Recently I’ve been working on figuring out my visa situation here in Taiwan. In past years I never really had issues as I was a student with a scholarship from Taiwan’s Ministry of Education and as such enjoyed the privileges of a resident visa. However, I graduated back in June and all that has changed.
During the summer while we were back in Michigan, Emily and I sent our US marriage certificate off to TECO Chicago (the name that Taiwan calls their Embassy in Chicago because they aren’t allowed to call it an Embassy) to have them authenticate it. We also secured a 60 day visitor visa from them for me. Since we arrived back in Taiwan on September 10th, I am currently about three weeks away from that 60 day mark where I have to exit Taiwan to avoid over-staying my visa. The plan, though, is to use my status as Emily’s husband (She is still technically an NTNU student and therefore has residency) to get my 60 day visitor visa extended for another 60 days and buy enough time for me to find a cram schoool job that can sponsor me for my own resident visa. Sound complicated? Sorry, I’m trying to explain it the best I can, but it is government weirdness.
Anyways, I went down to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) today and expected to be able to show them my authenticated marriage certificate and for them to pound a few stamps on some papers and smile and tell me I was all good to go for another 60 days. While the lady was extremely nice that is not what happened. Basically, I got to NIA, grabbed a number, filled out the application form, and read in Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink while I waited for my number to be called. Then the lady who was lucky enough to call my number scanned my documents and explained that in order to extend my visitor visa for another 60 days, using my marriage certificate to Emily, I would need to get said marriage certificate translated into Mandarin Chinese and have it signed by a notary public. Oi vei. The nice lady also informed me that I can’t extend it until two weeks prior to the end of the 60 day period so I was a week too soon in visiting her.
So, after receiving instructions from NIA on where I can go to find quick and easy translation and notary services (for you other foreigners living in Taiwan: apparently a good place is in the upper floors of the building next to the Cosmos Hotel near the Taipei Main Station). I took off for work with no visa extension. I love bureaucracy, don’t you? To be fair, the nice lady at NIA also informed me that I can get a visa extension by producing a bank statement that verifies I have in my possession, somewhere in the world, at least $100,000 NT dollars. Isn’t it nice of them to provide us poor foreigners with these options?
Anyways, in a few short weeks I hope to have glowing reports about how this all worked out and that I learned so much from the whole the thing. Oh, and it also reminds me how lucky I am having to deal with Taiwan’s immigration agency as opposed to what the USA makes foreigners put up with…ugh…the stories I’ve heard, but thankfully never had to go through myself.
In other news, I was able to get more video editing done. This time I worked with footage from me and Emily’s Winter of 2010 scooter trip around Taiwan. Hope you like it: http://youtu.be/o6qZ1vvGVuw
Yea… I went with the “I’mma rich foreigner” route when I renewed my 60 day extension.
Do you know if your 60 day can be transferred to a work visa?
Ha! I know just what you’re talking about – we went through it for months! Luckily for us, Kinmen is kind of podunk and doesn’t really know the rules. The first couple times Ben needed to extend his extra 60 days, they just did it with our regular, non-authenticated marriage certificate. Then one day, out of the blue, they told him we needed to get it translated. Obviously, there is not an official translator on Kinmen, so Joy at our church took a blank piece of printer paper, wrote out “Ben and Stephanie are officially married as of Sept. 13, 2008,” and the people notarized it! That’s what we used the rest of our time in Kinmen.
That is a great story Stephanie. I love Kinmen. Taipei has its benefits, but the immigration folks are definitely Taiwan’s finest in rule following.
Zee, your question is a good one. I’ve heard different things about the 60 day visitor being changed into a resident visa. From what I’ve read, it used to be that if you were in Taiwan with a visitor visa you had to leave, then re-enter with a resident visa. However, apparently the law was changed and now you can do a change without having to leave. All that is what I remember perusing several forums on this subject over the past week or so. One discussion in particular that I remembered was good was on forumosa so maybe check that out for more details.
I saw your comment on my blog, so I thought I’d come over and read yours.
I like your scooter video, makes me want to get back up in the mountains–of Taiwan.
You should definitely go to Li Song hot springs on a scooter Steve. It is the best.
Hey, I came across your video of highway 20 doing research for my Chinese New Year vacation – it looks very encouraging. From what I can tell, you started out west, and drove east? Did you manage to go all the way from Liogue district to Chinshang? The route was washed out by Marokot and it’s hard to tell if it’s open or not!
I’ve got a fair amount of experience on scooters, but any advice or recommendations you can offer are much appreciated!
-Matt
Hi Matt. Yes you are exactly right. Day one we drove from Donggang, south of Kaohsiung, on the west coast up Hwy 20. Camped out overnight at Lisong hot springs and spent a day there. Then drove down to the East coast.
Along the way up people kept telling us the road was out, but we kept going to see for ourselves. In the video you can see the construction that was keeping everyone else from getting through but luckily we got to it when the workers were letting those who wanted to past.
The trip was great. It was definitely not a road for newbies as the railing along the road a lot of the time was just caution tape with a big drop just on the other side. Plus as you saw in the vid lots of times there were big puddles as well as just gravel that sometimes can be difficult to keep your balance on. The road conditions varied from very bad to almost normal.
My suggestion is do it if you want an adventure, but don’t race. Take your time and don’t be too uptight if you get turned back. We honestly thought we might end up having to just turn around. Also, start early in the day as the fog rolls in about 3pm and you’ll want to summit before that time if you can. Also very important: whenever there is a gas station fill up as they are pretty spaced out up there.
As far as equipment: we had four “American sized” people as well as camping gear with two on a 100cc PGO and the other two on a 125cc Kymco. Both scooters did just fine and are still driving great today!
Hope you have a great time!