As a foreign student coming to Taiwan for an advanced degree, you are eligible to apply for a “Resident Visa for Foreign Students” (or ARC).  You are also eligible to get a Work Permit here in Taiwan (so you can be paid as a full-time student researcher if your advisor has grant money to give you additional funds).  We highlight some important points below:

ARC:

For new students, there are two ways to do this, you can either:

1) Come to Taiwan on a visitor visa first, then switch to a resident visa here in Taiwan at least 7 days befor your visitor visa expires. If you contact TMU Office of Global Engagement (OGE), they can help you with this. The OGE usually takes everybody as a group and handle this during the orientation week before school starts.  However, if you cannot come in time to make the orientation week, then you have to go through this process by yourself at an Immigration Center (the one closest to TMU is here).

2) You can also apply for a resident visa through a Taiwan overseas mission center at your home country.  If you have the time, we recommend this second approach since if the overseas mission center would like to see some additional documents, it’s much easier to obtain them while you are still at home.

Below we provide a brief overview of the procedure, but for more details please check these two links below:

http://www.boca.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=6139&ctNode=778&mp=2

http://www.boca.gov.tw/np.asp?ctNode=776&mp=2

For returning students (e.g., 2nd year students), it is also important to renew your ARC every year in order to keep TMU’s scholarship. You can apply for a renewal one month before the expired date of your old ARC (can be done earlier, but requires documents proving that you will not be in Taiwan during the one month before expiration date).  Also, please note that everytime you move to a new place to stay (e.g., moving from Dormitory to Apartment), you need to change the information on your ARC via the same application procedure (plus a qualified renting contract) within 15 days since moving.

Work Permit:

For new students, you can apply for a work permit immediately after registration. There’s no need to wait for the work contract from TMU. Detailed procedures can be found at the OGE Office.

For returning students, please keep in mind that you need to apply for a new work permit every 6 months. Starting in the second year,  your permit can be renewed via an official stamp (need to check with the academic affairs section about the date for stamping).

Additional information below:

Here are the procedures for visitor’s visa application: