Visa run…

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Since my Taiwanese VISA from !%^!$&# Bangkok is limited to 60 days and is not extendible, then I’ll have to leave Taiwan next week to get my VISA renewed. Since Taiwan is obviously an island, that would mean flying over to some neighboring country, which would cost a good deal of money (might reach 300$ roundtrip).

I have no idea where to go, since everybody keeps sending me to different places. HongKong, Macau, Bangkok, Japan, Phillipines and Singapore are the options that are available and the suggested destination depends on who you’re talking to and what is it you think you need to achieve. I’m trying to think how to explain the whole delicate details on my situation and dilemma, but fail to come up with a plan, so I might as well just dump my memory core, hoping that it would make sense.

It seems that lately Taiwan has started fighting foreign illegal workers in Taiwan by tightening up VISA regulations. Private schools like TLI – the one I study in – are no longer a good cause for receiving an extendible VISA. Furthermore, many folks that have been here for a while are not receiving new VISAs any more. A retired American from my school who has been here for 10 (!!!) years has failed his attempt at receiving a new VISA because the Taiwanese government has now decided that he has been here too long. One of my classmates has made the Visa trip to HongKong, only to be denied of a Tourist VISA. Lucky for both of them, yet still extremely expensive, they can get a 30 days VISA issued at the airport upon their arrival, being the Americans/Canadians that they are, a privilege that an Israeli doesn’t receive. So, when they got stuck with no VISA, they just flew back in and got their 30 days, but if I get no VISA then I’m totally scr@wed.

There are so many rumors going around about which country’s embassy gives more trouble. The HongKong branch is widely known as a rough place that is tired of all the Taiwanese foreigners doing VISA runs over to their place so they are really not being generous. Other places depend on who you ask, but all got some sort of twist, such as – in Macau you’ll be interviewed. I get all sorts of weird suggestions that I should come to the VISA office wearing a suit with a clean shave and perfume (?!) and have a letter in Chinese written in advance. I have no idea why everything is so complicated here, I really don’t. Why in the world would a country deny you the ability to extend the VISA in advance. I mean, if they wouldn’t want to extend it then they could just as well do it in the VISA office in Taipei, so why force people out of the country to a VISA branch or airport arrival just to get a stamp that they could have gotten in Taipei? And I thought the Vietnamese government is mad… (which, in a way, was one of the side reasons that resulted in me leaving Vietnam).

After sitting down for hours, trying to decide what to do, I honestly have no idea. Truth is, if I am to spend so much money for a flight, I think I might as well tour what ever place I’m headed to for a week. Hong Kong seems like the obvious choice, despite the expenses and the rumors about the local VISA branch. Hmm… a tough one…

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