My sweetie is from Thailand and here on a student visa studying Mandarin. We are getting conflicting information from various people, official and non-official.
She entered Taiwan in Nov 2022, Began classes Dec 2022, Her ARC was issued May of 2023.
We are under the impression that she is allowed 2 years in Taiwan before needing renewal.
What no one can seem to answer is if that is two years from her entrance into the country (Nov 2022), or two years from when she recieved her ARC (May 2023).
She was on the phone with immigration this morning and six minutes into the call was told she only had 1 more minute of their time due to needing to respond to others. Sure enough at 7 min they hung up mid sentence. Totally insane! And they never answered her question.
Hey. I have experience in this but it may be out of date.
When I studied Mandarin, I was given ARCs that expired at the end of each semester. They could be renewed with proof. Ostensibly at the 8th one, you need to leave by the end of your ARC.
Marco thanks. I should have offered further information.
Yes, every semester she enrolls, she has been given an extension. She has done this several times.
The heart of the matter is that she is being told she can only extend for up to 2 years before having to fully reapply. She is only studying mandarin at a language school, not enrolled in a degree program. Long story.
Originally she was being told she had to leave after this next semester. Despite it being before 2years of her arrival. The next semester would have gone over or something.
Now she is being told that that 2 years began when she received her ARC. So she can continue to re-enroll and stay through April 2025.
@CTaitung We are in Taichung. She is asking the school for assistance. @RickRooney She is asking the school for help however, given our track record for receiving good information, we are trying to double up on the fact finding. Fortunately Tunghai has been stellar to work with whereas Fengchia was not.