Firstly, thanks for anyone that responds to this thread.
I’m an American on a visa-exempt status that married a Taiwanese national in Taiwan.
Now, I want to obtain the JFRV.
My wife recently called the National Immigration Agency regarding the checklist for the JFRV, which I mostly have in order, however, a worker at the NIA informed her that I needed to be on a visitor visa in order to apply for a JFRV.
I’ve lurked and searched Forumosa as best as I can, but most people have married under a work visa.
So. in short, my question is, do I really need to go to Hong Kong and purchase a Visitor’s Visa to apply for a JFRV?
It just seems ridiculous as I’m already in Taiwan.
The visa-exempt entry can’t be changed to anything else. You must fly out fly in again. The one day trip to Hong Kong and back, leave at the crack of dawn, and spend a fortune on the whole thing. Try the sausage rolls at Starbucks in Hong Kong, I usually get two
Visa exempt entry can be changed actually. At least with a work permit you can apply at Foreign Affairs to have a visa issued in-country. However it costs about as much as a flight to HK since there’s a fee for the visa and a fee for the process.
I had to get my marriage notarized here, get it translated to my home country’s language, fly to my home country, register my marriage there, get a visitor visa and come back to Taiwan, all documents translated to Chinese and stamped by the local TECO for good order too. And then in Taiwan have my visitor visa changed to resident visa to get the ARC. Very expensive, time and nerve consuming! But that was 15 years or so ago when they didn’t have the NIA as sole entity to handle all of this. Needed the BOCA, foreign affairs police and the Immigration office or something.