Work ARC to Student ARC

[Beatbox Bandit]

Does anyone have experience going from a work ARC to a student ARC? How did you do this? Thanks.

[Rennes]

I don't have experience but I may be doing this also.

Do you know if you need to fly back to your home country?

[Beatbox Bandit]

I can't really find anyone who has done this. I'll let you know if I figure it out!

[Yohimbe]

Yeah I'm in the same boat. I have been working in Taiwan for 2 years and now I will go to university. I assume it transfers pretty much the same as when you change workplaces, but I may be wrong. My issue is that my work contract ends in mid-July and school starts in mid-September. So I will need at least a 60 day visitor visa, right? I was thinking of visiting the Philippines and coming back, but I'm not sure how to get a visitor visa from the Philippines, and I don't want to go back to the U.S. Anyone have any suggestions here?

[Beatbox Bandit]

Well I went to the Bureau of Consular Affairs yesterday, and they told me that you don't need to go to your home country, but you have to leave Taiwan and apply for a student resident visa at a Taiwan Overseas Mission
Here are the documents you need:
1). Completed Application form (available here: https://visawebapp.boca.gov.tw) and six photos
2). Passport with at least 6 months of remaining validity and two blank pages (original and copy)
3). Admission letter from your school
4). Health certificate (you can get it done at the same places as your work ARC health checks)
5). Bachelor's degree diploma (original and copy authenticated by Taiwan overseas Mission and transcript authenticated by Taiwan overseas mission. She said one is okay, but I'm going to bring two)
6). Financial statement showing that you have access to more than 500,000ntd.
7). Other documents may be required on a case by case basis

It's gonna be a lot of work assembling all those documents! Good thing school doesn't start until the Fall!

[Rennes]

Do you know how strict they are regarding the financial statement?
The most I could probably show by Fall is 300,000, and that'd be pushing it.

[Beatbox Bandit]

I don't know. Maybe you could call the TECO office that you plan on visiting.

[Yohimbe]

Yeah I was told pretty much the same thing. I'm just not sure if they will give a resident visa to me for the end of July/August when school doesn't start until September. I also don't see why a visitor visa wouldn't work...

[Beatbox Bandit]

I'll bet that if you explained your situation to them, they'd do their best to accommodate you. On the TECO website, it says that you should apply "well in advance" of your travel date. Why not give it a try? Maybe call them first and explain?

[Yohimbe]

Yeah I contacted the Philippines office and asked them for details in email form. From past experience, these offices aren't very good at being available to help you out though, hopefully I will hear from them. The 500,000 nt thing seems ridiculously high to me, I have no idea how someone could spend that much money in Taiwan for the length of an ARC. It also isn't mentioned from what I saw on the boca website. So I asked them if scholarship and stipend count towards the financial statement. I'll let you know if/when they respond.