Ok, I have been reading forum after forum as well as looking at government websites and have STILL NOT been able to get a concrete answer to my questions!! Everybody seems to have a different answer!!!
My Scenerio:
I am in Taipei on a 60-day visitor visa which expires on March 25th, in 14 days. I was hired by a school and I have done all my paperwork for a work permit (contract signed, health check, etc.) My paperwork was sent out by my school a few days ago. But I probably wont receive anything back I was told for 7-10 business days. Therefore, I need to extend my 60-day visitor visa, just in case it doesnt go through in time.
My Questions:
Can I extend my visa at the police station?
If so, because my work permit has not gone through yet, what documentation do I need to extend my visa?
Would a copy of my contract and perhaps a written letter stating an offering of employment from my school be sufficient?
What police station location would I go to to do this? I have found listings for many stations but they do not state which one does visa extensions
Or, should I make a visa run?
Any suggestions on making this as easy as possible?
Anyone that knows the facts on these questions or has been in the same situation please let me know how you dealt with this. Any QUICK info would be greatly appreciated because I need to get this done immediatly.
Thanks so much!!!
It seems if you don’t have your letter of approval from the resposible government agency, (the Ministry of Education, in the case of teachers?), you may be in a pickle.
They also have a service line where you can talk to someone. If they cannot answer your questions directly, they will put you in touch with someone at the Foreign Affairs Police who can.
A friend I work with was in the same situation as you. She went to the foriegn affairs police with the school and they gave her a 60 day extension.
I think she just took a copy of the paperwork to show that she had been offered a job and that they were in the process of applying for the work permit.
I’ll check on Monday to find exactly what she needed.
Thank you, I would be really interested to know what she did and what the process was. Do you mean she went to the foreign affairs office with someone from her school? a manager maybe?
I spoke to my friend at work and all she took to the FAP was her passport and the paperwork to show that she had submitted an application for an ARC. They gave her a 60 stamp
I am here on a 90 day Visitor Visa and the TECO office in Auckland, NZ said that it is extendable for a further 90 days (my Visa is not stamped with Non-Extendable) but I don’t quite know the procedure I must take to entend it.
I’ve had a look at a few websites including the one posted here by Citizen K and my situation doesn’t fall under any of those 3 categories (visiting family, studying or religious reasons). Well, not exactly anyway. I am here visiting my Taiwanese girlfriend of 4 years but I don’t imagine that counts to them, right? I have been here 3 times previously as a visitor, but that probably doesn’t count for anything either.
Also, I haven’t seen any mention of others getting 90 day Visitor Visas, only 60 day ones with up to 2 extensions.
Any help would be very much appreciated. Thank you!
Provided that you submit your documents for your resident visa to the Bureau of Consular Affairs (BOCA) prior to the expiry of your current visa then you will have no problems. The resident visa takes around 10-14 days to process, but your current visa can expire during that time provided that they have received this application.
In order to get your resident visa, you will however have to get yourself a work permit first, and it seems to me that this is the stage of the process that you are up to. The work permit is actually processed by the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) not the Ministry of Education (MOE). I don’t know if a receipt from them will be good enough to get you a visa extension. It shouldn’t be, but as we all know strange things can happen.
The Foreign Affairs Police (FAP) station in Taipei is on Yenping Road near Ximending. The CLA is over near the train station on the north west side. BOCA is on Jinan Road which is south east of the train station.
If you read this I would be really, really interested in how you solved your dilema. I am a new teacher, now in exactly the same position as you!
My boss originally submitted my work permit application with enough time to spare. But she now has told me, a week later, that the CLA told her she didn’t stamp some documents that needed to be stamped. This means I might need to extend my visa. But my passport is with the CLA!
I believe I have the following options:
Go to the CLA, get my passport (if possible) and then get an extention (again if possible. Visa extention rules state that if you are extending to accept employment, documentation from a government agency is needed to prove this. In this case, presumably the work permit!?)
Do a visa run to HK. And either get a visitor visa, or resident visa (if I’ll get my work permit etc in time before my original visa runs out
Possible option: Cross my fingers and hope I get my work permit with a few days to spare (If it takes 10 working days then I will have 4 days left.) Then start my application for a resident visa, which takes up to two weeks, I think. Live here past my visa. This depends on it being OK to do this while waiting for your resident visa to come. I don’t think it is.
Option 1 would be cheaper but more difficult. Option 2 seems fairly straight forward but much more costly. And I don’t think my boss is gonna be paying.
Why? The CLA only need a photocopy of your passport pages (stamped by your potential employer as being the same as the original), not the passport itself.
You are right. I was confused. As it happened, though, my vistor visa is non-extendible. In the end the CLA did the application in 5 working days as they knew my visa was nearly up. Just, I’ve had to pay 1100 extra to have my resident visa done in quick time. Bitch.
for those who need to get a tourist visa extention (for visiting familly if you are married to a local) if you don’t have yet your JFRV
you need: -2 application forms
-another form write by your Taiwanese wife (or husband) with a copy or her ID card stick on it
-the Household registration form less than 3 month with your name write on it
-If you don’t live at the same address than the one write on the houshold form, then you also need to bring a copy of the appartment/Home contract
-and you also need to take your mariage certificate
