I overstayed for a long time (almost 2 years), and believe me, I had serious reasons for that, so please no judgment! I am leaving Taiwan at the end of January, what do I do now to get a permisson for leaving the country. I know i have to do this before I go to the airport , but where do I go? Any suggestions when i should do this, how long will this take to get over with? If i go there a week before i leave will they let me to stay for a week?
I will appreciate any help ! Thank you !
How were you supporting yourself for two years? Did you pay taxes? Did your employer pay taxes?
The authorities will want to know all this, with paperwork to back it up. They will also want names (and addresses) of your employers.
As requested, no judgment. But you are in a bad situation. I wish you the best of luck.
And if you don’t have this information, they will arbitrarily set an amount of back-taxes you will have to pay before you can leave. Needless to say, they will err on the high side! It would also be a good idea to have a plane ticket out of Taiwan to show the cops.
First of all thanks a lot Fee and Sandman!
I know im really screwed, but it would be a lot worse if i left in time and didnt overstay… sad story 
OK, what if i say i wasn’t working during this time, what if i tell them that i had a boyfriend supporting me? what then? will i still have to pay taxes? this is not true of course but i don’t want to get my school in trouble, they are nice people and they had no clue. But im really not looking forward to spending any extra cash because i dont think my next salary will be any soon.
So where do i go for the EXECUTION ? 
Is this the place where i got my last ARC?
thanks again
You would have to get proof that would satisfy the tax people that you were being kept by your boyfriend. Very unlikely indeed. What will happen is that they will say something like: "you have not filed any tax returns for two years. We estimate that you have been earning xxx amount per month, so we are taxing you on that basis. Therefore you owe us xxx.
Sorry, but whatever happens, you are looking at laying out some serious cash here.
You tax situation also does not include your overstay fine, which could also be several thousand (not sure how the fine system works though).
I believe the overstay fine will be NT$10k, which is the maximum fine displayed at the FAP in Taipei. However, you may have to bring a receipt from the Tax Administration to the FAP which states you have paid tax for the years in question. This is potentially a much bigger financial burden than your overstay fine.
I know i cant avoid paying the fine itself, but as far as i know the fine is 10 000 NT if you overstayed for more than 90 days, i’ve never heard of bigger fine. And about my possible salary, the fact is that i’m not from “english-speaking country” and officially i cant work at school, if not at school where else? if u dont speak English you can’t make any good leaving here, am i right?
oh guys, another question is there any chance of getting a visa to other countries (for ex. India) here in indian office in taipei with situation like mine? if not , how difficult (if possible at all) will it be to get visa to other coutries after i leave taiwan with this stamp? how bad is this? do people in embassies look at that?
Look, one thing is for absolute certain: the longer you wait, the worse the situation will get. You need to get moving NOW to sort this out.
Remember, the tax authorities are not the least bit interested in if you were working legally or not. They have ONE objective and ONE objective only – your tax dollars. Several years ago I had a friend in a similar situation and he managed to persuade them he was living off NT$15,000 per month. They wanted to calculate based on NT$30,000, so they were quite flexible, but he DID have to pay.
Remember what Ben Franklin said 200 years ago: “Only two things in life are certain – death and taxes.”
As for getting a visa for other countries, you’ll just have to apply and see what happens. I can’t see why your status in Taiwan would have any bearing on visa applications for other countries, although you will be prevented from entering Taiwan again for a few years.
Good luck and once again, GET MOVING. The situation will not get better, it will only get worse.
I totally agree with Sandman. Perhaps it is time to stop posting here on Forumosa and to start resolving your problem–now.
And the authorities don’t care one whit for all your “excuses” or “plausible explanations.” (ie, someone was supporting me, I couldn’t have been an English teacher, I lived very frugally, etc.) They will smile and nod and then, as Sandman noted, calcualte how much they think you should have paid in taxes. And you will have to pay this.
Your queries about getting a visa to India should be a bit lower down on your priority list, imho.
Sorry to have to be so harsh, but you put yourself in this position–and you can get yourself out of it–if you start to do something about it.
hmmmmmm, well thank you, but the reason i’m “posting here on Forumosa” is because i need to know about this at least something before i do this, and …i really needed an advice not a lecture on what my priorities should be, b/c i don’t think anybody can give advices on that if they don’t know the whole situation.
and yesi know that i put myself in this position and i will get myself out of it, i’m just trying to make it less harmless to me as possible.
thanks l
I got an overstay stamp once and went to Honkers with it. Immigration in Honkers had to write a report and asked me a few questions, and were amazed when I told them I was in Hong Kong to pick up my resident visa for Taiwan. They let me in no problem. The stamp is in Chinese. Whether the Indian office here will be bothered or not, I don’t know. However, I was not deported, and I expect you will be. The common stamp for that is an visa stamp with an “X” through it. I don’t know if they do that in Taiwan, but it will be recognised. Get your visa before you mince off to the FAP. A few days isn’t going to make much difference now.
Tax: I estimate you’ll pay ten percent on 24 month’s salary. About NT$48,000 at NT$20k a month. But bargain with them, they’ll take whatever they think they can get out of you. But not paying tax is a bigger crime than overstaying. Technically I overstayed while waiting for my resident visa papers, but as I was a taxpayer the FAP didn’t give a monkey’s and apologised profusely for having to put a stamp in my passport. (It was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ fault not theirs that my paperwork was delayed.)
I recommend wearing a new suit, white shirt, tie, new shoes, etc. when going to the tax office. That makes a better impression. Also, take along a lot of catalogs full of merchandise, and state that you are a manufacturere’s rep, but paid from overseas. That should lighten your tax burden a bit.