Scheming methods to renew Visa

I have a 5 year multiple entry visa but am here in Taiwan without a job or student status so basically I’m forced to leave the country every two months to get a new stamp on the Visa, when really the point of the whole exercise from a bureaucratic standpoint is to simply pass through customs so they can remain in control of whether or not this laowai stays in the country. Thus the whole flight time/expense is a major fucking waste. I’ve been thinking of some ways I could perhaps avoid this and I’d be interested to get some feedback on the possibility of these ideas working or perhaps other ideas:

  1. Is there some way I could buy a ticket, pass through customs, not board the plane, just turn around and walk right back through customs and try to somehow cancel that ticket?

Two issues with that: I don’t know if the layout of the airport even allows for this (are departures and arrivals blocked off?). And obviously it would be tricky to get the airline to cancel a ticket that I had just checked in for an hour earlier. I do know EVA has a policy that any unused ticket is valid for a year of travel, but I’m guessing they count a check-in as “use”. I’d have to say something like “I have some visa problems I have to take care of before I can leave”, etc. Which is plausible I suppose…

  1. Out of curiosity, does anyone know the minimum amount of hours one has to work per week to get an ARC? If it’s 10 or so I might be inclined to just do that and get it over with.

Thanks for any input :wink:

  1. As a teacher, I think 14 is the minimum hours. For other areas, $48K per month is the min salary - hours don’t matter so much.

Thanks for the quick answer on part 2. 14 isn’t bad at all.

14 is the correct answer.
Why not just go do the workpermit/visa hassle the right way. Once you have done it once, the renewals are a piece of cake.