No way to make this story short.
So I applied for a ARC visa extension in late July. My ARC expired on August 15th but I bought a flight home August 27th (400 USD difference on the flight cost’ x2). The guy at the Taoyuan visa office gave me a stamp on my passport and took my ARC. The stamp said “Informed to leave the country on August 30th.” Seemed odd but sounds correct.
Fast forward to this week. I’m back in the united states for my brother’s wedding and get a student visa. The woman who processed my visa application calls me on Wednesday night and tells me there’s a problem. She wants me to come back to the NYC TECO office. I show up and she tells me I’ve over stayed my visa and shows me the stamp from the Taoyuan immigration office. Great- the guy gave me the wrong stamp. Then she follows up and says that it’s worse than a 12 day overstay. Apparently I’ve over stayed over 9 months (since my last trip out of Taiwan for pleasure).
This makes no sense to me since I’ve been on an ARC for the last two years. I inform her that I had an ARC but she refutes this by saying I don’t have a multiple re-entry permit in my pass port. From what I recall the sticker in our passports for multiple re-entry was replaced by the new ARC. I told her this but she’s adamant that I should have the sticker. At this point she kept calling me a liar so I just nodded and apologized. She said she would consider approving my student visa.
So basically my problem is that the guy at the Taoyuan ARC office gave me the wrong stamp and I let him take my ARC. Also, the woman at the TECO office doesn’t know about the multiple re-entry permit that comes with our ARC. Am I wrong about the re-entry permit or is there anything I can do about the TECO office problem to help my visa application? Any tips or insights would help.
-Carl