Apologies if this was covered… slow internet connection, search is prohibitive.
My question:
You are here for a few years saving up money. During that time, you may keep savings here and occasionally send home money. The latter situation seems to have been covered in depth.
After a few years, you leave for home, e.g. Canada, US, UK. But for various reasons, you still have some savings or equity in the host country.
You are back home. You want to withdraw your host country savings periodically. How do you do that?
Can you instruct your bank to wire money over by calling them?
Do you set up a bank account let allows checking in the currency of your home country?
Jack; I guess it depends on your bank. However, I think most people have found that once you no longer have an active ARC, you get screwed. Taiwan law, as it has been explained to me, requires you to have an active ARC to maintain a bank account. Once that ARC expires, your ability to access your funds is limited. Some banks will allow you to access from abroad and some banks maintain the hard core position that - “no ARC - No access”.
So, if you know you are leaving, start transferring early. Do it at one fell swoop because you get charged the transfer and receive ( WOW!, My girlfriend just pointed out that I spelled this word wrong) fee for each transfer. A new company called “Xoom” reports that they will save you money. I checked and it looks like the same crap.
Bottom line:
Transfer funds before your ARC expires. If, on the other hand you do not do so, you may end up in a quagmire of regulations that prevent you getting funds home.
Persaonal experience:
A friend was leaving; He introduced me to his manager and gave written directions to allow me to pick up his last paycheck… Deposit is not a problem.
We went to the tax affice and I signed papers that I could pay his taxes.
We also went to his bank where I was introduced and given authority to use the transfer papers he had given me.
Bottom line:
He got all his pay, paid his taxes, and recieved all the funds that he was entitled to.
It doesn’t take a friend. It just takes some effort.
I travel back about every year (I still work for a Taiwanese entity that pays me in NT dollars). So far, although I have not held an ARC since 2004, I have not had any difficulty with my existing account(s).
I’d love a reliable way of getting money out without actually going to Taiwan. The taxes are all paid on the money already, so why shouldn’t I be able to take it out “remotely”, as it were??