I am currently a teacher in Taiwan and have an ARC card and National Health Insurance. I am here for 14 months and my current ARC is valid until October 2009.
Now I would like to quit my job and become a full-time student of Chinese. According to my Visa Q&A from 1 1/2 years ago I would have to leave the country and come back on a student visa (i.e. a visitor visa with the purpose of being a student).
My questions are:
1.) Is it (still) inevitable that I leave the country after I quit my job? Will my current ARC become invalid if this happens?
2.) Is there an option that my employer keeps me employed with “zero” salary? (According to information from other threads the answer appears to be “No” since I would have to work for at least 14 hours a week. Although I couldn’t find information on the minimal salary I would need to receive for these 14 hours.)
Assuming that my ARC becomes invalid:
3.) When I come back would it take me 4 months to get a new ARC card? (According to info on this board the answer is “Yes” for new students, but maybe it’s different if I have been here already for some time.)
4.) Can and/or will I still receive National Health Insurance?
5.) If the answer to four is “No”, what should I do then? What do other students of Chinese do without access to health insurance?
6.) Any other information or experience someone can share?
there are probably people here to better answer this question, but I am pretty sure that:
-you must leave the country to get a new visa.
-you can lose your job and keep your ARC and healthcare. As long as your employer (who has a set amount of ARCs to dole out) doesn’t mind keeping you on one of the visas. He can keep your healthcare too but he probably won’t pay it for you, so you might have to arrange something with him for you to pay it yourself. I kept an ARC for 8 months AFTER quitting a job and getting no income from my ARC employer. I did however pay them each month to update my healthcare (because the healthcare must be paid each month the ARC is valid, it is something like 1500nt/month, ie hardly a drama). Basically your ARC is good until your employer cancels it. If you have a good rapport with your employer this shouldn’t be a problem.
[quote=“CraigTPE”][quote=“Deuce Dropper”]there are probably people here to better answer this question, but I am pretty sure that:
-you must leave the country to get a new visa.[/quote]
I wouldn’t think so. I changed my tourist visa to a resident visa without leaving.[/quote]
But for some strange reason students are a different kettle of fish. I’ve known people go from being students to taking up full time work and they must leave the country to change visas. Possibly the same with going the other direction. But on planet Taiwan who knows!
Some guessing and mis-info going on in this thread so let’s re-cap:
[quote=“Jade_mountain”]
My questions are:
1.) Is it (still) inevitable that I leave the country after I quit my job?[/quote]
Maybe. Suck it ‘n’ see.
Your ARC is valid until your employment and/or work permit is terminated. No work permit / no contract = no ARC.
Depends how nice your employer is. Bear in mind that your employer will still have to pay NHI contributions and report your tax. As an employer I personally would not let an employee do this even in an emergency because it would be very dangerous for me, but if yours is willing then go for it.
[quote]Assuming that my ARC becomes invalid:
3.) When I come back would it take me 4 months to get a new ARC card? (According to info on this board the answer is “Yes” for new students, but maybe it’s different if I have been here already for some time.)[/quote]
No prior history is taken into account for student ARCs. My mum is studying in Taiwan and she goes home for a few months every year. Every time she comes back she has to serve her 4 months before a new ARC is issued and it is cancelled when her tuition is up.
You get insurance through your school as a student. The school collects mandatory premiums from you (less than $400 or so a term I think). It is a legal requirement if you want to study in Taiwan.
Thanks a lot for the answers so far! llary, your first hand experience is extremely useful!
The short version is that I may have to leave the country, then come back on a student visa. Keeping my ARC is not an option, previous employment histories do not matter.
The only subject which I still have no definitive answer to is the health insurance thing.
Depends how nice your employer is. Bear in mind that your employer will still have to pay NHI contributions and report your tax. As an employer I personally would not let an employee do this even in an emergency because it would be very dangerous for me, but if yours is willing then go for it.[/quote]
My employer is a public University. Unless this is perfectly legal, I am afraid it is not an option. (Besides, my situation is certainly not an emergency.)
You get insurance through your school as a student. The school collects mandatory premiums from you (less than $400 or so a term I think). It is a legal requirement if you want to study in Taiwan.[/quote]
I have got conflicting information on this issue from Shi-Da University. Maybe it was just a misunderstanding, but I have been told that I just get a basic accident insurance and a discount at the University Hospital.
If I could get insurance equivalent to what I have now this would definitely make things easy. Otherwise, not having coverage for four months is a problem.
I am currently going through all this BS with Taiwan’s visa office now…
Some info i found out… after being screwed by incompetent people in various government offices and learning the hard way.
If you have a student visa - it is ridiculously restrictive. If you decide to work there, you cant change it without a visa run
Decide you dont like the school you are learning at? Guess who needs to do a new visa run :fume:
As i was told in a very rude fashion "your visa says the school you are enrolled at now. you cant change it unless you leave the country and reapply.
work visa to student visa? see number 1
Visitor visa (non student) to student visa? See number 1
Visitor visa 60 days to a work visa - no problem
The only catch here is that the visa offices in different countries make their own rules… whatever gets them off is what they do. some visa offices will tell you that you cannot get a 60 day tourist visa… you need to do the 30 day visaless entry, but that is worthless if you are looking for work, you will need to do another visa run once you landed the job and its very hard to find a job in 30 days
In conclusion, the visa process is very screwed up, and the govt can do whatever they feel like, including telling you to bend over whenever they get that feeling to screw someone
Its all based on the unreasonable notion that the govt has that even people who just want to learn chinese are just there to work illegally. they don’t really want to study, right???
To be honest, the next time I get jerked around with visas here, ill just go to China, because to me it doesnt matter where i learn Chinese, as long as i can study with no hassles.
Edited to add: as far as insurance, you need to be enrolled at the school for at least 4 months, and have had paid the next semesters tuition to get the arc.
but your still SOL for national health insurance, because you need to wait another 3 months once you get your ARC to get NHI. Making your total wait for insurance 7 months.as per my school.
When you are a student the place of study will arrange healthcare for you which you have to pay. However, you can arrange it yourself by going to any of Healthcare centers. I had problems with one of my employers before not paying the dues and I arranged without any difficulty to have the fee debited from my bank account.