Student visa and then work visa?

Hi all,

I am planning to move to Taiwan around April and attend a language school for about 3 months. At the same time i will be looking for a job hoping that right after my language school i will have landed a job. I was wondering if i will be able to change the student visa to work visa… Also, do you happen to know when my studen visa expires when i should leave the country (i mean is there some days/weeks time that allow you to leave or the day after the school finishes you have to be on the plane)?

Thank you very much

ps1. i am a Greek citizen if that makes a difference on the visa issues.
ps2. another story, i called the Taiwanese consultancy here in Athens and they told me that a visitor (this mean no visa just a 2-way airplane ticket) once in Taiwan can not get a work visa… is that true?

i think, only one route is possible:

  1. get student/vistor visa
  2. come here to study and to look for a job.
  3. find a job and get all required papers from this company for work visa application.
  4. leave Taiwan and come back to your country.
  5. prepare all required documents and apply for working visa.
  6. come to Taiwan again and start to work.

No, it should not be necessary to go all the way back to Greece to get a different visa.

The hard part isn’t changing a visa. It will be finding legal work as someone without a passport from what Taiwan deems an “English-speaking country.” Do you have at least an undergraduate university degree? If not, this is likely to be an extremely difficult task for you. Do you also have at least two years of experience in your profession? What sort of job do you want? What kind of work are you qualified for?

Well, in Tawan law there is no clause stating that you HAVE TO leave, but they will ask to prepare documents for woking visa an will request it legalized in Greece by Taiwan comission abroad.
I’ve already done change from working visa to family one. Yes, i did it without leaving Taiwan but it was extremely hard and envolved one lawer who had to talk to MOFA’s man dealing visa. That man just insisted that i have to leave Taiwan (without providing any reason. Even though there is no such requirements in law) and refused to talk or explain anything. And no, he wasn’t just clerk. He was the ONE who decides to grant Visa or not.
It very depends from which country you are. If you are from one of “big friend” country like USA or UK then most likely you will able to change visa to any kind without leaving Taiwan. I know there is list of “unwanted” countries on MOFA’s site (sorry, i don’t remember link now. May be someone else will find it on that site) people from which should leave Tawan if they want to change visa.

And by the way, my experience tells me that gathering all required documents in 3 months has very little chance. So need to do something with current visa. Find a good reason to extend this or do visa run to HK or other nearby country.

I wasn’t referring to whether the O/P would have to leave Taiwan or not to change the visa. (I quite agree that Taiwan often suffers from a lack of rule by law and a surfeit of rule by the bureaucrat behind the desk.)

My point is that, as far as the Taiwan authorities are concerned, there shouldn’t be any need for the O/P to make an expensive and time-consuming trip all the way back to Greece. Hong Kong would do as a destination, if necessary. And other matters of paperwork should be able to be processed through the mail. Perhaps he’d need help from friends or family in Greece. But he shouldn’t have to return to Athens in person to change from one visa to another.

Perhaps the O/P would be better off remaining a student. Because after several months (I forget how many) students are allowed to take some employment.