I am Australian and currenlie have a 30 day non extendable Visa but I want to teach in Taiwan. I have recentlie come from South Korea where I was Teaching English and is now In Taiwan where I have Plenty Of opertunaties to Teach english My Problem is That I never finished a degree Back home ( as I found work Doing IT sales before this)and am Now wanting to Teachee english so I guess ARC is not a Options as far as through the school I is to teach at.
But ain’t there any way around this? Such as like Student Visa Or what the heck? What do exaclie the Visa Run Entaill. Is this Guarnted (visa run Since My last Visa was only a 30 day Landing Visa)…
Does anyone have any Magical Resolution… Or Realistic Information They can Emailll Me Or Post…
You are right about not being able to get an ARC! In order to get one you must have a Teaching Permit from the Department of Education, and for this you must have a degree or tertiary diploma. For more info on working legally in Taiwan read this : http://geocities.com/teach_taiwan/working_legally.htm and
Try that link again. It worked when I just tried it. In short, if someone wanted to work illegally teaching English their options are
1)Leave every month on a flight to Hong Kong and get a 30 day landing visa each time.
2) Enrol at a dummy Chinese school like CLI, pay the monthly fees (about 3000) and get a 60 day visa which can be extended up to 6 months
3) Enrol at a real school like CLD ro TLI, pay the monthly fees (4000) and got o class 4 or 5 times a week.
All of these options don’t let you work in Taiwan, they just let you stay here. You won’t have health insurance or be able to get a driver’s liscence or anything. Lots of people still work on a visitor’s visa, but it’s illegal and they could get caught (it’s not very common, but it happens to some people). As far as I know a so-called ‘student visa’ is just a 60 day extendable visitor’s visa (ie it’s ctually a visitor’s visa) the only difference being that you wrote ‘study’ as your purpose of visit, and got the visa by schowing the visa office your enrolment papers.
Coooool
I get the message now the Problem is if I enrol in a real school how many hours a week would I have to attend and would this still give me Plenty of Opportunity to work.
And how to I get in contact with these Dummie school. Does anyone have the contact detaills or the Locations of The dummie Schools. What does CLI stand for
And my third and final Problem is Can I still Enroll Into a School considering my Visa says 30 daY Landing Visa NO EXTENSION WILL BE GRANTED
It’s virtually impossible to change a 30-day non-extendable visa without leaving the country. By that I mean that 99 times out of 100 it just won’t be allowed,l but every now and then some lucky bastard will manage it. Whatever happens, you’re going to have to go to Hong Kong.
The thing is to enrol in a school (real or fake) before you go to Hong Kong so that they can give you all the papers you’ll need. Then, with luck, you shouldn’t have to leave again for another six months.
I think the regulations are that you have to study 40 hours a month group class or 24 one on one. Basically that’s two hours a day during the week. When I did it I went to CLD which at the time (a year ago now that I finished) was a pretty good school depending on what teacher you got. I always thought TLI was about the same, but recently some people here have being saying otherwise. The other option is Pioneer.
Last I new, the main ‘fake’ school was called CLI, but beofe that they were called Flag. For all I know they might have changed their name again. They have to keep doing that because the visa office blacklists them. My recommendation is take the two hours a day class. You get your money’s worth, there’s plenty of different time slots and still time to earn money (not that you should do something as shocking as working illegally of course). Learning Chinese will really make your time in Taiwan better. I think the only people who disagree with me on this point are those that have never learnt Chinese.
I’ve read all the advice re Chinese lessons … is the situation still the same a year on? If so do you know of a school in Miaoli where I could study? I have an HND Diploma from a Technical College in the UK … but not a bachelors degree … where do I stand with regard to getting an employee to take me on? For the record, I have a residence visa and ARC by default, as my husband is working here.
many thanks
[quote=“Zara”]I’ve read all the advice re Chinese lessons … is the situation still the same a year on? If so do you know of a school in Miaoli where I could study? I have an HND Diploma from a Technical College in the UK … but not a bachelors degree … where do I stand with regard to getting an employee to take me on? For the record, I have a residence visa and ARC by default, as my husband is working here.
many thanks[/quote]
I assume your post is regarding learning Chinese rather than extending residency, as you already have an ARC ?
Sorry I obviously didn’t make my plea very clear! I want to teach legally … but I don’ t have a degree … do you know whether a school will employ me if I have a diploma rather than a degree?
What sort of a diploma ? The term is used to mean several things. When the regulations state “degree” they mean a Bachelor’s degree from a university - whether the regulations are applied uniformly throughout Taiwan is another question which I’m afraid I can’t answer.
Zara, my (limited) experience of teaching here suggests that if you’re white and breathing then you will probably be easily employable.
Speaking English reasonably well will also help, but I’ve met several Russians, Ukranians, Quebecois, Afrikaaners etc whose abilities would raise a few eyebrows. eg “They doesn’t care.” being used with a straight face
Hell, even JC could probably find a job.
On the other hand, I recently met a well-spoken and educated guy, who happened to be of Bangladeshi origin. He never even got as far as the interview.
Hmm, is a residence visa the same as a working visa? You may be allowed to be here, but not allowed to work. I think you are supposed to have a degree to obtain a legal work permit, but I’m not sure.
I’ve met people who have submitted photocopies of certificates created using MS Word, or bought a degree and TESOL cert in Bangkok - NT$2500 apiece. I even heard one story of someone who had managed to find a graduate with the same name as him and written to the university to get a ‘replacement’ certificate.