Overstayed Visa 1 week ... under boss's advice

I have lived in Taiwan for 6 years, have a registered business here, got accepted to NCKU for IMBA, and have a job. I gave my boss my tax receipts and other docs 2 days before my ARC expired (june 30 expiry date) so that she could get the work permit going. I apologized for being so late and asked if I needed to leave the country knowing that the work permit would take longer than I had left on my ARC - she said that she would inquire and then came back to me with everything is fine and I don’t need to leave. She gave me the work permit today and I went to the immigration office in Banciao today and the guy told me I have to leave b/c I overstayed.

Can someone give me some advice - what I need to prepare and the best way to handle this. I want to go to school and continue working in Taiwan and everything I have is now here. I am now 7 days overstayed and I plan to leave Monday - do I go to Hong Kong, Thailand…? I have never done the visa run.

Any good advice would be much appreciated… what are the chances of me being banned for a year… that is not an acceptable outcome!

[quote=“harvey1950”]

Any good advice would be much appreciated… what are the chances of me being banned for a year… that is not an acceptable outcome![/quote]

Sorry to say this but I guess that you probably don’t have a choice, acceptable to you or not … but maybe they’ll be lenient on your first overstay …
What I don’t understand is that you don’t have an ARC/workpermit on your business …

thanks for your comments… so are you thinking that i can not get back in on a visitor visa… i have been hearing that i can not get in on a landing visa, but a visitor visa is doable…
i dont have an arc through my business because one of our partners got one, and for the rest of the 2 we needed to have a large large (forget the amount) amount of money in the bank - they dont give them out like candy.
anyways, would like to know from anyone what to expect or how to better deal with this situation. never done visa run, never overstayed,
hong kong vs. thailand vs. philipenes???
any helpful advice would be much appreciated

Unless you come from Slovakia or a couple of other places you are talking about visa exemption, not a landing visa. Having overstayed, you will not be entitled to enter Taiwan without a visa for one year. It is automatic and there is no way round it. If you haven’t payed a fine yet, you will have to pay it at the airport. You will also have trouble applying for a visitor visa so soon after overstaying. What you should do is go to wherever it is you are going to apply for a visa and make sure you have documents proving that someone is applying to legally employ you. If you don’t have all the documents with you when you go, you may have to get them faxed out to you.

The general view on these fora is that you shoudn’t apply for a visa in Manila unless you want to be treated like a Filipino (not recommended). Anywhere else will do. Most people go to Hong Kong but maybe there is somewhere else you would like to visit, e.g. Okinawa, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore…

A friend of mine had to leave the country, because he got caught teaching illegally. He assumed that he could not get back in, but tried a while ago, and got a visa without any difficulty. I also overstayed after my first year (two days only), flew to Hong Kong (with working permit, letters from boss, etc.), and came right back in. My biggest problem was that at first they wouldn’t let me into Hong Kong!
Has your working permit been approved, but it just came too late?

Note: Twonavels did not say where her friend comes from. Twonavels herself is South African and therefore not entitled to visa-free entry. She couldn’t be deprived of the right to visa-free entry because she didn’t have it in the first place. What she said goes to show that if you have your work permit or documents to show one is being applied for, that should override your overstay record and enable you to get a visa without a hitch.

Now I have reread your original post and see that you have got your work permit already. Now I think you can treat my previous post as for reference only, since I have no experience with the new immigration agency. My experience is out of date.

thanks for your comments and advice… i did get my work permit, and have it now… i guess that is proof that i am employed. i heard that thailand is a better stop b/c the immigration in hong kong are a little tougher… getting bits and pieces of info from everywhere, just dont want to mess this up

What did the immigration people stamp in your passport? I overstayed by about two months once (a long time ago). I was told that they had to put an overstay stamp in my passport and kick me out but that they were not going to add the second stamp that would have banned me from returning. In Hong Kong, they wouldn’t give me a new visa because of my overstay unless I had a letter of approval from the foreign affairs police. I didn’t have one so the Hong Kong visa workers told me to just hop on a plane and get a landing visa at the airport. They said it would be okay since I did not have the stamp in my passport saying that I couldn’t come back. At the airport, I talked to the airport immigration control, showed them my work permit and they let me in without a problem. Actually, they were quite nice at the airport. I think the work permit helped me out a lot so definitely bring it with you.

Hope this was clear

My friend recently had much the same situation as you. He had overstayed 2 months, but like you he had a work permit.

I suggest that you sort it out with the police first (go and pay the fine).

With your work permit, you should then not have much problem getting a visitor visa in another country. You can’t get visa-exempt entry. My friend went to Thailand, as he was going there anyway. HK has a reputation for being a bunch of nasty bastards.

Unfortunately the overstay will always be with you and could count against you for various things.

Brian

just want to say thanks for the comments and helpful advice… i am back - no issues… the Hong Kong office was a bit of an experience, but I had all of my documents in place, wrote an apology and made it back ok. It seems even if you have overstayed, so long as you have a work permit already and with you , you are fine.
my advice:
have your work permit (original)
contract (original)
pictures
written / typed letter of apology
fill out application
and you are done!

o yeah - get to the visa office at admirality station exit b - before 11 or else you will have to pay close to 3000 nt for rush service if you want to get your visa that day… i had to