So basically the school who offered me a job have left all the paperwork to the last minute despite all my cajoling.
My 90 day visa exempt status will end in two weeks. Assuming my paperwork for a work permit is submitted tomorrow, what should I do? I’m not sure if it is long enough for the work permit to be issued.
Will I be allowed to stay while my paperwork is being processed, or will I have to do a HK visa run? And if I do a visa run, can I take my work contract as proof that I should be allowed to re-enter the country, or would I need to book a flight out of Taiwan in order to be allowed back in?
The other possibility is extending my visa-free status for 60 days as a UK citizen. But I think I read somewhere that once you do that, you can’t be issued a work permit. Is that true. Or might it be possible for me to go cap in hand to Immigration, and apply for the visa free status extention with a copy of my work contract and say I want to avoid doing a pointless visa run, and here’s the proof I have a job, I’m just waiting for the permit?
I think it’s stupid that I would have my work permit in the process of being issued and have to leave the country at the same time!
The “published” lead time for applications is 2 weeks, so you have time.
However, I went through this process very recently… The Admin Manager and I went to the Work permit office on a Tuesday morning with all the paperwork and handed it over in person. The Work Permit was approved and sent back the following Friday, less than 4working days.
You need to make sure you all you papers are in order, get yourself down there ASAP and stop worrying.
As long as the work permit paperwork is all correct and everything’s there, you won’t have any issues. Besides, if it comes down to the last couple of days I would just take the receipt for the work permit application to the immigration office and ask very nicely for an extra week of time since the work permit will surely be ready in a few days.
Do you mean I can go to the Immigration Office and extend my visa exempt status for a few days if I have the receipt? What about if I took my work contract with company stamp to the Immigration Office? Would they let me stay in Taiwan longer until it’s sorted?
You can get a few grace days from immigration while your work permit application is processing.
It’s an A4 piece of paper with a blue diamond in the middle. The person who submits the papers to the CLA in person gets that paper.
In my experience, the immigration clerks will not grant you an extension until you have the blue diamond page. A signed contract is very unlikely to do it. You can try, but you will probably just end up lining up at immigration for nothing.
Sorry everybody for putting my Work permit drama in this topic! I have strange situation with the application for my new Work permit now. My pre-story: I decided to change my work (from Taiwanese company “A” to “B”) in late March 2014. Note: at that time I had 2 years Work Permit from 2013 till late September 2015 for company A. I got my new Work permit to work for B company in early April 2014. Due to several reasons, I decided to return to A company in July 2014 and got the Letter of job contract cancellation from B company in middle of July 2014. Late July 2014 my A company applied for new Work permit at CLA, but, here please a attention, CLA issue the paper said, that CLA is OK to use my old work permit, which was issued to A company and ends September 2015.
Well, this month, in June 2015, as my old work permit and current working ARC is going to expire, my A company applied for new Work permit, but suddenly CLA sent the paper and asked to explain why my salary in 2014 (in company A) was less than minimum salary requirement for foreigners. This made my crazy: SURE, my salary was less because I worked in company A in 2014 only 8 months, not 12 months (3.5 months I worked in company B and 2 weeks I spent to switch the jobs and extend my working ARC). I think, CLA just simply divided my salary earned in company A for 12 months! But actually I worked in company A 8 months in 2014!
Questions:
should I go to National Tax Bureau and get the Statement showing my overall income in 2014? my overall income in 2014 was more than 700K NTD.
should I copy the bank passbook, showing the salaries coming from company B during 3.5 months, when I worked there?
It seems that CLA does not have my data: when and how many jobs I changed…It is not professional!
Don’t panic. Sometimes the CLA can visit your company or send a letter asking for an explanation of something they found to be odd. Fear not though, once you produce your documents, they wrap things up quickly.
Did your companies apply for your work permits on your behalf? This is the usual case for white collar workers. If yes, the HR manager of company A needs to make a phone call to the CLA to find out what to do.
oh, yes, all two companies applied for my work permits on my behalf. HR manager called to CLA, but CLA replied was very simple: to send the proof that my monthly income was not lower that minimal monthly salary for foreign white color workers. Yesterday I went to Tax Bureau and got statement on my overall income in 2014. Today HR have sent these papers to CLA. Hopefully, I will get my work permit soon…
PS. My working ARC ends on 8th of August…