Visa Information (home)
1) Visitors Visa - **Please
note: the Taiwan Trade office has been making it a pain in the neck to get a visitors
visa. Although it is not necessary (as you can see from the fact it is on none of
their own forms), they have taken to the practice of asking everyone who wants a visa to
submit their bank statements and flight itineraries. If you have been accepted to
our program we are here to help you with this process!**
You need to geta "VISA APPLICATION
FORM FOR ENTRY INTO THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA (FORM-V-1)". All Taiwan-Teachers
teachers will be given one at the time they sign the Letter of Agreement (i.e. when
they agree to work with Taiwan-Teachers, see Application
Process). You can also get them at any Taipei Economic
&Cultural Office. Their office in Vancouver (whose jurisdiction is B.C.,
Alberta, Saskatchewan, Yukon and Northwest Territories) is located at:
A complete listing of their N. American addresses is here. Once you have
the form completed, with your passport (which should be valid for at least a year),
two recent passport size photo as well as payment. For Canadian citizens a single entry
visa is $48 and a multiple entry is $96. Visitors visas are free for U.S.
citizens. Payments will be accepted by money order, bank draft, certified
cheque or cash and should be made payable to THE TAIPEI ECONOMIC & CULTURAL
OFFICE, VANCOUVER (TECO). When you get you passport back it will have a sticker and a
bunch of stamps on one of the pages. Under visa type a "v" will be
checked. Under duration of stay it will probably have "Sixty days."
It looks like this.
This Visitor Visa is valid for sixty days.
With our help teachers will receive their Working Permit and submit their papers for the Resident Visa
before the two months is up.
Please Note
- Previously, it was relatively
easy to extend the visitors visa. This is no longer the case. You
only have two months to get you working permit, our you must make a "visa
run" or enroll in Chinese classes for ten hours a week.
2) Working Permit
Your school needs to apply to the local board of education
to get you a working permit. Your school will do most of the work on this one, but
that doesn't mean you shouldn't pay close attention to what is going on, and how long it
takes.
Your school needs to present the following to the local
school board:
1) a cover sheet which also serves as the instruction form
for the school
2) a letter which indicates when they hired you
3) A copy of your diploma, a translation of you diploma,
your original diploma and form A (which states the details of your diploma in Chinese).
4) Your passport and a copy of each page of your
passport. You must also sign each and every page of the copy including the cover.
5) An application form asking for information about both
the school and you. You will need to provide a passport sized photo for this
application.
6) A list of all the teachers working at the school.
8) Signed copies of the one year contract with the school,
in Chinese and English.
3) Resident Visa
Now you are ready to bring your Work
Permit, your passport and some photos to
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In Kaohsiung you need to find Chung Cheng 4th Rd. and head towards the Love
River. You need to find the intersection of Chung Cheng
and Cheng Kung Rd. At that intersection you will
be able to see the brown building that is on the right of you screen. You
proceed to enter the right side door (not the bank that takes up most of the first
floor) and go to the second floor. Proceed through the doors marked Ministry
of Foreign Affairs (Open 8:30 - 5:00 M-F and 8:30 -
12:00 on Sat.) Turn right and go to the far end of the room. Ask for a Visa
Application at booth 12 (it is the same one that you filled out to get you Visitor
Visa, you just fill it out a little differently now that you have an address, employer
etc.) Give them the application, your visa, your working visa (be sure to make
a copy for yourself first!) and a photo. Then a bank teller will be pointed out to
you. Go and pay her $1800 nt. and give one side of the receipt to the woman at
counter 12. You must keep the other end of the receipt, which you will need in around ten
days to pick up your passport. Your new visa will look almost exactly like your
Visitors Visa, except it will have a "R" checked instead of a "V" and
it will not have any duration of stay marked on it. To see what it looks like click
here (they have recently begun issuing different looking visas
too... I will post the new pictures soon.)
4) Alien Resident Certificate (A.R.C.)
When you are given your passport above,
you will be told to get your A.R.C. and Multiple Entry Visa within 15 days or you will be
fined. So you need to go to the Kaohsiung Municipal
Police Headquarters (pictured on the left). It is very close to
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs above. You just go a block towards
the Love River on Chung Cheng Rd. It is on the corner of Chung Cheng and Shi Jung.
You need to go to the entrance on Shi Jung Rd. There is a ramp that leads up to the
entrance you need (it is just above the yellow cab in our picture.) They are open from 8:00
- 12:00 and from 1:30 to 5:30 Monday to Friday. They are open 8 - 12 Sat. except
for long weekends.
To get your A.R.C. all you need is your passport (now with it's
spiffy new Resident Visa), four photos and 1000 nt (unless you are an American of
course.) You can come back and pick up your A.R.C. in around ten days.
5)
Multiple
Entry Permit
When
you go in to process your A.R.C. ask for a Multiple Entry Permit as well. Without
this you will have to do all the steps above each time you leave the country. Take
the application to your school, have them fill it out and stamp it with their school stamp
(called a chop). You may also need a copy of your work permit (they say you do but
often don't ask, anyway you should have made a copy before you applied for your Resident
Visa). They will give you the permit as soon as you give them the application (they
will stamp it in your passport.) There is no charge. The Multiple Entry Permit looks like
this in your passport (same as above,
there are different looking permits being issued now, I will update this section soon.)
Extensions - Previously,
it was relatively easy to extend the visitors visa. This is no longer the
case. You only have two months to get you working permit, our you must
make a "visa run" or enroll in Chinese classes for ten hours a
week.
passport and some photos to
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In Kaohsiung you need to find Chung Cheng 4th Rd. and head towards the Love
River. You need to find the intersection of Chung Cheng
and Cheng Kung Rd. At that intersection you will
be able to see the brown building that is on the right of you screen. You
proceed to enter the right side door (not the bank that takes up most of the first
floor) and go to the second floor. Proceed through the doors marked Ministry
of Foreign Affairs (Open 8:30 - 5:00 M-F and 8:30 -
12:00 on Sat.) Turn right and go to the far end of the room. Ask for a Visa
Application at booth 12 (it is the same one that you filled out to get you Visitor
Visa, you just fill it out a little differently now that you have an address, employer
etc.) Give them the application, your visa, your working visa (be sure to make
a copy for yourself first!) and a photo. Then a bank teller will be pointed out to
you. Go and pay her $1800 nt. and give one side of the receipt to the woman at
counter 12. You must keep the other end of the receipt, which you will need in around ten
days to pick up your passport. Your new visa will look almost exactly like your
Visitors Visa, except it will have a "R" checked instead of a "V" and
it will not have any duration of stay marked on it. To see what it looks like click
here (they have recently begun issuing different looking visas
too... I will post the new pictures soon.)
4) Alien Resident Certificate (A.R.C.)