Hey, I am planning my flight to teach English in Taiwan and I am trying to figure out if I need to buy a round trip ticket. i am trying to save as much money as I can before I get there and a one-way ticket is obviously cheaper and all I truly need. I also heard that Taiwan requires an exit ticket to enter the country. Maybe you can buy a an open ticket home and refund it. What have you heard about this? Thanks
The airline companies won’t allow you to buy a one way ticket unless you’re a citizen of the country of destination. You could buy a one way ticket from Taiwan to America but not US to Taiwan.
And a one way ticket is 90% of the price of a round trip.
[quote=“ice raven”]The airline companies won’t allow you to buy a one way ticket unless you’re a citizen of the country of destination. You could buy a one way ticket from Taiwan to America but not US to Taiwan.
And a one way ticket is 90% of the price of a round trip.[/quote]
ah, not true. its not citizenship that’s needed. its residency. so a valid ARC or other form of residency permit will get you in as well.
Huh? You can buy a one way ticket from USA to Taiwan man. Here is what you do. Buy a one way e-ticket off a site like cheaptickets or orbitz, or any of the many other bargain sites on the net. Truly it doesn’t even have to be an e-ticket, it can be a paper ticket as well. After you make a purchase they will email you your itinerary. Just edit it to include a return date that is about 45 days after you arrive, assuming your coming in on a 60 day visitor visa. I saw your post about wanting to find work here. Don’t listen to everyone saying don’t come in January. You need to come at the beginning of January and give yourself a few weeks before the Chinese New Year break. It starts February 13th, not January like someone told you. If you use sites like facebook, tealit, Dewey agency, and your friend’s contacts you’ll find a job easily especially down south.
Good luck.
Since it sounds like you’ll be entering Taiwan on a visitor visa, you will need to show the check-in counter agent an onward ticket. This does not have to be a round-trip ticket. I had to do this a couple of times. I’m a slow learner, so I didn’t realize that I should not have taken a vacation at the end of my first contract. Since my ARC expired while I was out of the country, I had to buy another onward ticket and start the ARC process over again. 
An onward ticket is just a ticket from Taiwan to any foreign country. To save money, you can buy a one-way ticket to Taiwan from home, and then buy a one-way, fully refundable ticket from Taiwan to Hong Kong, for example. This onward ticket will get you on the plane from Taiwan. When you get here, you can get a refund by going to the airline’s office (so China Airlines or Eva might be the best airlines to buy the onward ticket from, since it’s easy to go to their offices).
Or better yet, since you will need to do a visa run to change your visitor visa to a resident visa, hold on to the one-way onward ticket until you have returned from your visa run. This is to make sure that you won’t have any problems returning to Taiwan with your newly-issued resident visa.
Good luck! 
My oh my how things have changed!
Five years ago, when I first came here to teach English, I just booked a one-way ticket.
Hess told me to write a letter to the local TECO office telling them why I didn’t have an outgoing flight (something along the lines of “I’ve never been to Taiwan before and I hear that it’s a beatiful place with many things to offer and I don’t know for sure how long it’ll take me to see the whole thing”…) I had to sign some declaration saying that I wouldn’t overstay my visa, but after giving the letter to the TECO office, they gave me the tourist visa(which allowed me to come in without an outgoing flight) and all was well. Before the 90 days were up, Hess had arranged my ARC and I never had to leave the country for any visa related purposes.
It’s true that a one-way ticket isn’t usually that much cheaper than a return one.
[quote=“wudjamahuh”]My oh my how things have changed!
Five years ago, when I first came here to teach English, I just booked a one-way ticket.
Hess told me to write a letter to the local TECO office telling them why I didn’t have an outgoing flight (something along the lines of “I’ve never been to Taiwan before and I hear that it’s a beatiful place with many things to offer and I don’t know for sure how long it’ll take me to see the whole thing”…) I had to sign some declaration saying that I wouldn’t overstay my visa, but after giving the letter to the TECO office, they gave me the tourist visa(which allowed me to come in without an outgoing flight) and all was well. Before the 90 days were up, Hess had arranged my ARC and I never had to leave the country for any visa related purposes.
