Job Discussion Forums

[rbos]

I have some questions for [WorkingVaca], or anyone esle who can answer them:

I too am thinking of coming to Taiwan without a job set up yet. I tried sending resumes over the internet to Taiwanese language schools for a couple of months before I got a job offer from a school. Unfortunately, it didn't work out for me to come to Taiwan at that time.

Now that I'm almost ready to come to Taiwan, I really don't want to wait another two months searching over the internet for traching jobs. I was told by several of my prospective employers I applied to that they would only interview applicants who were already in Taiwan. It seems to me that the easiest way to find a job in Taiwan is by showing up there.

I'm considering coming to Taiwan on a Visa exempt stay of 30 days (since I'm a US citizen) while I look for work teaching ESL. For one thing, I don't quite have $3,000 in the bank as the 60-day visa would require that I have.

But I have several questions:

1) Being that this will be my first teaching job and that I recently graduated with my B.A. (Political Science) and have no TEFL/TOEFL/CELTA, how difficult would it be to find an ESL job in Taipei in 30 days? Is this even a realistic time period?

2) Can I even transfer my 30 day Visa exempt travel status to a Work Visa status once I find an employer?

3) How long would it take for the government to transfer my status from 30 days visa-exempt to working visa? In other words, to legally switch over before my visa exempt status expires, by which day into my 30 day trip would my prospective employer need to start the process of converting my visa-exempt status to a work visa status?