I’m totally new to the world of working in Taiwan, although I’ve been visa-running for years. Given the situation with the border I’ve applied to and found a cram school that needs a teacher for 8-hours per week.
I met with them and honestly they do not seem dubious or to be acting in bad faith. They’re in a tough spot with the limited number of foreign teachers, and my visa is ending in less than a month.
They said they’d apply for work-permit/ARC and put down 14 hours with the appropriate pay. When the new term starts they would give me more hours.
I’m not trying to cheat the system, but I’m under pressure to lock in a job on a tight deadline. Otherwise, this school seems like a good place to work.
So is this really a big deal? What’s likely to happen? What’s the worst that could happen?
Also, a different school I contacted about a position required home country background check. How long would that typically take for U.S.? Anyone have this done during the pandemic? I know lots of offices are closed or reducing hours so I’m suspecting there is not enough time for me to get this in hand.
I think it’s that all the paperwork say 14 hours, but I am paid for 8 hours. That also means my tax document would say 14 hours and I’d have to cover that probably.
If that’s the case, I don’t really care about the costs. I’m only doing this because the border is closed and NIA won’t give me any extension options.
If you are willing to pay taxes for 14hrs, you should be on the safe side. However I don’t know if the NIA would be happy about your arrangement if found out.
Immigration likes to check a box… if it says so many hours on it from the school, the officer doesn’t have to do anything further, and they can go back to their tea party.
Of course they can always suddenly decide to crack down as others already said.
Nobody pays taxes on hours. Only on what you make. This is a fairly common practice. They declare the teacher is working the minimum amount of hours and pay them based on how many they actually work.
It’s a Taiwanese business and you’re a foreigner so take anything they say and do with a serious grain of salt. Lying, cheating, and screwing people over (especially foreigners) is a common practice so don’t trust a word out of their mouths. Money talks, bullshit walks.
The people at the tax bureau are not paid to think that way. Everything is very compartmentalized here and as long as the numbers make sense, no one lifts a finger. Unless of course someone rats the school out and has evidence to support their ratting. An example of how that could work is this: i went to the labor and health insurance department to find out how much of my income my boss was declaring. It turned out he was declaring the minimum even though I was making more than double that. I showed them my tax returns and they were shocked, “but that’s illegal!”. However, they told me they could only start an investigation if I were to request one. Labor, health, and tax bureaus don’t share information.
Perhaps. But even moreso than some countries, the immigration and tax bureaus in Taiwan don’t exactly work hand in hand. - all the tax bureau cares about is that you file on time and pay taxes.
Thanks @Pendulum. This is my assumption of how things tend to work here as well. Fact is the school is taking a calculated risk as well, and they understand it better than me.
I’d really like to hear from anyone who has been in a similar situation.
If you are an American and IF you are required to provide a clear criminal background check, that would be an FBI background check. This is a soul sucking, extremely time consuming endeavor,
Get your fingers rolled on a 10 card here at your local NIA.
Send the 10 card and your request for a background check to the FBI.
After the FBI completes it and sends it back to you, you need to send it to the Washington DC TECRO for authentication. YOU NEED TO CHECK WITH THE M.O.L. TO SEE IF THIS STEP IS REQUIRED. IT MIGHT NOT BE!
Then you need to take it to a translation agency once it gets back here to Taiwan to be translated into Mandarin.
Then you can submit it with your application,
FBI background check = Major soul sucking, time consuming pain in the ass!
Iirc, someone posted a thread that a PDF file from a channeler with no authentication was ok,
but I’d recommend to ask to MOL if you want to make sure.
@MalcolmReynolds Thanks for laying out the steps on the FBI check. As I suspected it’ll take longer than my visa has left on it. At least I can rule out the schools that require it.