Having just trawled through all these sob stories about people papping themselves about the consequences of overstaying there is onle one thing that can be really said: If you have chosen to live in this country and this is not your native country, then do your homework. Plan ahead. get up to speed on the regulations. Contribute to this country. Do some work. Pay your taxes. Get your act together. Just coming here to make easy cash, attempting to circumvent Taiwanese regulations and then whingeing about why you (self-appointed exception to the rules) cannot avoid this and that cuts no ice. It is truly pathetic the sheer number of morons who have posted seeking advice on overstaying where to pay fines, how to get out of following procedure etc. The ignorance level is truly staggering and begs the question of whether these people are worthy at all to be here. If you want to live here, go about it properly. To get here in the first place one will have needed a return ticket so not having the means to leave is pure crap. if those people don’t have the common sense to live in another foreign country sensibly and responsibly, then they shouldn’t. As guests in this country we foreigners should respect the right of this country to promulagate laws that protect themselves and their national integrity. Coming here and then abusing this hospitality is an insult. Don’t do it. If you are not mature enough to go about living as an expatriate, at any level of the social or professional heirarchy, then stay put in your own country.
If you overstay and are (rightly) incarcerated, you only have yourself to blame. Sure there are occasions when some overstay but this is through no fault of their own. They will in good conscience be able to seek advice and approach the authorities and will be dealt with fairly. However, so many posters here seem to expect sympathetic advice on how to break the law when from day one it was their intent to do so. Bloody hypocrites and those of us here legally and paying taxes as part of our committment to repaying this country’s hospitality should give these bums, timewasters and economic cheats short shrift.
[quote=“BroonAle”]Having just trawled through all these sob stories about people papping themselves about the consequences of overstaying there is onle one thing that can be really said: If you have chosen to live in this country and this is not your native country, then do your homework. Plan ahead. get up to speed on the regulations. Contribute to this country. Do some work. Pay your taxes. Get your act together. Just coming here to make easy cash, attempting to circumvent Taiwanese regulations and then whingeing about why you (self-appointed exception to the rules) cannot avoid this and that cuts no ice. It is truly pathetic the sheer number of morons who have posted seeking advice on overstaying where to pay fines, how to get out of following procedure etc. The ignorance level is truly staggering and begs the question of whether these people are worthy at all to be here. If you want to live here, go about it properly. To get here in the first place one will have needed a return ticket so not having the means to leave is pure crap. if those people don’t have the common sense to live in another foreign country sensibly and responsibly, then they shouldn’t. As guests in this country we foreigners should respect the right of this country to promulagate laws that protect themselves and their national integrity. Coming here and then abusing this hospitality is an insult. Don’t do it. If you are not mature enough to go about living as an expatriate, at any level of the social or professional heirarchy, then stay put in your own country.
If you overstay and are (rightly) incarcerated, you only have yourself to blame. Sure there are occasions when some overstay but this is through no fault of their own. They will in good conscience be able to seek advice and approach the authorities and will be dealt with fairly. However, so many posters here seem to expect sympathetic advice on how to break the law when from day one it was their intent to do so. Bloody hypocrites and those of us here legally and paying taxes as part of our committment to repaying this country’s hospitality should give these bums, timewasters and economic cheats short shrift.
My tuppence worth.[/quote]
Having been on both sides of the fence in my career here, I’d have to say while the illegal, hospitality-abusing, no homework, timewasting bum route is naughty, it sure is a hell of a lot funner.
