Job Discussion Forums

[Ferfichkin]

OK, I need some help, I'm confused. Please forgive me if this has been covered before, I looked through all 28 pages on Taiwan and although I found fragments of what I was looking for, I couldn't find a complete answer to the one question I keep tripping over.

Here's the thing. People giving advice on this board seem to agree that $1500-$2000 USD is a good amount of money to come over to Taiwan with. However, these same people, and many others as well, claim that there is a good chance that these same people may need to go on a visa run to Hong Kong, and that on this trip they will need to show the Hong Kong officials that they have somewhere in the neighbourhood of 100000nt, or $3100 USD, in their bank account. I don't understand. As far as I can tell, and needless to say I am no expert on the subtleties of Taiwanese visa legislation, but what people are basically saying is, "$2000 is a good amount of money to bring..... unless of course you need $3000.

I don't understand, if there is a decent chance that these people might need to go on a visa run, and if on this visa run they are going to have to demonstrate that they have $3000 in the bank, how can so many people be giving advice that $1500-$2000 is enough.

This is a really important point to me because, it will, obviously, take me twice as long to save $3000 as it would to save $1500, and given my current living expenses that extra $1500 is going to delay my trip to Taiwan significantly.

So here's my real question, do I need to go to Hong Kong or don't I? How is this determined? Is there something that I can do to avoid it, or is it determined kind of willy nilly by Taiwanese officials. Kind of like, "Ok, Sally you need to go to Hong Kong, Billy you can get your visa here, Jimmy you need to go to Hong Kong, Wendy you can get your visa here." I just don't get it, if you don't need to go to Hong Kong, why so many people go, and if you do, how are these people able to get their visas when they only had $1500 to begin with?

Please don't think I'm begin sarcastic, a little silly and over dramatic maybe, but I really am genuinely confused and any help that people could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
fich

[jmax_nz]

Hey mate,

These people who fly to Hong Kong once a month are the people without a 60 der single/multiple entry visa. The story goes like this, to get a single/multiple entry visa you need to send off your passport with a filled in Visa application two passport sized photos and a financial statement and if on business which you will most likely say on your visa you need a business letter from a company in Taiwan that says you are going over there to do business (apparently you can get these from Acer and other large companies you just write to them and tell them you are going over to look at there products). Once you have this Visa your company will apply for a residency Visa and then you apply for an ARC, its all here on the discussion board mate.

So the two short answers are if you already have a job lined up you will probably need $1000 US otherwise you will need to $2000 because Taiwan pays a month in behind at the extra $1000 US dollars will be used to support you with accommodation and food until you get your first pay check.

That is depending you can find a job within a months time.

PS also if you are having trouble getting enough money for the Visa application, get someone to lend you money then pay them back after you have generated the statement or just open up 2-3 bank accs and transfer the money into each bank and the generated individual statement so $1000 US becomes $3000 US get it!!

Jmax..

[Ki]

The NT$100,000 (proof of funds) is on needed if you need to do a visa run to Hong Kong under guise of being a student. But if you are applying for a 60 day visa under 'tourism' back 'home' then you will need to provide proof of funds anyway. You could probaby get away with much less than $100,000 but if you need to go to Hong Kong and/or pay for student fees then try to have more rather than less money available for your use.

Even if you line up some interviews before you arrive you won't have an actual job before arriving. Don't sign anything with a recruiter before you arrive. It may take you a couple of weeks before you can start, depending on how picky both you and the school are about what you both want.