam, bank statement, passport with Visitor Visa, housing contract, work permit. Turned out I also needed another paper from my employer but the Immigration man just called up my school and had them fax it. The man never asked to see my diploma, bank statement, or health check (which makes perfect sense since I had to provide all of that for my Visitor Visa and work permit), but just in case I brought them anyway. You should do the same. Anything you can think of, just bring it. Better to be prepared than sorry.
It’s been this way for a while now. So much so that there has been talk in the ‘Visa’ threads about what the heck a Resident Visa is considering it is never actually touched by the person who paid for it.
Yes, and your old procedure is actually incorrect anyway. You never got a resident visa issued by immigration, because immigration doesn’t issue visas. BOCA (MOFA) issues visas, and that was a completely separate issue from immigration in the old system. You had to take a visitor visa to BOCA first, and then take your resident visa to immigration. Anyway, as Maceck said this update has been around for a while already.
Also, the “paper from your employer that you cannot remember the name of” is called the 在職書 or 在職證明 which is a statement from your employer that you are indeed currently employed by them.
Finally, it’s not “only for Americans”. It’s for any white-collar professional who finds employment and obtains a work permit while here on a visitor visa or 30-day visa exemption. In fact, the only thing that might be “only for Americans” about what you wrote is the price, since I think it might be cheaper for other nationalities but I’m not exactly sure of that.
I keep seeing people on this forum calling teachers ‘white-collar’. While it’s technically correct, I often think of us as grey-collar, because we have to do a little bit of everything. Mid-way between white-collar and blue-collar. Though someday I felt like I was shit-collared by all the crap I had to put up with! :roflmao:
Unless something has changed, the rules for getting a work permit are different for language teachers than it is for “white collar professionals”.[/quote]
Sort of. White-collar professionals (a.k.a Class A Foreign Workers) is the blanket term used for employment covered under paragraphs 1-6 of Article 46 in the Employment Services Act, as stipulated in Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the Regulations on the Permission and Administration of the Employment of Foreign Workers. The rules for working for each type of employment may be different, but they’re all considered white-collar professionals, and the same rules about transfer to visitor/residence apply:
That’s for visa-exempt to visitor (which you do still need to do at BOCA/MOFA by the way). I guess visa-exempt is the new visitor, and visitor is the new resident? Hmm.
This is the first time i have seen an explanation that makes enough sense to understand the rest of the story. In July i applied for a resident visa at the BOCA office, and after i got that i then went downstairs to the immigration office to apply for my ARC.
So there is point I want to add here: for language students the “old precedure” is still “current procedure”.