I just got off the phone with the TECO office in Manila–I’ve been in Cebu for the last year, and now nearly broke–and was informed that there is only a 30-day visitor’s visa available, nothing else. As a U.S. citizen, it could be concluded that a visa would be unnecessary as I am eligible for 30-day exempt status. My intention to is seek work teaching in Taiwan, but as my resources are limited I would be unable to fly out to visit TECO in HK later–as I understand it, you cannot move from exempt status to an actual visa while in Taiwan.
So, what kind of visa are people getting in HK and what do they tell the official there if there is only a 30-day visitor’s available? Any advice? And please keep responses to the point; with all of my other troubles, these wandering threads make my head hurt! Thanks!
Multiple people on the forum have converted 30 day visa exempt entry into ARC’s w/o needing to leave the country. The bigger issue is that you will have to get a job in the first week or two in order for the paperwork to be done before the 30 days are up. But you can save some time by getting your health check done right away since it takes 2 weeks to get back. the rest can be done in 1-1.5 wks as long as the school knows what they are doing.
In HK the norm is a 60 day visitor visa and you can say pretty much anything you want. I don’t think they even asked me what my plans were. You will need a bank statement showing enough funds but I have no idea what the magic number is (my statement showed 2,500USD IIRC).
[quote=“Abacus”]Multiple people on the forum have converted 30 day visa exempt entry into ARC’s w/o needing to leave the country. The bigger issue is that you will have to get a job in the first week or two in order for the paperwork to be done before the 30 days are up. But you can save some time by getting your health check done right away since it takes 2 weeks to get back. the rest can be done in 1-1.5 wks as long as the school knows what they are doing.
In HK the norm is a 60 day visitor visa and you can say pretty much anything you want. I don’t think they even asked me what my plans were. You will need a bank statement showing enough funds but I have no idea what the magic number is (my statement showed 2,500USD IIRC).[/quote]
hmmm, that is odd…i tried and could not. the reasoning was that 30-exempt was just that…exempt…it wasn’t a visa…so, there was no visa to be changed into longer visa
maybe it was just a problem with it being changed into a JFRV…i guess the work visa could be different
Thanks!