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eion_padraig
Joined: 13 Jan 2004
Posts: 38
Location: USA
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 Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 11:05 pm Post subject: Summer Employment - three months |
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Hello,
I've spent some time checking through various postings and I think I have a handle on visa issues. I haven't seen any mention of summer employment in Taiwan and my search only turned up 1 posting that no one responded to last year. Is this possible, difficult, easy? Are there summer language courses either at universities or language institutes? It looks like I would have to make at least one visa trip. Can I get some legal status to work in Taiwan or do I just have to risk the illegal status and hope I don't get stung. Perhaps it's too early for those sort of postings to be up, but I'ld like to explore my options.
Currently, I'm teaching at a univesity in Shanghai with a Z visa, and I'm planning on returning to the mainland, although it probably won't be back in Shanghai in the fall. I speak mandarin reasonably well and I have a B.A. & a CELTA as well as looking appropriately foreign.
Eion |
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matchstick_man
Joined: 21 May 2003
Posts: 244
Location: Taiwan
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| Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2004 5:14 am Post subject: Summer employment |
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Summer employment is definitely possible as there is a number of summer camps and the poor kids go to summer school. You can get a visitors visa for sixty days or have a Visa run to Hong Kong after 30 days now if you only have a landing visa but I doubt your employer will be too happy about the landing visa situation as summer is VERY busy here!!!
Unless you have an ARC which you are generally not granted unless you have a signed a one year contract you are working illegally.....most people here work illegally for at least one month until the official paperwork has been shuffled through. |
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Aristotle
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1388
Location: Taiwan
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| Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 6:22 am Post subject: |
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Good info Matchstick Man,
Come in late June or early July. You won't have much trouble finding a summer job teaching here.
Good luck
A. |
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brian
Joined: 15 May 2003
Posts: 299
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| Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 1:36 pm Post subject: |
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As has been said again, the minimum term for a school to be able to secure you legal employment is one year. A contract for any period less than that will not be accepted by the authorities and the application for a work permit / ARC will be refused. If you are only working here for a few months then you will almost definitely be illegal.
It is true that most people work here illegally the first month, just as most people arrive in Taiwan under false pretences on visitor visas. This is however the accepted process. If you were caught working during the first month your school would show that your paperwork was being processed and no action would be taken against you. The authorities may check back again after a month or so to ensure that you had been processed, but provided that your intentions are good you would have no problems. |
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Aristotle
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1388
Location: Taiwan
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| Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2004 6:08 am Post subject: |
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You also have to take into account that there exist a much greater risk of being cheated out of your pay and then deported by trying to work legally.
Not to mention the loss of your most basic civil liberties and the humilation of being subjugated to the status of migrant worker.
Want to be treated like a slave, follow Brian's advice.
Welcome to Taiwan,
A. |
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brian
Joined: 15 May 2003
Posts: 299
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| Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2004 10:12 am Post subject: |
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| Aristotle wrote: |
| You also have to take into account that there exist a much greater risk of being cheated out of your pay and then deported by trying to work legally. |
I just don't buy any of this nor have I seen anything that would seem to support such a claim. Common sense dictates that if you are working legally you will have the benefit of the system to fall back on should you encounter any troubles. Now I am not so naieve as to assume that the system is perfect and I have no doubt that some perfectly legal teachers get screwed every now and again - but I haven't seen any evidence that this is an endemic problem. Judging by the types of complaints that are made about schools it seems pretty obvious to me that it is in fact the teachers that work illegally that are at most threat of being ripped off. Unfortunately these teachers are not always forthcoming with this information as they realize that their complaints would be largely disregarded if they admitted that they working illegally. How do you know - just look at the schools or agents that they were working for, unlicenced companies!!
My own personal experience has seen my decision to work legally pay off. I have been 'a victim' of a bad boss, and I was able to seek the justice that I would have expected back home. Had I been illegal I would not have had this luxury and would have had to just accept the losses.
In choosing to work illegally you are restricting yourself to schools that are either willing to or have no option but to hire illegal workers. Either way these schools are not likely to have the most honorable staff, considering that they have no respect for the laws of the land that they live in. As is the situation back home, illegal workers are in fact placing themselves in the hands of these unscrupulous operators and in doing so are making themselves particularly vulnerable to being ripped off. Afterall, if your employer is willing to disregard the laws of the country in employing you, surely they wouldn't think twice about disregarding the terms of any contract that they have with you. What exactly do you do if you are ripped off when you are working illegally - just accept it I guess!!
Well I for one am not willing to just accept it. I expect to get paid for the work that I do. If my employer doesn't pay me then I will fight him through the help of the system - just as I would back home. I won't do anything that would give my employer the opportunity of not abiding by the terms of our agreement, and working illegally would give them the perfect opportunity to rip me off.
Aristotle, please clarify this for me (and the rest of the board) as I know that you are an advocate of working illegally. |
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Aristotle
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1388
Location: Taiwan
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