This is pretty urgent so any helpful immediate replies are needed.
I overstayed my VISA by accident. I am currently 29 days overstayed.
I plan on leaving the country today to go to Honk Kong. I need to come back here to Taiwan. Can I for sure get a new Visa in Hong Kong and return to Taiwan?
Full disclosure.
-I have been coming to taiwan in and out for nearly 10 years.
-I have a girlfriend/soon to be wife and we are planning on moving back to the stated next year.
-Strictly speaking I am only a tourist here, I have no formal employment here.
I read on the old forums how to do the HK visa run, but I kept seeing them mention about bringing past and present working contracts in Taiwan. They’ll even turn down people begging to get in if only for visiting reasons.
I’m freaking out, I don’t know what I should do. I have even contemplated simply not dealing with it now, and deal with it a year later when I decide to move back to USA, how much trouble could I get it? Only a large fine? Jail time?
Ask questions if you have them, but this topic is urgent since I must leave the country either today or tomorrow.
My passport was set to expire last month on 6/6. I also has a multiple entry visa set to expire on 7/9.
I went to the office to get a 30 day extension. The lady told me I could stay in until the expiration date of my Visa. Apparently she didn’t communicate it to me very well which is why I’m in this mess.
I tried leaving the country this morning. When I got to immigration they informed me about my overstay to my shock and horror. They told me to go downstairs to sort it out with their immigration kiosk. I didn’t know what to expect and was freaking out. I frantically tried to pull up and search as much info as possible on the web and called every number I could find that might be helpful but with it being 5am no place was open.
Eventually I decided to just miss my flight and wait until I could contact immigration or something to get some advice and help.
Another reason I couldn’t go is because of my gf. We live together. I was going to come back later this evening. She forgot her keys this morning and had no way to get back inside, and we have two dogs so that simply wasn’t an option if I went in their and got deport or something.
So I’m in a really rough spot now. I’m hoping to leave the country today and pay the NT4000 fine and go to hong kong.
However, I REALLY need to get back into the country. I need to know how likely I am to get a VISA in Hong Kong. The info I read about before was dated back in 2010-2013 so I don’t know if it works the same as before or not.
Leaving and not being able to come back simply isn’t an option, so I’m freaking out what to do.
Check my recent posts, I mention how I never went to immigration.
Yes, I plan on marrying her but how could that help this situation? If I leave here with a bad stamp to hong kong, how can me marrying her help this situation?
So you renewed your passport? Your visa is still good even if your old passport expired.
Why are you getting multiple entry visas? A USA passport gets 90 days on landing.
I think they would just look at your history, see that you made a mistake, and not make a big deal. They might check other info to see if you’ve been doing anything illegal or any other reasons to stop your entry.
I am sorry to hear about your situation, @mmstoin - many of us have been in some similar kind of jam, so don’t beat yourself up too much and instead, focus on your immediate concerns.
Since your GF is locked out of your apartment, presumably you guys are taking care of this as an immediate priority, and then flying out tomorrow.
From my own quick Googling of your situation, it seems there is a chance that you will not be granted landing visa privileges for a year - so ask the Immigration Office if you can still apply for a proper visitor visa.
This post was made in Jan 2014 about a similar situation that occurred in Dec 2013
Nightmare of an Indonesia resident who overstayed by 2 months by accident - was able to come back into Taiwan within about a month http://arkross.com/overstaying-in-taiwan/
I suggest you take care of your girlfriend’s key situation and then head to immigration downtown and talk to them there. Then plan to leave for HK tomorrow - although you may end up being barred for a year depending on how your talk with immigration goes
Very crucial information is, what kind of passport are you holding. If you’re holding an American passport or a UK passport, you don’t require a Visa to re-enter Taiwan since both those countries hold Visa free 90 day entries.
Nonetheless, you did overstay your Visa free time and I believe the penalty is monetary fine, which you mentioned and you can’t enter visa free for a full year.
So, you should be able to apply for landing visas, but since you already have a slap on the wrist for overstaying you can be denied and can get quite expensive if you need to continuously apply for them.
To be clear, it’s best you ask immigration about your issue. The above are just what I hear through some friends friends friends and who knows how accurate that is. Good luck. Hope everything works out.
Yes, I plan on marrying her but how could that help this situation? If I leave here with a bad stamp to hong kong, how can me marrying her help this situation?
I agree, I do not see how marrying the girlfriend will address the immediate issues. What it might do is help shorten the time this person cannot come back to Taiwan, because instead of getting a landing visa, the OP will instead come in on a JFRV/Dependent’s ARC, but getting those documents are a whole other saga
Since the OP and the GF plan to relocate to the US in one year, is there any value at all in not leaving at all and instead overstaying an entire year? I would not advise this because my impression is that Taiwan Immigration is normally quite reasonable and understanding (NOTE: key word = normally), and the penalty in intentionally overstaying far longer than you have already unintentionally overstayed will not be treated warmly. Logically, there could be dire consequences from such a decision.
So while there remains a risk that speaking to Immigration today could mean being kicked out for a year, the amount of time could be minimized (1 or 2 months?).
According to those quotes, one assumes he’s holding a US passport, but he doesn’t clarify, that’s why I asked.
Nonetheless, after reading your posts about getting a month to year long ban due to overstaying, I don’t think it matters too much what passport he holds .
Ok, all good replies, thank you. Feeling a bit more calm and collected.
Yes, though it could have been guess, I am an American citizen with a USA Passport.
Alright, so I finally got a hold of the Visa office in HK and explained my situation. He made it seem it wouldn’t be too difficult to apply another Taiwan visa when I’m in HK which might take a day or two which would be fine.
Current plan is this. I’m going to NIA office in Taipei with my GF shortly. We’ll do our best to explain the situation to them and see what can be done. I’m assuming either way I’ll be taking a plane sometime this evening to HK. I have a friend to stay with there so at least that’s covered.
More concerns.
I think before I leave Taiwan today, I need to get a bank statement. Would it be strange if I am using my Taiwan bank account to show my funds? Again, strictly speaking, I don’t work in Taiwan so would it raise red flags if I have a lot of money there? (NT100,000+)
I would use my USA bank account but clearly I can’t get a statement from being in Taiwan atm.
Besides that, I’ll plan for the worse, hope for the best. I’ll take a suit case full of essentials in case I’m denied a Visa and have to live overseas for a long time.
Any more help would be welcomed, but serious guys, can’t thank you enough for what’s already been posted.
Whether this works out for me well or not, I’ll update the results and hopefully this can serve help to others in the future.
You don’t get monthly e-statements from your US bank? I use Wells Fargo and can look up monthly balance through online statements. Has everything you may need, name, US permanent address and shows you have money in the account. That could work?
I get monthly statements from my checking account, bit there’s only like $400 there.
My savings account has way more than that. I can log in and show them, but I don’t get statements. I also have nearly 2 grand in my paypal, but I doubt they’ll accept that.
I’m actually a bit confused as to why you need to show them a bank statement in the first place.
I’m actually surprised you don’t get statements, I thought that was just a standard thing where they save monthly statements or summaries online just so you have a reference of your account activity.
Ya, that seems to be the biggest downfall at the moment with this solution. I’ll have to leave every 60 days it seems and do the whole process again which will be both time and money consuming until we move.