[quote=“Durins Bane”]I always thought the “I was on
E and the police raided the party and made me provide a urine sample. My rights have been violated!” was a bit silly.[/quote]
[quote=“Flicka”]
Having been on both sides of the fence in my career here, I’d have to say while the illegal, hospitality-abusing, no homework, timewasting bum route is naughty, it sure is a hell of a lot funner.[/quote]
Maybe it is more fun. But a lot of these people avoid paying their dues/taxes and end up doing runners and not paying their bills etc. This then makes the local population distrustful of foreigners and makes it difficult for us to set up bank accounts get credit cards, phones etc. Fun maybe. Pain in the ass bums and a disgrace; definitely. Send them home if they cannot establish their legal right of abode. They should all be asked to leave a cash deposit on arrival here in Taiwan. They are just a bunch of cheap, ill-mannered, cheapskates. Fuck 'em.
You expect the authorities to give straight answers to questions visas?
I’ve known someone to be told straight that he has completed the process, and has nothing mroe to do, only to be deported months later, because he had been given the wrong information. He was simply not dealt with fairly by the authorities.
Yes it would be fair to say “people should do their homework, and check the regulations first”, if visa regulations were clear, well-known and followed in the first place. That is simply not the case.
If you don’t believe me, try getting a straight answer to these questions?
Do you need a return ticket to enter Taiwan? With a visa? Getting a landing visa?
If a foreigner married to a Taiwanese wants to renew his visa, how many years extension will he get?
Can a foreigner married to a Taiwanese work for a buxiban without a work permit?
Can a 60-day non extendable visa be extended without leaving Taiwan? How about a 30-day non-extendable?
To get a Joining Family Residents Visa, do you have to provide proof of registration of marriage in your own country?
(Answers below)
But of course, deliberate overstaying is dumb.
Brian
Answers:
Sometimes/no/not necessarily
Depends where you go, how much you argue and what the officer feels like.
3)Yes, but no.
where can one find “the rules” to being a law abiding foreigner in taiwan in english? one source that puts all the rules and by-laws together in one printing?
[quote=“skeptic yank”]where can one find “the rules” to being a law abiding foreigner in Taiwan in English? one source that puts all the rules and by-laws together in one printing?[/quote]
The actual ones or just the ones for that particular day?
I’ve always taken you for a pretentious worthless piece of flesh wasting space, but to confirm it by speaking such ignorance. Chinese have always distrusted foreigners. Check any ancient writings, articles, emperors’ edicts. etc etc. It’s taught in schools, shown on tv routinely, and printed in the paper. A couple deadbeat foreigners overstaying their visas isn’t going to change any opinions especially when they have already formed the one they have.
The laws are vague contradictory and rarely enforced. So F$#% off and find another bogeyman.
CYA
Okami
PS put down the Noam Chomsky or Edward Said and pick up a history book.
Okami…what does “Chinese have always distrusted foreigners” have to do with foreigners trying to be law abiding and responsible?
Bu Lai En…I am curious…you said “I’ve known someone to be told straight that he has completed the process, and has nothing mroe to do, only to be deported months later, because he had been given the wrong information. He was simply not dealt with fairly by the authorities.” Did this person have his/her ARC? How could he be deported? (I just don’t want to wake up and find myself being deported even though I have a valid ARC, passport, etc…)
In general, granted the rules aren’t in one nice neat book but why is it so difficult to be a law-abiding foreigner on the simple stuff…sure there are gray areas but for one thing the ARC has an expiration date…that’s a no brainer…when it expires it is no longer valid…same for a visa…to me a non-extendable visa is by definition ‘non-extendable’ so I won’t go begging or crying to get it extended…I’ll just go get another visa…almost every country I have visited in the world requires an airline ticket taking you forward or back (with the exception of when you are going back to your home country). Granted it’s a pain and but realistically a one-way ticket cost almost as much as a round-trip ticket, so why not just get a round-trip ticket. And IMO, only an idiot would travel one-way to a country to seek employment having never worked there before. And if you’ve worked there before, you know at least the answer to this question.
I could go on and on but I am sure I am going to get enough bashing from this response as it is. Obviously my idea of common sense just don’t exist in this part of the world.
