Hello! Am new to this forum, an appreciate reading about the issues. I was born in Taiwan, left at 18 for school in Canada and now am in the final process of obtaining Canadian permanent residency. However, I need to have a valid 1 year Taiwanese passport for that, and my passport expires at the end of 2002 (because that was the length of my Canadian student visa). My questions is: I’ve renewed my passport multiple times, and I have yet to serve in the military, but want to stay for another year or two, would the TECO in Toronto accept the fact that I’m working in Canada and renew my passport (seemingly unlikely) or should I re-enroll in school again? My passport has a stamp in it that says (translated) “return back to country for renewal” but I’ve renewed it previously here in Canada… is there a statute on the number of times I can renew overseas? I’ve renewed it three times now (they give you short validity periods to keep you on the hook). Has anyone else gone through a similar situation?
By the way, does your passport have a stamp in the back page (8 chinese characters) sayin that you have not yet served in the military? If you have that, you might get trouble with the military thing regardless of foreign residency (when you stop studying and come back to taiwan).
quote:Originally posted by smartkookie:
I was born in Taiwan, left at 18 for school in Canada and now am in the final process of obtaining Canadian permanent residency.
How did you get out of Taiwan at 18 with no military service? I thought TW government prevents any Taiwanese male older than 14 from leaving the country.
I called TECO in Toronto and found out some interesting things: you only get to renew your passport until Dec. 31 of your 27th birthday, and you have to be in school, doing a masters degree. Luckily my Canadian Student Visa is also still valid until November, and I can extend for an additional three years (until I am 30). But need to demonstrate via university letter that I am still in the program. There are no limits to the number of times you can renew your passport abroad when on student visa, but the last chance is the year of your 27th b’day. Very interesting- I was afraid that they wouldn’t renew any more.
To answer a previous question on how I got my passport: my father is British and mother Taiwanese, stateless all my life b/c Taiwan side recognizes paternity, and British side, with the Hong Kong rules to stymie immigration, blocked me out b/c my parents were common-law (hence not married, not recognized, cannot afford citizenship, even on humanitarian appeals). We got my passport on appealing to Taiwanese gov’t via “quan shi” or “relationships” if you know what I mean. It’s been an abosolute nightmare and struggle.