I am an American citizen with a 2 year, multiple entry Taiwan VISA. The VISA is valid for 60 days and then I supposedly can get it extended 2 times (60 more days) before having to leave the country and then I can come right back. My first 60 days expires a few days from now and I went down to the police station to get it extended today and they would not extend it. I have to spend NT$ 8800 for a plane ticket to Hong Kong; I leave at 4:30PM and arrive back in Taipei at 10PM. What sense does this make? I even told the service person at the police station that it is a waste of money and time and he agreed. So, why then is it this way? Nobody could give me an answer to this question. They said I had 6 reasons to choose from for wanting to extend my VISA.
Reason #1: (a) visiting relatives- I don’t have any relatives in Taiwan, but is this actually verified? Can’t I just have one of my Taiwanese friends claim that his grandfather is married to my Aunt in the USA and he’ll show his identification and then i’ll get my extension? (b) marry a Taiwanese girl- This isn’t an option for me because I’m in love with my girlfriend whom is here with me and is suffering the same VISA problems as I am.
Reason #2: Chinese Language Training- This one has been the most recommended reason to choose, even by the Police Stations personnel. It is cheap, flexible class schedules (if you know what I mean) and there is even a school right next door to the police station to conveniently sign up at. Without insulting anybody, I want to choose a good school and go when I want to; not be FORCED to.
Reason #3: Religion- I am still toying around with this one. I am sure I could find some church here that would help me out with the necessary documentation (after a generous donation to the church … of course).
Reason #4: Work Permit- this reason has so much red tape around it that it would take about 25 more pages of typing to explain why this reason is not an option (please refer back to Reason #2 & use some common sense).
Reason #5: Medical treatment- Fortunately, I don’t need to or want to use this as a reason!
Reason #6: Other- I am in favor of this one most. It is open to interpretation. Most of the time, it goes like this; the more money you have, the better it is interpreted.
I was so frustrated with this nonsense, that I got some more background on the Passport/VISA stuff in general:
I heard about one guy who got extension by having a local company issuing a letter saying that extension was needed because they were working on a export related project where the visa holder was very important for its success, and had to be available all times for problem solving.
If you have some friends running export oriented business, you could maybe try that approach.
I also have a similiar question i will be entering taiwan in Sept. on a Canadian multiple entry visa, my original plan was to enter for a few days apply for language classes and then fly to thailand for a few weeks and get my visa taken care of but do i even have to leave if i do the language school thing or just go down to the cop shop with the papers? Before i was told i had to do a visa run. Also, (i think it might be answered by the original post) is there any way to get the 2 extensions without applying for classes and just walking in and asking. Thanks for any help.
[quote=“EH”]I also have a similiar question I will be entering Taiwan in Sept. on a Canadian multiple entry visa, my original plan was to enter for a few days apply for language classes and then fly to Thailand for a few weeks and get my visa taken care of but do i even have to leave if I do the language school thing or just go down to the cop shop with the papers? Before I was told I had to do a visa run. Also, (I think it might be answered by the original post) is there any way to get the 2 extensions without applying for classes and just walking in and asking. Thanks for any help.
Ethan[/quote]
There is NO way to just walk into the “cop shop” and ask for an extension and tell them “because i like it here”; they’ll laugh in your face and tell you to leave (like they did to me). Your thoughts were right about it being answered in the original post. Since your original plan is to apply for classes; all you have to do is take the enrollment papers and maybe an attendence form (e-mail me about that later because there is more to that story than i can post here) and show the personel at the “cop shop” and they’ll grant you an extension. There is no need to fly to Thailand if you are signed up for classes. So, you won’t have to leave if you do it like that. My e-mail is in the original post. Hope this helps.
[quote=“X3M”]I heard about one guy who got extension by having a local company issuing a letter saying that extension was needed because they were working on a export related project where the visa holder was very important for its success, and had to be available all times for problem solving.
If you have some friends running export oriented business, you could maybe try that approach.[/quote]
Thanx for the suggestion X3M, i will probably end up using an angle like that after speaking to a lawyer here.
get the cruise liner out of Keelung on Saturday evening and return on Sunday afternoon… it costs about 4000NTD I believe…
The Police here are very slow to give an extension without good reason. a guy in our company wanted it as he was here on business… they wanted letters and all that from the company… the company stopped doing this then as one the last occasion the police phoned them up to check it out… they felt they were bending the rules too much
[quote=“TNT”]get the cruise liner out of Keelung (Jilong) on Saturday evening and return on Sunday afternoon… it costs about 4000NTD I believe…
The Police here are very slow to give an extension without good reason. a guy in our company wanted it as he was here on business… they wanted letters and all that from the company… the company stopped doing this then as one the last occasion the police phoned them up to check it out… they felt they were bending the rules too much[/quote]
Can you tell me more specific info about this cruise liner? Tel #, web address, etc. I have heard about it before, but nobody knows any specifics. I even asked my travel agent before purchasing the tickets to HK, but he said it was more expensive to do the cruise and it would be 4 days/3 nights. I can’t afford the time or money to do that, but i would love to do the Saturday to Sunday cruise for NT$4000! Thanks for the help TNT.
[quote=“mikeintaiwan”][quote=“TNT”]get the cruise liner out of Keelung (Jilong) (Jilong) on Saturday evening and return on Sunday afternoon… it costs about 4000NTD I believe…
The Police here are very slow to give an extension without good reason. a guy in our company wanted it as he was here on business… they wanted letters and all that from the company… the company stopped doing this then as one the last occasion the police phoned them up to check it out… they felt they were bending the rules too much[/quote]
Can you tell me more specific info about this cruise liner? Tel #, web address, etc. I have heard about it before, but nobody knows any specifics. I even asked my travel agent before purchasing the tickets to HK, but he said it was more expensive to do the cruise and it would be 4 days/3 nights. I can’t afford the time or money to do that, but I would love to do the Saturday to Sunday cruise for NT$4000! Thanks for the help TNT.[/quote]
4 of my friends did it last September… but you will need to check is that one night cruise still on