The
interior of the main train station in Taipei.Michael A. Turton
| The
interior of the main train station in Taipei. |
Michael A. Turton |
| Can I teach Illegally in Taiwan? | |
 A
betel nut goddess prepares betel nuts for sale along a Taichung street.
The manifest presence of organized crime in the form of openly
operating
gangsters, betel nut girls, brothels, and corrupt politicians gives
Taiwan
a Wild West air that many find exotic and attractive. |
So many people ask this question.....
...and the answer is complex. Yes and no. In the old days you could work illegally, without a work visa, with little fear of getting caught. However, those days are gone. The system has tightened up
enormously.
Basically you must have a work visa.
The only way you can get a work visa is to be sponsored by your school
for one. Simple as that. Find a school, they sponsor you. To do
that,
you need a . Simple as that. |
 Volunteers
for a local Buddhist foundation break for a chat. |
Certainly you will find people working in gray and illegal positions, sometimes comfortable ones. And you'll hear stories. But for everyone with a personal mint in the gray market, there are ten struggling losers barely keeping body and soul togther. |
A
shop is built out to occupy the public sidewalk. Illegal construction
is
common. |
I get lots of silly letters like this:
I am very eager to come to Taiwan to teach English. In fact
I have |
Tombs
line the base of a mountain. |
...and like this one, from a guy who doesn't want
to do
anything "dodgy," but wants to use a fake degree:
I would like to work there and so would a fake degree be ok
to use
for getting the work permit as i dont want to work illegaly or do
anything dodgy. |
Having
illegally passed the line of cars waiting, a car goes to the head of
the
line. |
Don't be stupid! Get your degree first.
Most people
who don't have degrees don't do well. And another thing: Taiwan sucks
you
in. You'll wake up one day: ten years have passed, and you have no
degree
and no future.
|
 Taiwan has some very cool spiders. Here's a close-up of a tiny wolf spider. |
Yet another letter, very typical, is posted to my Taiwan blog. Are English teachers economic migrants? It sure looks like it! |
 My kids pause for a rest near a marker dedicated to the earth god Fu Te on a hike along the East coast seacliffs. |
The moral of the story? Get your degree first, then come to Taiwan. |
A car runs a red light on a Han Hsi Hsi Rd in northeastern Taichung.
It's
a Taiwanese in-joke that some red lights are only "for reference." |
| If you come even with only a 14 day visa, you can find a job. Although they used to let you overstay if your permit is being processed, sometimes they crack down and don't permit that. |  Students take a
break during night school classes at a local college. |
| A friend recently sent me this advice:
This used to be true. I used this loophole myself. However, they are cracking down now. I've had a few colleagues been rejected an ARC until they came in on a valid visa. In this case they had to leave and come back with a current visitor visa, thus paying the overstay penalty and getting that nasty stamp in their passport. So it is best to come with a much longer visa. |
 Grounds
being maintained. Unlike the US, workers in jobs like this tend to be
female. |
| Once you have a work permit, it is illegal to work at someplace other than the school that sponsored you and ONE other job (work permits now permit two jobs. Some schools are strict about enforcing that, others don't care. Many people work legally at their school, and then illegally elsewhere, usually at several jobs. They pay no taxes on those other jobs. They report that it is vitally important that if you work at a second job and it is not on your work permit, you not pay taxes. If a tax form is filed in your name, you may be deported for having two jobs. This has actually happened to people I know. |  A women sorts metal parts in a
small-town factory in Taiwan. Although
they
are often not obvious, small, gray-market factories like this are found
in every neighborhood. |
| The
law has recently been changed, and you may now transfer to a second job
without leaving the country. However, you can still only work at
one
job on the ARC plus one other one. This includes volunteer work:
believe it or not, if you volunteer
formally, you can get in trouble with the government and be deported.
Further, if you perform in a bar or club without the proper visa, you
may also face deportation. |
 Structures
work their way up a hill in Nantou. |
| Working completely illegally, staying in Taiwan on a five year multiple entry tourist visa, is not so easy anymore. The visa must be renewed every two months, and then after six months (two renewals) you must leave Taiwan and come back. This is a pain, and there is always the gamble that they may not accept your excuse and renew your visa. You CAN work legally with a student visa. |  Cars
and motorcycles run red lights in a small town. Stupid illegal activity
like this results in hundreds of avoidable deaths every year. Moral of
the story: legal is safer. |
| Here's another thing to think about: completely illegal workers generally do not have access to the best jobs, save little money, run around all over the place from job to job, have no stability, no rights, and may be deported at any moment. Your best bet is to get a work visa, have a steady job, and pay some taxes. |  This
sign preserves the penguins at the Zoo from noise and fuss. It's easy
to
make fun of all the bad English, but just imagine how many errors you'd
make if you had to put up thousands of signs in Chinese. |
For more information on the exact requirements, go to my Intro page. |
 Inside a mushroom farm in central
Taichung. |