Violence at the Visa Office

 

By Paul Andrew

Very few people who work in visa offices have anything good going for them until they leave the office.

You could be the most squeaky clean kid on your block. Never done a thing to offend a fly. You even remember your sister’s birthday and send her something every year. But that doesn’t matter in the visa office. The “people” who work in visa offices will still act rude and treat you like you are a criminal until you want to beat them black and blue.

Here in Taiwan, if you are foreign professional, or simply a tourist from a dubious

 

For a visitor’s visa in Hong Kong, you need the following documents, no exceptions:

1: An application form filled out in its entirety. Do it in the office because if you do it ahead of time, they’ll just make you do it again.
2. Two color photos.
3. Proof of home country residence, such as a phone bill mailed to you with an address.
4. A photocopy of your passport photo page.
5. A photocopy of a current bank account in your name or your parents’ name.
6. Patience.

country, then you know what I’m talking about. Most of us have had some experience dealing with the bureaucratic quagmire called the visa application. It’s not easy. If you want to work in Taiwan, you’ll need a visitor’s visa, hence the visa application, which leads to a work permit and, God willing, an Alien Resident Card (ARC)

Sounds complicated, doesn’t it? It is. Consider this: If you’re from a neutral country such as Canada, you’ll get a 30-day landing visa stamped in your passport upon arrival. But if you want to work in Taiwan this visa is no good.You’ll have to leave the country again and get another, 30-day visa--a visitor’s visa with which you can apply for a work permit.

If that doesn’t sound like a make-work project I don’t know what does. You can also apply for a visitor’s visa from your home country and I suggest you do it. A quick scan of any reputable Internet expat message board about Taiwan will confirm this.

I consider myself an expert on visa applications. I’ve received visas in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and the Philippines and never been refused. But recently, in Hong Kong, I was cheerfully told not to apply for a Taiwan visitor’s visa more than once. Let me illustrate the way they respond to the average applicant in Hong Kong:

“Why do you have come to our country for this?!”

This was the statement uttered to me by a visa office staffer in Hong Kong. She really gave me the run-around even though all my papers were in order.

“Why do you need a visitor’s visa?” She asked angrily.

“Well I just think it would be a good idea for me to get one,” I replied.

“Are you planning on working in Taiwan?” She continued suspiciously.

“No, I don’t think so. Actually I don’t know,” I said nicely.
“Because if you are planning on working in Taiwan, yadda yadda yadda….”

This woman grilled me so thoroughly she had me trying to remember my correct given names. And she was one of the nice ones.

Most people I know, including private visa assistance companies in Taipei, will tell you to steer clear of Hong Kong to apply for a visa. The first time I went there they talked me out of applying telling me that I would be wasting my money. I ended up in a visa office in the Philippines exactly 30 days later.

Now here’s where it gets interesting. Most visa offices have their own requirements and oddities that you never learn about until you apply in person. For instance the Manila office, unlike the Hong Kong office, will not process your visa same day. You have to wait at least 24 hours. Unfortunately I didn’t know that.

And other things always aggravate the process.

Filipinos, God bless them, feel they never have to wait in any queue. Like most Asians they’ll just walk up to the all-important visa window whenever the mood strikes them, usually five or six at a time.

For this reason, you’ll spend most of the morning in the visa office even if you were the first one there. Oh, and they grilled me like I was a criminal in the Philippines too. In the end I didn’t apply for the visa there either. Because of the 24-hour delay and the cost the lady told me not to bother.

In Hong Kong, a visitor visa processed the same day you apply costs roughly 2,000NT$. When I returned to Hong Kong for the second time my visa broke me. I had to take the bus back to the airport. I couldn’t even afford the luxury of a train.

There’s more fun at the airport. If you can’t provide proof that you have a flight out of Taiwan within 30 days the airline won’t let you board the flight.
Of course this, like every requirement for a visa application, is not written anywhere obvious. You‘d think the travel agent who sold me my round-trip ticket might of mentioned it, but she didn’t.

They’ll let you leave the country but they won’t let you back in. Like most things in Asia it’s unclear exactly what you have to do until the 11th hour.

So, three countries and 40,000NT$ after getting my new job I finally got my visitor’s visa.. Never again will I let my ARC expire thinking it will be easy to re-apply simply because I have another job.

Before they finally gave me my visa in Hong Kong I had to clear up a few “irregularities” on my application: “Do you have a ticket back to Taiwan? Can we see it please?” the lady asked. “And, do you have a ticket out of Taiwan? Could we see it please?

“Now there’s just one more thing sir,” she said menacingly. “How do you plan to support yourself in Taiwan?”