Visa Confusion

As a US citizen there are basically three visas you can use to enter Taiwan. There is a 30 day non-renewable 'fee exempt' visa you can get when you arrive at the airport. Longer stays involve getting a Visitor Visa which allows you to stay for 60 days with the possibility of two 60 day extensions before you have to leave the country. As a US citizen you have to pay $140 per passport (ouch!) for this visa.  Finally, there is a Resident Visa which also costs $140, requires a lot more documentation, and is typically used to enter the country in order to obtain an Alien Resident Certificate (kind of like a 'green card').

Luckily, my work is taking care of my visa so there were no worries there. (They applied for a work permit on my behalf and will be arranging for the resident visa / ARC.  What is odd is that they told me to enter using the 30 day 'fee exempt' visa which you are not suppose to convert to other visas. After much research there appears to be a loophole for 'white collar' workers.)  I then ran into a dilemma for Tina and the kids. According to my work contacts, they could enter on a 'fee exempt' visa as well but we would need to get our marriage license and the kid's birth certificates 'authenticated' by TECO (the de facto Taiwan embassy).  Unfortunately, our marriage certificate and son's birth certificate are both from Northern California which meant authentication for these docs have to be done up in TECO San Francisco office while our daughter's birth certificate (born in Southern California) has to be authenticated in the Los Angeles office. 

We decided to go with the visitor visa route which meant travelling up to LA, filling out the application, and shelling over $140 per passport and two passport pics per person.  The TECO office is a busy place! We drove up on a Monday and got there around 11am.  After taking a number we had to wait almost two hours before our number was called for us to drop off the forms.  Then came another wrinkle. As US citizens, the visitor visa can only be used for a single entry! (This is NOT documented on the website.)  As it turns out, I have dual citizenship and had my Taiwanese passport with me as well as our various certificates. This allowed Tina and the kids to get a multiple entry visitor visa that is good for five years.  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my daughter's birth certificate which meant I had to come back and bring it when picking up the passports.  

On the plus side, I was impressed by how nice and helpful the people were at the TECO office.  Also, making two trips to LA in one week meant we got to have some interesting lunches ('Kyochon' Korean style fried chicken and some nice ramen a Daikokuya in Little Tokyo.)  We also went ahead and authenticated our documents; I'm not sure if we'll actually use them but you never know ...

My advice if you need to do this ... Read all you can on the TECO and Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.  Call at least TWO different TECO offices to make sure you have the right forms and process.  Bring all the documentation you need (and then some) to the office.  If want to avoid a line, try going to the office 30 minutes before they open in the morning. Alternatively around lunch time when the line is a lot shorter!

--- Steve

How Did We Get Here?

We're less than two weeks away from leaving home but it's taken, literally, a year to get to this point.  Throughout 2008 and 2009, we had been praying for an opportunity to visit Taiwan so that our kids can learn Chinese and that they can spend time with my parents who live there. However, going for a few weeks would not provide real language learning opportunities and having Tina stay there with the kids by herself did not seem viable. We are also 'cash poor' and did not think we had the finances for the trip.

Last August, God inspired us with this idea: Why not just stay longer and rent our house out? I work from home so, as long as my company would let me, I should be able to work from 'home' overseas. This would also allow our son to go to Chinese pre-school for a full academic year and, by renting our house out, we should be able to cover our plane ticket costs as well as the financial burden of paying our property taxes at the end of the year (that's another story altogether). After months of wrestling with the problem, the solution seemed all too simple.

After praying about this, we starting setting things in motion. My parents were extremely fond of the idea and started making plans on clearing out the spare rooms and office. My manager at work was also supportive and began contacting HR to figure out how to make this happen. This was a key point in that if neither my parents nor work was supportive of the idea then this idea was done. It took several months for my work to figure out exactly how to make this happen and the details involved.  To make a long story short, they decided to pay for my visa expenses as well as tax returns.  This was actually more than I hoped for as I thought the trip would be entirely self funded!

With the work situation settled (or so I thought) we began telling our friends and family. Most people had similar reactions: surprise when we told them we'd be going away for so long but supportive once we explained the details.  We purchased our tickets in May aboard Malaysian Airlines (not the cheapest but the cheapest non-stop flight)  and was blessed in that my sister would be on the flight with us! (We had another pleasant surprise two months later when we found out my cousin Andrew also arranged to fly back to Taiwan on the same flight. If miraculously having a 2:1 adult to child ratio on this flight is not proof of God's existence then I don't know what is.)

We then encountered a few setbacks at work.  Taiwan company HR only allowed new additions the first of every month. As my Taiwan work permit documents we set for a start date at the middle of the month, all these documents had to be re-done.  I also got a notice of termination from the US HR department. This turned out to be an error due to an incorrect employee ID number but it really got the blood pressure  going for a while. We also had some issues renting out our house but were able to find some good friends in the neighborhood willing to move into house and take care of things for nine months.

So the last few weeks have been about packing and getting ready.  We have a five page "To Do" list which we've been tackling and the garage is slowing filling up with stuff.  Looking back the preparations have really been smooth despite a few hiccups here and there.  We're both a bit stressed with the final 'push' that will get us out the door and on the plane but we're all still very excited and looking forward to the next step.

-- Steve

Our First Post and What Is Stinky Tofu?

Welcome to the Stinky Tofu blog!

Our family is preparing for a nine month trip to Taiwan and this is our way to share our journey with our friends and family. We're a family of four Taiwanese-Americans living in Irvine, California. Steve works for a high tech company as a marketing research / project manager while Tina has her hands full managing our household which includes our four year old son and one year old daughter.

There are many reasons for our extended trip to Taiwan.  We are eager for our son to learn Chinese in a Chinese-speaking environment. We are also looking forward to our children getting to know their paternal grandparents (which they've only seen two or three times).  Being both of Taiwanese descent, we can't wait to eat the food, visit new places, and learn about modern day culture.

Over the last few months we realize that we have a great opportunity to witness what God is doing in Taiwan and Asia. Just recently we became a part of a 'Heart for Taiwan' prayer group at our church. We have also learned that many friends will be flying through Taiwan with ministry in mind.  It seems that God has much to show us and teach us about His heart and work here. We are excited because we know this journey will be much larger than ourselves and our plans.

Thanks for reading our blog!

Steve and Tina

p.s. What is stinky tofu?  Stinky tofu is a Taiwanese dish made from (typically) deep fried fermented tofu.  The smell of the dish is unique with words such as "foul", "disgusting", and "rotting garbage" being typical descriptors. On the other hand, lovers of stinky tofu think the smell is a fragrant and sweet aroma. Regardless of what you think of it, when you're in Taiwan you can't miss it!