I am a Belgian citizen and I am considering moving to Taiwan in a couple of months under the work holiday visa program. Belgium signed a working holiday visa agreement with Taiwan two years ago and I think that 200 Belgians are allowed to travel to Taiwan, but I have read that very few foreigners are taking advantage of that program anyway. I was just wondering if there were people out there who have participated to the program and How they would describe their experience. I have been reading lots of posts on this forum and I am getting worried it would be almost impossible for me to land a job there. I have a degree in politics and I am not an English native, so it looks like my options will be very limited. I should add that I don’t speak Chinese (but planning on learning a bit before coming). Any tip/advice would be welcomed!
There have been topics on this in the past but so few people come to Taiwan on working holiday visas that getting a reply from someone who has actually done it will be difficult. If you haven’t already searched, these are quite typical:
Somewhere there is a thread with some government statistics on the matter. The numbers are minuscule, basically because of the need to speak Chinese and the pay. A minimum wage job here would get you about 3.5 Euros per hour, at most?
Thanks for the links even though you can’t really say you get a lot of useful information…
I don’t really understand the total lack of interest for that program in Taiwan. Especially when you see that thousands of French people wanna go freeze their ass in Canada every year.
Mostly the agreement will be used by Taiwanese who go on working holidays to Belgium, not the other way around. A minimum wage job like picking strawberries, is paying well compared to what they earn here. Plus it is a way for younger people to travel, and working holidays are much more popular here in Taiwan then in Belgium. There are companies actively looking for Taiwanese who want to go on working holidays abroad. It’s a whole bussiness here.
So is it possible to get some handy job like cherry picking or a restaurant/hotel job if you have the required work authorization? How much money can you make? (Not much I guess)
The visa is the work authorization. It’s like being married to a local (open work rights) but with an automatic divorce after one year. The only jobs you’re forbidden to take are ones that require licenses, like teaching in a public school (not buxiban), unless you have a license that’s recognized in Taiwan.
The problem with hotel or restaurant work is finding a place that will hire a non-Mandarin speaker. Any business with lots of foreign customers will want staff who speak English, Japanese, Korean, Cantonese, and to a lesser extent French, German, etc. But if you don’t speak Mandarin at all then it would be a struggle for both employer and employee (unless the boss and other staff are fluent in English, in which case they would probably only hire a foreigner with other valuable skills). If you’re a fast learner you can try first studying Mandarin intensively and then looking for a job after a few months, I suppose.
Yesterday the minimum wage for most jobs rose to NT $120/h or $20,008/month (42 hours per week). That’s about €3.50 as antarcticbeech said, or €584/month. I assume some hotels or hostels would offer to pay partly in free accommodation.
It’s not entirely clear: it could mean you can study for up to six months and then work for up to six months, or it could mean you’re required to be a “pure” tourist after you’ve used up your work/study time. This is the kind of detail that varies according to nationality. It’s probably the same as whatever Belgium requires of Taiwanese. I would ask the TECO or whatever it’s called in Brussels.
Ps. Many blue collar jobs like construction and probably also fruit picking are taken by Southeast Asians who probably don’t speak much Mandarin either (some government services are available in Thai, Indonesian, and Vietnamese), so if you really want to do it you probably can. The Southeast Asians have an advantage though, in that they’re used to the tropical climate.
The visa is the work authorization. It’s like being married to a local (open work rights) but with an automatic divorce after one year. The only jobs you’re forbidden to take are ones that require licenses, like teaching in a public school (not buxiban), unless you have a license that’s recognized in Taiwan.
The problem with hotel or restaurant work is finding a place that will hire a non-Mandarin speaker. Any business with lots of foreign customers will want staff who speak English, Japanese, Korean, Cantonese, and to a lesser extent French, German, etc. But if you don’t speak Mandarin at all then it would be a struggle for both employer and employee (unless the boss and other staff are fluent in English, in which case they would probably only hire a foreigner with other valuable skills). If you’re a fast learner you can try first studying Mandarin intensively and then looking for a job after a few months, I suppose.
Yesterday the minimum wage for most jobs rose to NT $120/h or $20,008/month (42 hours per week). That’s about €3.50 as antarcticbeech said, or €584/month. I assume some hotels or hostels would offer to pay partly in free accommodation.
It’s not entirely clear: it could mean you can study for up to six months and then work for up to six months, or it could mean you’re required to be a “pure” tourist after you’ve used up your work/study time. This is the kind of detail that varies according to nationality. It’s probably the same as whatever Belgium requires of Taiwanese. I would ask the TECO or whatever it’s called in Brussels.[/quote]
I think you cannot work for more than 6 months for the same employer, and you can study mandarin for 3 or 6 months maximum. Even if the cost of living is pretty low, I just think it’s probably not worth it. Not sure I want to work 42hrs/week to make 584/month. Well of course you don’t do it for the money but for the experience, but still. And all the comments here made me realize there are very very few opportunities outsides english teaching
If you have a work visa, and just want to work, and not concerned about how much money you will make because ti won’t be much, look for work at a company, office, restaurant, bar, club, that want some English speakers that look like foreigners. Talk to everyone anyone you meet.
