I’m curious and there’s a lot of indefinitive info regarding this. And I have a splitting headache. Honestly.
Lets say (hypothetically, of course) A young man decides to come to taiwan, so he visits his local TECO from his home country and applies, and gets a 5 year multiple entry visa. He arrives in Taiwan and all his friends jump up and down and want to shake his hand, because they had a difficult time in Hong Kong or wherever getting even a two month non-extendable visa. They tell this young man, “whatever you do, don’t lose that visa, it’s the next best thing to an ARC.”
The dashing young man hangs out in Taiwan for a while. He borrows a cheap motorcycle and travels about. He visits the sights, he eats the food, he even dates a very lovely local woman for a while. He pops over to Hong Kong, Thailand, and Okinawa for short visits and basically enjoys his life. The rule that states he has to leave his adopted home every two months is an added expense, but he takes it in stride.
He likes Taiwan so much that he decides to learn the language. He goes to a kind of cram school and studies for two hours every morning, and he also receives visa extensions for doing this. He only has to leave the country every six months, now. His Chinese skills gradually improve.
He works part time tutoring adults and children privately in their homes. He takes on a small job teaching a class on saturdays, and supports himself this way. Also takes on small jobs performing his prodigious painting and carpentering skills. He loves Taiwan! Could life ever be so good? He knows that it’s illegal to earn money in this fashion, but he feels fairly safe to do so.
He spends about 18 months living like this. He’s not rich or poor, but feels very fortunate to be able to live this way.
He holds his multiple entry visa very close to his heart, as he believes it has a lot to do with facilitating his dream life. He sees his friends work legally in cram schools and businesses only to seemingly have their lives be under the control of their jobs. His friends lose their legal status everytime they quit, or become fired. They don’t seem to have any personal rights and apparently no right to live in Taiwan if they stop working. They lose their ARC’s and have to leave. Our friend shakes his head, as he finds this puzzling and unfair.
But something is still missing from out friends’ life. His Chinese school has lost it’s ability to grant visa extensions. The political climate shows him that he should stop working illegaly at his Saturday position. He holds on to his “odd jobs” but he misses the income from his Saturday position. He wonders what he should do?
He attends classes at a local government approved university, where his visa extension problem is solved. It costs considerably more to attend classes here, but the quality of his education is vastly better. He also finds that he is maybe elligible for an ARC and even a work permit (up to a certain amount of hours). He thinks seriously about this. He can even receive health insurance and dental coverage.
He likes the idea of becoming a legal resident more and more. He looks at his old friend, his Multiple Entry Visa, good until september 2009 and smiles. “My old friend, I would never want to put you in jeopardy. You have served me so well. I never want to give you up!”
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So what’s the deal, if you come here on a multiple entry and get an ARC for either work or study, do you lose your Multiple Entry? If my friend has a health problem or decides to quit his arc Granting school or has to go to his home country (long term temporarily) for whatever reason, is his previously useful Multiple entry now invalid? that would suck.
I would guess that you can’t have a visa AND and ARC here. They would cancel one in favour of the other, wouldn’t they?
This isn’t my story, but it very easily could have been. It’s very close to the kind of life I would like to have, actually.
Sorry if this has already been answered.