Visa Run to Hong Kong

I just completed my first visa run to Hong Kong!

It was a thoroughly exhausting experience. For anyone who doesn't know, when you go to a foreign country you have to have a visa which allows you to stay in the country for a certain period of time. Normally you go to the embassy closest to your city, however, since Taiwan is not officially it's own country they do not have embassies, but TECO offices. When I went to the TECO (Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office) in Los Angeles I got a beotchy lady who didn't want to give me a visa, but finally consented to give me a 60 day NO EXTENSIONS visitor visa. The visa will run you around $140 dollars American (more if you want to have your diploma authenticated or something). Some countries have more favorable visa rules. U.K citizens can stay in Taiwan for six months for free.  (Rico went to the office in San Francisco and got a really nice lady who gave him the much coveted 5 year multiple entry visitor's visa...grrr...Rico swears it was because he showed up literally a few minutes before they closed and, like anyone with government jobs, they want to fly out of there at 5pm and gave him everything he wanted to avoid a hassle. I, of course, being the organized person that I am, showed up bright and early. Folks, this is one example of the early bird not always catching the worm).

Normally you have to bring in a lot of paperwork such as your passport, letter of invitation from friend or family inviting you, job contract, etc. If you are going there to teach English, DO NOT SAY SO. They will deny your visa, expecting of course, that you will be working illegally until you get your work permit (which everyone does - it's even illegal to do a lesson demo without a work permit... which is obviously a necessity during an interview). When you go there, say you will be going for tourism purposes. You usually have to show your bank statement and proof of an outgoing flight. If you want a multiple entry permit try to explain that you want to tour Asia and want to use Taiwan as your home base because you have friends/family there. It may work, it may not. It didn't for me. If you go to Taiwan without a visitor visa you will be getting in with a 30 day visa exempt status (which is free), but you will likely have to convert to a visitor's visa in Taiwan or do a visa run (30 days is not much time to find a job and do the paperwork required for an Alien Resident Card).
------

So after I finally signed with my school it was apparent that there would not be enough time to do the paperwork so I had to book a round trip ticket to Hong Kong. (Rico could not go because his paperwork is being processed and he cannot leave the country.) My flight left at 6:15 am so we had to spend the night at the airport (otherwise there would be no public transportation to get there since the buses don't run until about 6am). I had just finished my Christmas show with my students, who did wonderfully :), so I raced home, we left for the airport about 10pm and got there about 12am. We spent a very cold night in some very uncomfortable chairs in a very noisy (construction going on, of course, how very Taiwan) terminal. There was no heat and we were freezing. It all ended all right. I got on my plane, had a 5 hour layover in Hong Kong, and managed to get back with a 30 day visa exempt permit in my passport by 4pm the next day.

Of course I slept about 12 hours that night but it's all over and I hope I never have to do it again. The importance of a visa run is this: if you overstay your visa, even by one day, even by a few hours you get a huge fine and sometimes get banned from going into that country for a period of time, usually one year. Never, ever overstay a visa or you will be monumentally screwed. Usually in Taiwan visa runs can be pretty inexpensive such as $60 each way. I had the misfortune of having my visa expire at an extremely bad time (right before Christmas), so it was more expensive.

Some people don't know this, but when you do a visa run you don't actually have to go through immigration and customs in the city you land in if you are doing a simple leave and return in the same day. Some people do this, thinking they need the stamp, but when you land in Taipei, they don't really care where you came from. Make sure though, that you pick up both boarding passes (departure and return) at the airport in Taiwan before you leave for wherever you are going. Make sure the airline gives you both when you check in for your first flight. If you don't have the return boarding pass when you get into you visa run destination, you will have to exit the gate area to get your return pass at the airlines' ticket counters, then you will have to go through security and immigration and all that (it might be possible to get your boarding pass from the ticket counter near the boarding gate, but I wouldn't risk it). For the same reason, make sure your arrival and return flight are in the same terminal (usually you only need to do this if your destination airport is really big and you are returning with a different airline). Of course, it's no problem to go through customs and immigration at your  destination, but it can just be a hassle, and, if anything goes wrong and it takes too long and your return flight comes right on the heels of your arrival flight, you could miss your return flight. When I got back to Taipei, I was a bit scared thinking I needed to show an outgoing flight to get the visa exempt permit, but I just put the flight number from my Hong Kong flight and no questions were asked.

This experience was grueling and exhausting, but not that bad. I'm glad I waited for the job I did because it is a really good job for someone with no experience. I got the hours I wanted, the kids and staff are great, and I get an entire month (30 days, not the American 20 days) of paid vacation a year plus all national holidays and typhoon days! Awesome.

Peace. Out.