I was issued a work permit a little over a week ago. I need to apply for the second step, getting some sort of visa change, and then for the third step, my ARC.
However, I am in a time crunch and a cashflow crunch at the moment. I have to finish several emergency items at work, and I don’t have enough cash to pay for the visa change.
Is there a time limit, after getting the work permit, within which I MUST start the second step, the visa change, or else start over?
If it matters, I’m not teaching, so this is not through the MoE.
I’ve gotten answers both ways from several different people at this point; some say “you only have two weeks!” others say “there’s no time limit other than your current visa”. I don’t need more guesses, I need an answer from someone who knows. I don’t mean to be shirty about this, but this is rather important to me, as I doubt my company would put up with my getting deported or costing them another NT$xxxxxx for reapplying for the work permit.
Based on your work permit… you have the right to reside in Taiwan… you should go to the nearest police station (just go to the one the Foreign Affairs police) where you can apply for an ARC.
processing time is one week as I remember
They will also insert a multiple re entry permit in your passport. This allows you to get back into Taiwan for the same period of time as the validity of the ARC.
I do not know if anyone has every waited longer than a couple of days to get the ARC, usaually one follows directly after the other. I do remember seeing somewhere that the time limit is 14 days as in you must go to your nearest police station within 14 days.
Best thing to do is not take the risk. Borrow the money from somewhere and then go and do it
It should only be a couple of 1000 NTD. Its better than loosing your work permit and having to go through the whole process again
[quote=“Bu Lai En”]The standard ‘expiry date’ for documents is 3 months.
Brian[/quote]
Validity of the documents maybe different
You could also phone the foreign affairs police… although with any answer you get here from any department or ministry… I would be slow to take them at their word
You need to apply for the Resident Visa before you become an overstayer! I assume you have a Visitor Visa with some time left on it.
If so, you can wait a while, but don’t overstay on your Visitor Visa.
And better not let it go beyond the three months mentioned. (But I doubt that you could go three months without having to do something visa-wise anyway.)