Vegas, baby, Vegas!

We were briefly panicked by the notion that I needed to have a "legalized marriage" certificate before entering Taiwan but I actually only need it for Shirley to apply for her ARC and she is not coming until July so we have some time, luckily, because he have some issues...

There is a process by which some documents need to be "legalized" before they can be used in Taiwan and they prefer that you do this in your home country. Someone from TECO translates the document into Chinese and then notarizes it. Mark, at TECO, was very helpful and said his office can do this. When I said I needed to get a marriage licesnse legalized he asked, "Where did you get married? What state?" When I said that we had been married in Nevada he quickly retorted, "Las Vegas!?!?" Yes. I thought he was going to ask if we were married by Elvis but he avoided that one. Unfortunately, he can't help us, we have to deal with the San Francisco TECO branch as they follow jurisdiction.

Shirley got a hold of someone equally helpful at the San Francisco TECO branch who fortunately was a veteran in dealing with Vegas marriages and she quickly asked that we take the marriage certificate out of it's frame and examine the back. Upon examiniation it was apparent that this was a "replica" marriage certificate and that we need to file with the Clark County courthouse to get a certified original mailed to us. I guess not only the Eiffel Tower is fake in Vegas. This is shaping up to be a bad Ashton Kutcher movie, as if "bad" and "Ashton Kutcher" is not redundant. I wonder if we're even married. If we find out we're not...I want our marriage penalty taxes back.

So the process is, pay $15 to Clark County to get a real marriage certificate, get it in 7-10 days, mail to SFO TECO, pay ~$15 + $29 shipping for them to send it to Taiwan. Then we can file for Shirley's ARC.

taiwanderyears.blogspot.com

more people [need to] go with Visa

I got my paperwork filed to have my company's travel dept. book our flights and the agent said she needed to get a round trip otherwise I would be denied entry. My initial reaction was quite arrogant and I scoffed to my group admin, "Just tell her to book a one way, I've been to Taiwan on a passport before..." or something equally obnoxious. In the next 15 minutes it would quickly unravel that for reasons involving me getting an ARC in Taiwan, I do need to enter on a resident visa and without a return ticket, I, in fact, may be denied entry. Luckily my travel agent knows a lot more about travel than I do.

Something was lost in translation during my emails with our group in Taiwan that handles documentation and our "IA" group that was supposed to get me a visa either doesn't exist, or doesn't care. I was advised by my HR contact in Taiwan to go see my local HR rep to get help from them in securing all the documents.

I don't want to say anything that will get traced back to me and get me fired. let's just say, if I walked into HR and they said, "I can assist you with that..." I would have quickly been on my way to solving my own problem. So...an hour of aggravation later, I was off to solve my own problem. I think I am the first one from my division moving to Taiwan so maybe I need to cut them some slack.

Taiwan doesn't have a "consulate", assumedly because of the whole Taiwan/China thing much like the US maintains a fake embassy in Taipei, but there is a TECO office in NYC which serves the same purpose. I called several times with no answer and left a message. Frustrated at the end of the day (TECO closes @ 4:30), I emailed everyone (Taiwan HR/US HR/travel agent) and said, "I'm just going down to the consulate tomorrow with or without an appointment!" At 5:05, Mark from the consulate called and even apologized for the tardiness of the call. He had all the information right away, turns out I have all the documents necessary for my visa, and he said to just come down in the morning, no appointment necessary.

The TECO is a block away from Grand Central Station so I took the train down. There are no gargoyles or iron gates like the embassies in the Bourne Identity; it's just an office building. You enter the lobby and check in the with guard who gives you an ID sticker. Head up to the 4th floor and right outside the elevator door is a clerk who asks what you need and assigns you to a window. I approached window 97 and told the female clerk that I need a "resident visa". Even the Taiwanese seem shocked every time I say that I am seeking residencey in Taiwan. What am I in for? Should it be setting off alarm bells when I meet Taiwanese living in the U.S.? Sometimes I want to ask them, "What's so bad about Taiwan that you need to live here?" I'm not sure that I can convey that with a sense of humor and I'm sure when I'm in Taiwan, locals will be thinking, "What's so bad about the U.S. that you came here?!?!"

A guy instantly jumps up and says, "Are you Michael?" It was Mark. He said, "I will have you work with the most beautiful clerk in the office!" I wonder if I'm in a KTV? We went through my documents and I paid $131 cash for the visa. She instructed me to come back Tuesday after noon and present my receipt to get my passport and visa. Awesome. Very efficient, I was out of there in 5 minutes.

There was some confusion involving needing a legalized/apostille marriage certificate before I come but that is needed only before Shirley comes in July so we have some time to work on that. We'll need the time...stay tuned for the marriage certificate fiasco.

taiwanderyears.blogspot.com

Your documents, please

After signing my contract with my employer the next step was to apply for a Taiwan Work Permit. I need to have this in hand when I arrive in Taipei. I guess, so I can enter as a worker and not a tourist. I filled out a simple questionnaire with my employer, provided some document copies (passport, etc) and had to provide 2 photos. I asked if I could just email my HR group a JPEG and let them print it out but, no, they wanted hard copies.

And, of course, it's not exactly the same size requriement as a US passport photo so I'm at work with a tape measure and a paper cutter trying to get the size just right. I thought about having my company's shipping department send the photos over but I don't trust them so I just put them in an envelope and went to the post office. It's just about a dollar to mail an envelope to Taiwan, but it took almost 3 weeks to get there!

They finally confimed the photos were received and I received notice about 2 weeks later that my work permit was approved. They FEDEXed it to me and I got it a couple days ago. It's all in Chinese except my name so for all I know, it labels me as communist party scum and alerts Taiwan immigration to detain me indefinitely. It's got this fancy calligraphy on it though:

I wonder if that's the part about "detention".

The next step is to apply for an ARC, "Alien Resident Card" which will allow me to stay in the country for an amount of time but is also required for many business transactions, opening bank accounts, getting loans, etc. I won't need to apply for this until I arrive in Taiwan but I've already started to gather the necessary documentation. I think I need 8 more photos for this. What's with all the photos?!?!

Also, before I leave, I have to get an International Driver's License which can be obtained for $15 from a AAA office. Then I have 30 days to pass a test and get a Taiwanese Driver's License. Would you believe there is one state in the U.S. from which you can just instantly get a Taiwanese license? No test... No international license...

Oklahoma. I wonder how Oklahoma has ANYTHING to do with Taiwan.