Hi, quick question. My visitor visa expires in 3 weeks. I’ve found a job and we’re just waiting to get the results of my health check, then the documents will be sent away for processing. My school told me that it could take anywhere from a month to a month and a half to process, but that sounds like an awfully long time. I remember my first job a couple years ago it only took about two weeks to process, which sounds more reasonable.
So my question is: how long did it take your forms to process, from the date of being sent away to the date of actually being approved?
My money is getting a little tight and worried that a trip to HK might break the bank. Thanks for the help!
PS - I live in Taichung city.
As far as I know, you can get an extention on your visa is a work permit is being processed. Even if your visitor visa says that “no extention will be granted” shit. Get your place of employment to keep their eyes on the ball. Bug them every day. They are generally lazy and clueless when it comes to visa issues, because you are easily replaceable. They don’t give a rat’s ass if you have to fork out money for a visa run. Get them to sort it out.
Thanks for the advice. I’ve already extended it twice though (in total 6 months since entering Taiwan) so probably unlikely that it could be done again.
At my last job, the bosses delayed on sending my forms, saying “don’t worry, still lots of time.” I missed the deadline by 1 $%@#ing day! NOT a good way to start out my year with them. Had to go to HK, pay the fine for overextending, and have had custom officers give me trouble ever since. If that happens again, I will freaking lose it. So yeah, pressure will be applied.
[quote=“rob1504”]Hi, quick question. My visitor visa expires in 3 weeks. I’ve found a job and we’re just waiting to get the results of my health check, then the documents will be sent away for processing. My school told me that it could take anywhere from a month to a month and a half to process, but that sounds like an awfully long time. I remember my first job a couple years ago it only took about two weeks to process, which sounds more reasonable.
So my question is: how long did it take your forms to process, from the date of being sent away to the date of actually being approved?
My money is getting a little tight and worried that a trip to HK might break the bank. Thanks for the help!
PS - I live in Taichung city.[/quote]
When did you go for your health check? AFAIK, the health check results can take anywhere from 10 days to 2 weeks to process…and if your visitor visa expires in 3 weeks, that will give you a window of about a little over a week to submit your application to the CLA for the Work permit, which I believe is not enough time…and you might have to make the Visa run. On the other hand, if you’ve already done the health check much before hand and is expecting the results in a day or two, then you have ample time to receive your work permit in the mail (assuming there are no delays in the processing of your work permit due to insufficient documents provided at the time of your application)…Work permit processing time has greatly been reduced since the CLA took over from the MOFA…it takes about a week to 10 days at most for Work permits to be issued by the CLA now. Even the progress can be monitored online at the CLA’s website (only Chinese version)
[quote]Thanks for the advice. I’ve already extended it twice though (in total 6 months since entering Taiwan) so probably unlikely that it could be done again.
At my last job, the bosses delayed on sending my forms, saying “don’t worry, still lots of time.” I missed the deadline by 1 $%@#ing day! NOT a good way to start out my year with them. Had to go to HK, pay the fine for overextending, and have had custom officers give me trouble ever since. If that happens again, I will freaking lose it. So yeah, pressure will be applied.[/quote]If you’ve extended twice, then I doubt they will give you anymore extension…seeing that you already have an overstay in your record (not good!!! 
), I’m sure they will do anything in their power to get you out of the country…so make sure everything goes right when you send in the application to the CLA for the work permit…DO NOT under submit any documents which might cause a delay…double check all the requirements thoroughly!!..Good luck!! 