Student visa questions - Have searched! Still don't know!

Hi! My fiance and I are quitting our ARC’d jobs next month, and then we want to study Chinese (for real, not just fake it!). I have about a hundred questions and I have searched and searched, but I can’t seem to find and answer that isn’t contradicted in the very next post. FYI, we are both Americans.

To make matters more confusing, I will be going back to the US for a month, and he will be staying here and making a visa run when required.

The first quesiton is, can I take my man’s passport home with me, apply for multiple-entry visitors visas, and send his back to him ASAP, so that when he goes on his visa run he can come back on a multiple entry? I don’t know if this is possible or not. Just thought I’d check.

Now, when I go to the US, does anyone know how much it will cost? From what I read on New York’s TECO site, the APPLICATION fee is $100, and then the visa fee is another $36 for single entry or $72 for muiltiple entry. Is that right??? It will cost $172 for a multiple entry visa??? If so, I would like to personally thank George W. for this additional attrocity. If he didn’t charge the Taiwanese so much, they would charge me so much!!!

Next question: Should I get a multiple entry visitors visa? Assuming they give it to me of course. Or should I just apply for a 60 day extendable visa with my student paperwork. Is a multiple entry visa extendable?

I will have paid for 3 months of school before I leave. We intend on studying Chinese for a year, most likely, as we want to learn to read a little bit at the very least.

Last question: I will be flying on Northwest Airlines. I bought a round-trip ticket here in Taiwan. Are they going to refuse me boarding since I have a 60 day visa and no return ticket???

SO MUCH TO THINK ABOUT!!!

Your help would be highly appreciated!

Thanks!
Karen :slight_smile:

Karen - I’ll tell you what we know from our experiences (Canadians).

  1. I’m not sure if you can act as an agent for someone when applying for a Taiwanese visa - I’d phone the TECO offices to make sure.

  2. The fees on the site are correct.

  3. When you come back, you should do so with a student visa. If you have paid your tuition from a university like Shi-Ta, then they will issue you papers of acceptance to the university. This will allow you to get a student visa. I don’t think this is multiple entry since they expect you to be a student and just study. A multi-entry visa is very hard to come by and you usually have to justify getting it - I don’t think students qualify for this one.

  4. I don’t think NWA will refuse your boarding here, but if you have no visa on your return, they will refuse to board you when you’re coming back.

Good luck
CC

RE: the student visa.

Coming from Australia as a student we need the universities paper work that we have actually enrolled at a university here in Taiwan.
Using that paper work we need to apply for a 60 day EXTENDABLE visa.
Once we have attended university in Taiwan for a month or so we then get proof of attendence from the university and go to immigration and apply for a student ARC. The student ARC will be valid for as long as you have paid up your tuition. Once you have come back in on a visa for student purposes you DO NOT need to leave Taiwan to change the visa to a student ARC. This ARC can be extended without leaving the country if you decide to continue studying. Also I believe they automatically allow multiple entry on the student ARC.
However, I believe that if you come in on a visitors visa then you might need to leave the country to change to a student visa.

Student ARC gives National Health Insurance benefits at about $600 NT a month.

I would imagine it’s pretty much the same for Americans.

There is no such thing as a student visa its a 6month extendable visa which you get 60 days on landing in taiwan
and on day 50 you must go to the forigen police station with your attendance list from your chinese school the police will then give you a one month extention and you must repeat this process each time within 10 days of visa expirey

Tony you are so correct in saying there is no such thing as a student visa.

However, as stated in my previous post - The reason for getting your extendable visa does vary and as far as I’m aware, if your reason is not as a student then you cannot convert the extendable visa to a student ARC (which does exist) without leaving the country.

The Student ARC is valid for as long as you have paid up tuition and gets some local benefits like National health.

So you could get student ARC for one year and save regular trips to the Police Station. But then you need first to go to immigration (or something similar) that will take a week and then to the police station, which also takes a week. So it is recommended to have no less than 3 weeks left on your visa before starting this process or it might be “Hello Hong Kong”