I was wondering if anyone knows what will happen to your orignal visa once you get an ARC? Is there a way you can keep your original visa if it is extendable and Mulit-Entry and also have an ARC?
Nope. Once you have residency, you have no need of a visa so its cancelled.
An ARC and the accompanying re-entry stamp/sticker in your passport entitles you to enter and leave the country as you wish for its duration. No need for the visa after you obtain your ARC, so it’s cancelled.
CK
I from the US and I had a multiple entry visa that was good for 5 years. Then I got an ARC (good for one year) and they cancelled my multiple entry visa. Is there any way to get them to UN-cancel it? Or do I have to go back to the US and pay the new and improved exorbitant fees for a new one?
Is there anywhere else one can go to get a multiple entry visa? I’ve heard rumors about BKK issuing them, but they seemed like just rumors…
Thanks!
Karen 
I always get my multi-entry visa at the police station when I extend my JFRV ARC.
You mean your multiple re-entry permit, don’t you? Nitpicking I know, but there’s enough confusion over this stuff as it is.
Exactly.
For clarification, for most foreign teachers, there are three documents concerned.
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Visa. This is the sticker that goes into your passport. Prerequisite for the one-year resident visa most foreign teachers hold is a job offer from a valid employer, which employer becomes the sponsor for your resident visa. The visa gives you permission to stay in Taiwan.
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Work permit. As the name implies, this is the document that gives you permission to work. A resident visa is a prerequisite for a work permit, not vice versa. The work permit for most foreign teachers is tied to one employer, and allows you to work only for that employer.
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ARC. This is neither a visa nor a work permit. It is, basically, an ID card. The work permit is prerequisite for an ARC (though there are other ways to obtain an ARC, they don’t concern us here).
In sum:
Visa: permission to stay in Taiwan.
Work permit: permission to work in Taiwan.
ARC: Your ID card.
Note also the order of dependency: ARC depends on the work permit, which depends on the visa. Therefore, cancellation of the work permit automatically cancels the ARC, but not the visa. Cancellation of the visa automatically cancels everything.
Thus, Big Fluffy Matthew’s statement confuses the three documents. F﹐irst, you don’t get your visa, multi-entry or otherwise, at the local police station. It comes from the immigration bureau in Taipei. The local police station is only responsible for work permits and ARCs. Second, there’s no such thing as a “JFRV ARC”. They’re two separate documents. The JFRV is a visa (the “Joining Family Resident Visa”), while the ARC is your ID card.
It’s also important to note that recent changes in the regulations allow foreign teachers to hold more than one work permit at a time, from different employers, and the ARC can be tied to both. Thus, if one holds two valid work permits and one is cancelled, the ARC remains valid based on the other.
All corrections to the above information are welcome.
Lee Kaiwen, Chiayi
[quote=“KaiwenLee”]2) Work permit. As the name implies, this is the document that gives you permission to work. A resident visa is a prerequisite for a work permit, not vice versa. The work permit for most foreign teachers is tied to one employer, and allows you to work only for that employer.
[/quote]
Interesting. I just got a work permit (by submitting docs to my employer more or less as mentioned on Tealit.com). That involved giving my employer copies of my passport pages, health certificate, signing a form, and paying an NT $500 fee (required by the Bureau of Labor Affairs).
I do not have a resident visa. At the moment, I have a vistors visa. That leads me to believe that your statement above is incorrect. It would seem that the the work permit is a prerequisite for the resident visa, not the reverse.
Seeker4