My ARC will expire on May 28. Today I paid my tuition and discovered the newest stupid rule - students cannot live in Taipei COUNTY, they must live in Taipei CITY.
What the…? Why should it matter where I live? I attend class every single day, and I even have a classmate who lives way the hell out in Wan Li, and he comes every day, too.
I have a one-year contract on my apartment just signed at the beginning of March, and I’ve already lived in this place for a year. I don’t want to move, because I pay less where I am, and the surroundings are better. The gals at the desk at school told me to just find a friend who lives in the city limits and have that friend lie on my behalf, saying I live at his/her address. Yeah, OK, so I do have friends who would probably do this, but…I just gave the government a copy of my contract in March. Won’t they think it’s a little strange that now I’ve moved (and without giving them notice, which is not a good thing, either)? The gals say they won’t pay that much attention to it. Suuure they won’t.
I’m not sure if this weirdness is only for students in my little language center, since they are currently off the approved list and are “in negotiations” with the government (i.e., determining how much of a bribe will get them back in good graces). Has anyone else been told they now have to live in the city and not the county?
Sometimes I really feel the government is trying to drive the foreign students away.