Visa extension application and visa runs

Legal Visa & Residency
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1

Hello everyone,

I’ve been looking for some information regarding this topic, but it seems like there’s not much concrete information about it online. So please, I would really appreciate answers from people who have experience with this matter.

I’ve been traveling around Taiwan for nearly two months. I come from a visa-exempt (90 days) country and I wish to stay longer then that, and that’s why I’m planning on visa runs for the time being. From a quick search online, I found that there IS an option to apply for a legal visa extension. (that is for “nationals without household registration” - according to Article 8 of the Immigration Act and Article 11 of the Regulations Governing Visiting, Residency, and Registering Permanent Residence of Nationals Without Household Registration in the Taiwan Area.)

It states that “a stay can be extended once for a maximum of 3 months from the day following the expiry of the duration of stay.” Now, what does that actually mean regarding visa runs? Let’s say, if I do get my visa extended to 180 days, does it mean that I can simply apply for an extension right after each visa run?

To make it more simple, if I apply for a visa extension and get it legally approved each time, can I actually count on visa runs once every 180 days instead of 90? Or would it just be better to do regular visa runs every 90 days without applying for extension at all?

Thank you very much!

2

Which country are you from, and are you actually a national without household registration?

I thought the visa exemption extension was only for British and Canadian nationals. I suspect you’d also run into issues if you did that repeatedly as well.

3

Yep, “national” refers to “Taiwan/ROC national”. If you are not, then this law unfortunately doesn’t help.

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4

if you are a national without household registration, here is how to do the extension.

https://www.immigration.gov.tw/5475/5478/141465/141808/141956/cp_news

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5

So I misinterpreted it. I thought “national” refers to any nationality. But it makes much more sense now. Thank you all very much!

6

Where you from?

7

Just take a cheap flight to anywhere outside of Taiwan and come back the same day. Problem solved

8

If you’re from the UK or Canada, you can extend your “visa-exempt” stay for another 90 days.