Job Discussion Forums

[yamahuh]

I just heard this on very good authority from the guy trying to get our visitor visas converted to residency visas / permits whatever you want to call them (sorry, I'm a bit steamed right now).

Apparently, as of yesterday, April 1st 2008, you can NO LONGER convert a visitor visa into a residency visa to allow you to work in Taiwan.

He went today, April 2nd, with all our paperwork and was told that it could no longer be processed. I'm absolutely furious, it means that we've got to leave the country in the next day or so as our visa expires tomorrow.

What a situation.
Essentially it means that schools here are going to have hire teachers sight unseen and potential teachers will have to apply for work visas for specific schools before arriving or come, here find a school and then leave to get a work visa.

Did anyone else hear about this or know of its implementation?

[killian]

that is the way it was in taiwan about 3 years ago: you had to go to HK to get your visa changed. easy trip.

[atiff]

We (Hess) found out about this yesterday, and are trying to work out the exact details of the new rules. We have good documents people with good contacts and there didn't seem to be much in the way of notification about this.

From what we understand, it may be possible for people with a visitor's visa with the right "comments" to still get a resident visa conversion, but the process will be harder.

However, as of April 1, we have only heard this from the Taichung (central) area so far - "yamahuh", where are you based? Despite other areas being OK as of right now, we believe this will be nation-wide before very long.

Cheers,
Andrew Tiffany

Manager, English Human Resources Dept,
Hess Educational Organization

[yamahuh]

Maybe so, but since then you've been able to show up with a 60 day visitor visa and convert that into a residency visa right?
At least that's what we did last time.

Now, as of April 1st that is no longer possible.
You have to arrive with a work visa if you want to work or, I'm guessing, come in on a visitor visa and then leave the country to change it into a work visa like you said.

There's a lot of pissed of people going to be arriving in Taiwan over the next few weeks after being told to get a 60 day visa, only to find out that they are still going to have to do a visa run if they want to work legally.

[yamahuh]

I'm in Putzi, Chiayi county not too far from Taizhung.
In fact that's where my contact went this morning to get the papers processed, only to be turned away.

Are you saying that we could get them processed in Kaohsiung or Taipei without any problem?

[craigzy]

it seems like hess, out of all the schools, would have the contacts that would know if something like this was going to happen. so im lead to believe this was some really clandestine shit that just went down.

as info gets out, this thread should probably become a sticky.

[yamahuh]

Latest I've heard is that IF your paperwork was in process prior to March 31st then you MAY be able to argue your case for 'grandfathering' your application.

Maybe.
That's the exact situation we're in right now and the woman in Taizhung flat refused to process it even though our documents, health check etc had already been accepted and processed by Taipei.
Our work permit has been issued but the Taizhung office will not (so far at least) use it to turn our visitor visas into residency visas.

Someone from the school knows someone who may be able to apply some pressure on our behalf tomorrow but it is far from guaranteed that we won't have to leave the country and the clock is well and truly ticking.

This is going to have massive short term repercussions.

[BigWally]

Any official links on this?

[yamahuh]

I've looked at a few web sites and can find no 'announcement' of the procedural change. That being said, officially you were never supposed to enter on a visitor visa for the purpose of working. That's why it was always a bit 'cloak and dagger' coming in and pretending you were a tourist, having to buy an outward bound ticket, showing bank statements to show you didn't need to work etc.

I guess they've now just closed that loop hole so really, why announce the enforcement of a policy that was supposed to be enforced anyway?

[atiff]

This is the place we first found the notification on the Bureau of Consular Affairs website - unfortunately it's not in English, so if anyone here can read Chinese.....

http://www.boca.gov.tw/content.asp?CuItem=2371

There is an attachment there, again in Chinese:

（超連結內容）
1.聘僱期限在6個月以上，未及於來台前獲發行政院勞工委員會工作許可者，得檢附國內聘僱公司出具之信函正本及已向勞委會申請工作許可之證明影本向駐外館處申請停留期限30日之應聘停留簽證。申請人抵台後，得於停留期限屆滿前，持憑勞委會工作許可向本局申辦應聘居留簽證。
2.已向勞委會申請工作許可之證明包括：
（1）雇主親至勞委會申請者，應提交勞委會開立之「收件回條」影本。
（2）自郵局以掛號寄送申請文件至勞委會者，可以郵局之「收執聯」影本做為證明；以雙掛號寄送文件者，可提交「收執聯」影本或「臺灣郵政掛號郵件收件回執」影本。
3.特定國家、蒙古、羅馬尼亞、塞爾維亞、波士尼亞�赫塞哥維納、蒙特內哥羅、委內瑞拉、摩爾多瓦及北韓等國家人士不適用本規定。


(EDIT: the attachment is part of the page I quoted above, but not the whole text - read both)

I don't know of any English information about it at this time.

Cheers
Andrew Tiffany

Manager, English Human Resources Department
Hess Educational Organization

[yamahuh]

Any chance of a translation on that Andrew?

[blackmagicABC]

I will have a look at the passage tonight and see I can translate it into something that makes sense.

[Honest-agent]

Hey

Im the lad who went to the Taichung office to do the paper work only to be informed that they had been issued a directive halting all foreigners with visator visas from being able to convert over to residency visa's

This was always the law and i was aware of that

On Jan 1 this year they started to enforce it as this.....that unless you were from a 'English speaking' country whos nationals can enter taiwan on a landing visa...you would no longer be able to do things the way we had been.

In short....Aussies, NZ, Eng, Can and the US could still do it all others had to get the work permit issued before coming here.

I expect that they had planned to bring that apon us all but because of an instant backlash from a lot of owners they quickly pulled that Idea.

I was there again today for 2 hours and talked with the director and he showed me another directive saying things are back to normal again..for now

Funny stuff if it wasnt so typical and playing with people's lives.

The ladies at the counter are a bit embarresed as well

Regards

[atiff]

[blackmagicABC]

I am not so good with these formal wording translations and I am a little tight on time.
It basically says
(link)
You have to apply to the Taiwan trade office in your home country or in another country that has a trade office for a working visa to enter Taiwan and that you need a minimum 6 month working contract from your employer. The visa is valid for 30 days in which you need to completee the process of obtaining a residency permit.
The employer also needs to supply you with a receipt that they have applied at the local government whether the receipt is from the loval government if they apply in person, or the post office is they apply through mail. (This is a little confusing to me in Chinese though)
It ends with a list of countries from which you can not apply like Mongolia, Romania, Bosnia, Montenegro etc.
The translation is translated for meaning and not perfectly accurate so please don't go to the trade office and say "some guy on Dave's ESL cafe said"