Trouble getting a work visa from a non-educational company

Legal Visa & Residency
#1

Hey all,

Recently found a financial services company in Taipei willing to employ me, but unfortunately I do not have any documented or relevant experience in the area.

I’ve been trying to explore my options…would it be possible to get a work visa at said company as a full-time in-house English teacher? I gather that’s not possible…

What about as a full-time editor/translator for that company? Does it need to be a publishing company to get a work visa as an editor/translator? Has anyone had this kind of (legal) work before?

The owner of the company told me that if I could provide him with the details and documents, he’d happily sponsor me for the visa, so the more specific the details, the better.

I’m also curious about anyone who has a work visa doing anything other than teaching. I know you must provide a record of your relevant employment experience, but EXACTLY what kind of documentation do you need to provide? Are we talking notarized letter on company letterhead with official translation or are we talking pay stubbs and tax records?

Thanks for any light y’all could shed on this one!

#2

Hi Qingdao, welcome to Forumosa.

I worked for a year for a TV company on a work permit. As you say you need proof of relevant work experience, but at least in my case this was very casual. I simply had my old employer in the UK send a letter on company stationery and that was good enough for the MoEA.

There are a multitude of titles which amount to All-Purpose Foreigner™ - in my case I was billed as an International Secretary (sounds vaguely communist, I think) with duties which included translation and negotiation with foreign clients. The fact that I did very little of either was of no import to the ministry granting my work permit. Most work experience can probably be played into ‘relevant’ experience for a job as an ‘overseas consultant’ (or somesuch) if you phrase it right.

As always with Taiwanese bureaucracy, I add the caveat that this is simply my experience, and may not reflect the law or how the given officer at the MoEA treats your application on the day they receive it. I’d also add that the boss of the company I worked for was pretty well connected, which may or may not have had an impact (hey, it’s cable TV - they’re all heidao). I didn’t hear of them pulling any guanxi to get me my permit, but it’s not impossible that they did.

#3

A CV (the longer the better), a statement on company letterhead (with signature) to certify previous employment and copies of my educational qualifications were sufficient in my case. I should add though that I had many years of work experience in the same field.

#4

Thanks for the quick replies!

Taffy: So what, if I may ask, did you send in by way of previous work experience to prove that you were qualified to be a loyal Stalinist—er…“international secretary…?”

Seems from both posts like really any yahoo could whip up a letter on a bogus letterhead and pass it of as reasonable proof of employment experience. Don’t get me wrong – that’s inconsistant with even my set of rather situational ethics – I’m just saying it seems so easy…

I’d love to hear any other views from anyone who’s been through the process if anyone else happens across the thread. I’ve got about three months to plan this exercise and hope to get it right the first time.

Thanks again! :notworthy:

#5

I’m sorry…did I come off like an ass?

Really love to hear of anyone else’s experience in this area and I’ll post my own experience when I come accross anything else that could help the next guy.

#6

Oops, not arsey at all, Qingdao. I’ve mostly been offline for a couple of days, so didn’t see your reply.

For the ‘relevant experience’, mine consisted of working for local government in the UK as their ‘China Liaison Officer’ (the city I worked for is twinned with a Chinese city). Yes, another stupid title, but an interesting job and one that could be considered relevant for the job I took on in Taiwan. My employer was kind enough to emphasise the common points between that job and the one I was applying for, which was good enough for the folks in the ministry here.

#7

In my case it was just a 3 page CV and copy of degree certificates and passport. I didn’t even tart up the CV.
They also wanted a contract (I wrote this in English - it was a single page - and the firm translated into Chinese. We only signed the English version.)

Nothing had to be notarised.

The firm was a well established IT company and I was their only foreign employee. I got the kind of permit that gets you a 3 year permit. The agreed pay has to be above a certain level. (Can’t remember what - something like NT$65K a month???)

This was about 2 years ago.

#8

[quote=“london-boy”]In my case it was just a 3 page CV and copy of degree certificates and passport. I didn’t even tart up the CV.
They also wanted a contract (I wrote this in English - it was a single page - and the firm translated into Chinese. We only signed the English version.)

Nothing had to be notarised.

The firm was a well established IT company and I was their only foreign employee. I got the kind of permit that gets you a 3 year permit. The agreed pay has to be above a certain level. (Can’t remember what - something like NT$65K a month???)

This was about 2 years ago.[/quote]

Good info, london-boy - just one part I’d take issue with - when I was checking up on this a year or so ago the minimum level of salary wasn’t that high - around NT$48k, I think. Of course, getting two different answers from two different people at the ministry would not surprise me in the least. :slight_smile:

#9

Thanks folks I REALLY appreciate the info! Cheers Taffy, I guess I’ve been stressing about the situation a bit.

If I may pry, london-boy, was the stuff on yr CV pretty much IT related? Was it pretty much in line with what you were going to do for the company here? So, you didn’t have to provide any kind of separate rference from your previous employers? May I ask what your job title was?

This co is a medium-large hedge fund and I’ll be the only bignose. I’ve known the boss for a couple years and he said he’d be happy to make a case for me (…frequent contact with foreign security companies, fund managers, etc…).

I’m curious, has anyone had any experience (or know someone who has) getting the ap for a non-teacher work visa rejected?

Thanks to all, and when I get my first paycheck I’ll buy every poster a beer – no shit.

Qingdao

#10

[quote=“Qingdao”]was the stuff on yr CV pretty much IT related? Was it pretty much in line with what you were going to do for the company here? So, you didn’t have to provide any kind of separate rference from your previous employers? May I ask what your job title was?

This co is a medium-large hedge fund and I’ll be the only bignose. I’ve known the boss for a couple years and he said he’d be happy to make a case for me (…frequent contact with foreign security companies, fund managers, etc…).
[/quote]

Yes… it was all IT related, initially as an engineer and then in marketing IT products. I’d also been a branch manager of a Taiwanese company in the UK. My job title was “Marketing Manager”. There were no references from previous employers at all and they didn’t check.

I don’t know how these things work - perhaps because I was relatively well paid, I was white-British, I was late 30s… I really don’t know what might avoid a closer look. Perhaps it all looked good in an “overwhelming” kind of way. Ie if anyone was fibbing they wouldn’t bother to fib so much. The HR woman seemed to think right from kick-off it would be OK and that it hinged on the state of the company applying as much as me. The company had been in the same business for 10 years. There may have been some other criteria that was important that I didn’t even know about and that I met. I did have two master’s degrees, which was a bit unusual. I think someone once told me that having a master’s helps… really “dunno”.

Don’t want to seem oversensitive, but you write "he said he’d be happy to make a case for me "… I feel the way it works is that THEY have to make a case for employing you (which may not be tough)…

#11

Ok, thanks. I thought I remembered seeing something somewhere to say it had changed downwards after I applied… In any case, they were offering 80K (160K OTE) and that seemed enough when I started.

#12

Yes, having a Masters cuts the amount of experience you need to qualify for a work permit (to a year, maybe?).

#13

Yes, having a Masters cuts the amount of experience you need to qualify for a work permit (to a year, maybe?).[/quote]

Depends on the masters degree. If it is in a skill that is in high demand then it cuts the amount of time needed to gain residency. If it is not then it doesn’t matter.