[Overstay] I Overstayed! Can I get back in?

Legal Visa & Residency
1

hey all

I need some advice on my probably not so special visa problem…

Last time I was in Taiwan I had a student visa. I left for my summer holidays in Europe on July 7th, 2002, but my visa was only valid until July 1st. I decided to pay the overstay fee, rather than paying the school for another month. when I went to the visa office in Taipei, I asked them if this could cause any problems in the future and they assured me that everything would be alright.

I flew back into Taiwan last week. My plan was to get a 30 day landing visa, find another good and less expensive school, fly out of the country again, get an extendable student visa to be able to stay for 6 months.

I was kind of scared at the airport visa office then, because they first refused to issue ANY kind of visa for me. The reason was, that I had overstayed (for only five days). After some negotiation I got a 14 day landing visa, but had to write a paper that says: I won’t overstay this time… I signed this paper, paid NT$ 2000 and finally got into the country.

In the meantime I found a job in Taipei. It doesn/t provide me an ARC. This would be a problem anyway, because I am a German citizen, and as far as I know, ARC’s are only issued for English teachers that are native speakers. I am not. So I will go to C.L.I. in Taipei and pay them in order to get all the papers needed for a student visa. With these papers I will fly out of Taiwan and try to get a student visa.

My questions are: does anybody know if there are rules that say that if somebody has overstayed, he cannot get a student visa anymore?

What is the “best” embassy to go to? I’d like to go to Bangkok, have you heard any bad things about them?

Are there any other things that might cause problems?

Thanks for any kind of help, this is urgent…

2

Bru, what does it say in your passport. When you overstayed last time, you must’ve got some kind of stamp in your passport saying something. Just over three years ago, I overstayed by 1 day, oh yeah, I’m bad. :smiling_imp:

And then I got a nice stamp in my passport saying I couldn’t come back in ‘visa exempt’ again, for one years from that day. Which means - no more 14 day, or 30 day landing visas for one year. But you got that. So I’m curious, what kind of bad stamp do you have in your passport? May

3

Dude, call the immigration office here and ask them.

Don’t mention your name or just give them a fake, like Bro instead of bru.

Uhm… and, yea, don’t use the handy phone, use a public phone, just to be on the safe side.

And avoid eye contact with people at all times.

4

This would be a problem anyway, because I am a German citizen, and as far as I know, ARC’s are only issued for English teachers that are native speakers.

If you work as a teacher this might perhaps be correct, but else I don’t see the point why you shouldn’t get an ARC.

5

Are Rascal and Jeepers’ avatars just two instances of the same guy? Or one of those separated-at-birth twin things??

Just wondering!