It’s true that a one-way ticket isn’t usually that much cheaper than a return one.[/quote]
A tourist visa does not negate the requirement for a return or onward ticket. A resident visa does. Now whether the immigration officer upon arrival will ask to see it (not likely) or the airline bringing you here will ask to see it (entirely likely), are different questions.
Further, technically, if you are using an onward ticket to a destination, you are also supposed to have proper documents for that country as well, which usually includes either legal residence or tickets to leave. Without them, there is a risk (albeit tiny) that you will be deported back to where you started, in which case the airline gets a huge fine and has to take you back to where you came from at their expense. For that reason, they are supposed to check and may deny boarding if you don’t have the proper docs.
Anything short of having proper documents is a risk. What happens in real life doesn’t always follow the rules. You decide how much risk you want to take, but no whining about being denied boarding if you don’t have the proper docs.
This works. Must insist that you CANNOT get here on just a one-way. Only exceptions are having a valid visa beforehand .
This works. Must insist that you CANNOT get here on just a one-way. Only exceptions are having a valid visa beforehand .[/quote]
Law would say valid RESIDENT visa, but you may get lucky.
If you are coming here for work, just get the resident visa when you are home. Then book 1 way. That’s what I did and I had no issues whatsoever.
I just wanted to chime in on this thread. When I flew in I came via Malaysia Airlines from LAX (r/t). I paid a little bit extra (like $50 usd) to upgrade to a refundable/changable fare. Later on I decided to change my plans and try to fly home on CNY. I decided to change my flight to one leaving on the saturday at the beginning of CNY. No problem, a quick phone call and they switched it for free. Then I bought another roundtrip ticket (for after CNY) from LAX for only $720. I’ve had good service from them and they are pretty cheap. Check out their website for the fares, they aren’t always listed on orbitz, expedia, etc.
two years ago i came in on a one-way ticket, with a valid 60D/MultEnt visa. the ticket was maybe 65% of a r/t ticket. got in w/no problems.
however …as others have said, this shouldn’t have worked, i just gambled and got lucky. if i were in the same situation i would probably just edit the html source code of an old e-ticket statement and print it out.
and on a sidenote, coming back from vacation recently they were debating whether or not to let me on the plane because i didn’t bring my ARC on my trip. i showed them my business card, told them i’ve never had any problems and to look at my passport (look at all the pretty stamps), and eventually they let me go.
[quote=“mosa krosa”]two years ago i came in on a one-way ticket, with a valid 60D/MultEnt visa. the ticket was maybe 65% of a r/t ticket. got in w/no problems.
however …as others have said, this shouldn’t have worked, i just gambled and got lucky. if i were in the same situation I would probably just edit the html source code of an old e-ticket statement and print it out.
and on a sidenote, coming back from vacation recently they were debating whether or not to let me on the plane because i didn’t bring my ARC on my trip. i showed them my business card, told them I’ve never had any problems and to look at my passport (look at all the pretty stamps), and eventually they let me go.[/quote]
You didn’t have any problem with Taiwan immigration upon arrival without your ARC? I had heard that was a big deal.
[quote=“CraigTPE”]
You didn’t have any problem with Taiwan immigration upon arrival without your ARC? I had heard that was a big deal.[/quote]
i’ve actually never had any kind of problems like that at taiwan immigration, and have never had them ask either. after the first couple times of them not looking at my ARC i just stopped included it w/my passport and immigration form.
people at airline counters have stopped and asked me about that kind of stuff maybe 3+ times…but never at immigration. i should note i’m an ABC so maybe since i look taiwanese they might care less? i dunno.
Here’s a discount agency I used to use in Seattle.
Gateway Express Ltd.
靖崧旅行社 600 University St. Suite 3318, Seattle 98101 (206)624-3400
They have good rates and always have seats available because they buy in bulk directly from the airlines. They might also have an office in San Francisco.
What do students planning on attending school for at least three months do?
^ get a student visa. after two months you can get attendance and other documents from the school to bring to immigration, and they can extend your visa for you.