I am changing Chinese schools and will thus need to leave Taiwan to reset my visa (currently Resident w/ ARC). Since I was planning on visiting friends in Australia anyway, I will go there. I guess Sydney is the only city with a Taiwan visa office, so I’ll need to plan that into my trip.
However, I don’t really want to enroll in a new school until I return just in case the whole island has been infected with SARS by that time.
Without school papers I can only get a visitor visa.
My Q is this: how likely is Australia to be stingy and only give me (an American) a short, non-extendable visa? If the answer is “very likely”, I should drop the cash and enroll in the new Chinese school now.
[quote]I guess Sydney is the only city with a Taiwan visa office, so I’ll need to plan that into my trip.
[/quote]I take offence to that. Australia isn’t as backward as you might think. Every city has an office. We’re actually first world now. Although my parent’s still bear the scars from being shipped from England. And all they stole was a loaf of bread.
I’m assuming all offices are the same as the Melbourne one, and if they are, you should get a 2 month extendable. Well that’s what they game me last year, and the year before that.
Really?! Geez, I read a couple of websites that were suggested here, and those sites only mentioned Sydney. Crapola. I already booked to Sydney. Oh well, I wouldn’t mind seeing Sydney anyway. I hear they even have running water and electricity there…
There are three TECO offices in Oz, one each in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. As Canberra doesn’t have an international airport, Sydney wasn’t a bad call.
For infor about TECO offices in Australia check here:
I’ve heard the Sydney office can be a tad stingey with visas, especially if you aren’t an Australian. However, since you are a student, hopefully from an approved school, I’d imagine you’d have no problems, especially since your’e doing more than the right thing by surrendering an existing ARC to switch schools (is this really necessary?).
Oh and by the way, remember to boil the water - I’m not joking.
I’d like to recommend that you wear an A-Bian family hat (available at most nightmarkets) when you visit your friends at the Trade Office in Sydney. It will really help your chances with the visa.
Seriously, it would help if you spoke to them in Chinese, which should be easy if you’ve been to a real school (i.e. not “Flag” or whatever they’re called now…).
[quote=“amos”][quote]I guess Sydney is the only city with a Taiwan visa office, so I’ll need to plan that into my trip.
[/quote]I take offence to that. Australia isn’t as backward as you might think. Every city has an office. We’re actually first world now. Although my parent’s still bear the scars from being shipped from England. And all they stole was a loaf of bread.
I’m assuming all offices are the same as the Melbourne one, and if they are, you should get a 2 month extendable. Well that’s what they game me last year, and the year before that.[/quote]