He got a Joining Family Residents Visa. He didn’t realise that you have to go to the police station to get an ARC as well. He specifically asked if he had to do anything else and the (Taoyuan) visa office told him he didn’t. He later got deported for a year and a half.[/quote]
In general, granted the rules aren’t in one nice neat book but why is it so difficult to be a law-abiding foreigner on the simple stuff…sure there are
So how come they often get extended?
Really? I travelled through 4 countries on my way to Taiwan and didn’t have a return ticket out of any of them (including Taiwan). 5-6 years ago, but…
Chinese have always distrusted foreigners. .[/quote]
Sounds like another thread. However, it would be more accurate if it read that everyone has always distrusted foreigners, regardless of place, time, whatever.
I’ve always taken you for a pretentious worthless piece of flesh wasting space, but to confirm it by speaking such ignorance. Chinese have always distrusted foreigners. Check any ancient writings, articles, emperors’ edicts. etc etc. It’s taught in schools, shown on tv routinely, and printed in the paper. A couple deadbeat foreigners overstaying their visas isn’t going to change any opinions especially when they have already formed the one they have.
The laws are vague contradictory and rarely enforced. So F$#% off and find another bogeyman.
CYA
Okami
PS put down the Noam Chomsky or Edward Said and pick up a history book.[/quote]
Oh fuck. I left all my weighty Chinese history tomes on the bus. Why don’t you fuck off instead you sanctimonious over-literate nerd.
I think it’s a bit pretentious to paint everyone with the same brush, BroonAle. I was very much in danger of being deported or at least heavily fined because technically, I overstayed my resident visa by three days back in October. It was error on my part by procrastinating a few days (all my paperwork was finished the day after I went in to plead my case) and not having it extended for a little bit longer while my papers were being processed. Doesn’t make me some illegal cowboy teacher. I’ve been working in one of the “legal” senses common in Taiwan (working while processing my resident visa and ARC) and paying taxes (after I was legally employed) since arriving nearly three years ago. It doesn’t make me an irresponsible loser who bounds to skip town owing money. It just makes me a procrastinator, but instead of pleading for advice here, I did it with my school’s controller who ironed things out for me (it helped that my ARC expired on a Saturday and I went in on Monday). So what does that make me in your opinion?
No, it is people like you who make it worse on all of us who actually have the integrity and responsibility to adhere to the law.
You are in a foreign country for Christ sake! Do you think they owe it to you to bend the letter of the law?
I have stayed here for nearly 19 years (and that includes the milk runs to Hong Kong in the 80s and early 90s – I stopped counting after 25) and have never overstayed a day. If you are too lackadaisical to act like a responsible adult in a foreign country you will only get crocodile tears from me when they kick your illegal ass out of town.
This is a zero tolerance rule. There is no smoke and mirrors here; it is all in black and white. You fuck up, you’re outta here, period.
I’ve never done a visa run, Hong Kong or otherwise. Half the time it’s a matter of who you know and who they know. I’d think with you being here for so long you’d pick up on that. Yes, I got lazy. No, I was not asking them to bend any laws. I was ready to call my travel agent and had a fistful of cash to pay any fines I might have gotten when I walked into the FA Police station. I didn’t expect anything friendly. Fortunately, someone was on my side be it God, the spirit of Chiang Kai-Shek, the guanxi fairy, or just the woman behind the desk who was having a good day that day and feeling generous. Don’t worry, I won’t be asking for anything from you, let alone tears. You certainly didn’t see me come on forumosa begging for advice because I knew it was of my causing. I erred because I didn’t realize it would take my papers as long as they did to process despite the fact that it was my second resident visa renewal. For some reason it did, and I failed to realize how close I was to the date of my visa’s expiration. Then again, why am I defending myself to you? If the government didn’t make an issue out of my mistake, then why should I give a fuck if you do? You don’t stamp my papers and I certainly don’t need your approval to stay here.
It’s not people like me who are affecting you if you are as legal as you claim. Get off your high-and-mighty pedestal already.
