What would happen if I burn my passport?

besides the risk of minor burns, nothing?

You would be surprised at how unsympathetic the Police can be to a non-passport holding foreigner or overseas Chinese …

First of all, they will most likely demand that you contact your home country’s representative office and arrange to get a replacement.

You have not stated whether you have an ARC or only a tourist visa. If it is the ARC, then you cannot renew your ARC until you have a valid passport in your hand, and if this results in your overstaying … of course the police will view that as your problem …

If you only have a tourist visa, it will be much the similar story … because if you end up overstaying you will have to pay the fine and then exit Taiwan. Whereby you may be blacklisted for some period of time and not allowed back in.

If your situation is too complicated to deal with (such as having a passport from a country which is unfriendly to Taiwan and effectively has no consular relations), then the Police may just escort you to the foreigner’s detention center in SanHsia, and let you cool your heels there while they try to figure out how to deport you.

You could just mince up to AIT and renounce the whole shebang there and then. Probably. Tell them you’re a mainland girl who’s run away from a brothel. If you’re really lucky they’ll put you in a tiny cell with 40 teenage cor blimey my fantasies running away with me again…

[quote=“CoffeAnnan”]What would happen if I burn up my foreign passport in Taiwan?

And if the police ask , I say I’m stateless.[/quote]

Burning your passport doesn’t make you stateless. :unamused:

Thank Christ someone said it.

Someone did burn his passport publicly in front of the American Institute in Taiwan last year. He is still in Taiwan.

Lynn Miles did it to protest the war in Iraq; got media coverage and everything. I doubt he is claiming statelessness.

So there is no asylum seeker law?

In most European countries if you lose or burn your passport and they cannot proof where you are from, you may stay and even migrate to this country.

I saw that on BBC two I think…a lot refugees from Asia do that.

Cost you $60 US bucks to get it replaced, as I presume Lynn found out the hard way.
Plus remember you must, must have the Special AIT Size photos, as I found out the hard way when I tried to use the stock passport photos that are sold all over the island.

Oh, and in an attempt to rival the locals for fucked up procedures; when it says on the AIT website, “oh, for ease of application, download form and fill it out at home”…don’t fucking bother. When you get there the smiling AIT operative will tell you “oh…too bad…wrong form”. When you (in this case me) start smoking at the ears and tell her “it fucking says it is the right form on the YOUR website”, she will just smile from the comfort of the other side of the bullet proof glass and say, “oh, I know, but it is not”.

take care,
Brian

I think the poster was trying to say that he would PRETEND to be stateless and see what the police would do. Without a travel document or co-operation from the person involved the police would have a hard time working out the truth of the claim.

This is precisely what many aylum seekers do in Europe, by the way. Get on the plane. Land in London. Passport in bin. Say nothing to immigration except ask for form SAL1 or whatever the asylum form is called now. If the passenger refuses to do anything other than say “I wish to claim political asylum” there is little else the IO can do.

what would happen if I burn my passport?

It would turn into ash and be totally useless.

What would happen if everybody all over the world burned all their passports. That would be a beautiful statement. Down with artificial boundaries saying where we can and can’t go! I am of the Earth, I should be able to go anywhere on this planet I set my feet to.

Didn’t you know, the Taiwanese can tell, just by looking at you, where you are from. Tall, big nose, white = American. Tall, big nose, maple leaf on backpack = Canadian Tall, big nose, pictures of sheep in wallet = Australian. So, deporting you back to your home country wouldn’t be a problem.

Let’s remember this is the guy who claims to have dined with members of the Legislative Yuan as a supposed TSU member : [tw.forumosa.com/t/serious-request-to-foreigners-in-taiwan-about-your-rights/12300/1

…and who desperately wants to escape from Germany to find a Taiwanese bride to be his “Ms. Right”: [How to find Ms. Right?

:loco:

Most countries view the burning of that countries passport as nothing more than the actions of that individual. In order to renounce your citizenship you most comply by your countries laws regarding renunciation. Currently, no country in the world recognizes the burning of the passport as a form of renunciation.

We know anyhow who he is and we will tell the police / immigration. Then they will send him back on the next plane to his home country and make him attend national service by stuffing him into a tank that is used for target practise.

[quote=“CoffeAnnan”]What would happen if I burn up my foreign passport in Taiwan?

And if the police ask , I say I’m stateless.[/quote]

I’ll pay you $ for you to do this and post back here your adventures. I guarantee that the resulting thread would make it to the Forumosan Hall of Fame :sunglasses:

[quote=“brianlkennedy”]Cost you $60 US bucks to get it replaced, as I presume Lynn found out the hard way.
Plus remember you must, must have the Special AIT Size photos, as I found out the hard way when I tried to use the stock passport photos that are sold all over the island.

Oh, and in an attempt to rival the locals for fucked up procedures; when it says on the AIT website, “oh, for ease of application, download form and fill it out at home”…don’t fucking bother. When you get there the smiling AIT operative will tell you “oh…too bad…wrong form”. When you (in this case me) start smoking at the ears and tell her “it fucking says it is the right form on the YOUR website”, she will just smile from the comfort of the other side of the bullet proof glass and say, “oh, I know, but it is not”.

take care,
Brian[/quote]

This is also a US Embassy SOP it seems. I got the same crap from the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur while doing my K-3 visa paperwork. We even printed the instructions from their website and the smug clerk just said, “It’s not official papers from our (visa) office and so you need to fill out the forms again.”

The kicker is that for spousal and fiancee visas, their offices are only open Monday & Friday from 2-3:30pm.

:fume:

[quote=“CoffeAnnan”]So there is no asylum seeker law?
[/quote]

No, there are no provisions whatsoever for refugees or asylum seekers in Taiwan law! No one, no matter how persecuted or deserving, can legally get asylum in Taiwan!

Please ask your friends in the TSU to do something about it! That would be a worthwhile project! (Although frankly, I tend to think it will be a cold day in hell before the xenophobes in the TSU propose that law!)

[quote=“CoffeAnnan”]What would happen if I burn up my foreign passport in Taiwan?

And if the police ask , I say I’m stateless.[/quote]

Interesting to see how the police would handle that. Rumor has that beatings are used by them, and remember that as a general rule, the police here is completely useless…

With luck, they will lock you up until you tell them where you are from - and then they will deport you. You might want to bring vaseline or baby oil for use when raped by the gangster inmates, they are likely to put in the same cell as you.

If you start playing up when arrested, and/or you are in bad luck, they will beat you until you volunteer info about your nationality. If anybody asks about your numerous bruises, then “You fell down the stairs”.

If your luck is really good, then will put you in the detention center in Sanxia - you might want to bring vaseline or baby oil for when raped by theeast African roommates, they are likely to arrange for you.

Trust me on this one… Forget this idea - no TSU LY members will have any personal gain when it comes to help you out of that particular self-inflicted pickle. Therefore, they will forget everything about you, and kick you out of the party for good measure - if they don’t just delete your name instead. If that leads to you rotting up somewhere in a Taiwan jail ordetention center, then too bad for you. They would not give a hoot.

You are an asset as a foreign member of the TSU, looking good on their party roll, and adding “face” to them. However, if you actually try to do something like what you mentioned above, then you become a liability, and you will find yourself without any kind of friends here surprisingly fast.