Is your visa about to expire and you don't know how to extend it? Just married a Taiwanese and want to apply for permanent residency?
Or maybe you've lost your passport and then been involved in a traffic accident.
These are just some of the problems Taipei City's 56,000 foreign residents present to the Taipei Municipal Police Bureau's Foreign Affairs Department every day.
"We provide services ranging from police record certificates, extensions to visitor visas, help with lost passports and re-entry permits, overstaying and issues concerning all aspects of alien residency, permanent alien residency and verification of household registration," Tsao Chin-huei (
Tsao said the department handles about 300 cases a day, "most of which are visa-related."
According to the Immigration Law, foreign visitors with 60-day visas and sufficient grounds may apply for a 60-day extension, with a maximum of two extensions allowed.
"However, those who enter Taiwan using a visa exemption or with a landing visa cannot apply for an extension," Tsao said.
Of the visa-related cases handled by the department, "90 percent of them have to do with overstaying the time restrictions stated on his or her visa," Tsao said.
Overstaying
Tsao attributed the high incidence of overstaying to visa-holders' carelessness.
"Most of these people overstay the time permitted by their visa because they misunderstood the information on their visa and thus miscalculated the number of days they could stay," Tsao said.
"Many people think that the visa expiration date shown on their visa is equivalent to the date to which they are permitted to stay in Taiwan," Tsao said. "This is wrong."
"The expiration date stated on their visa shows until when their visas are valid for entering Taiwan, not the time they are allowed to stay," he said.
The correct way to calculate how long you are allowed to stay, Tsao said, is to use the date stamped by Taiwan's immigration officer when you first arrive in Taiwan.
"If a person comes to Taiwan with a 60-day visa, then he or she is allowed to stay in Taiwan for 60 days starting from the date stamped next to the visa," Tsao said.
Pay up
The fine for overstaying up to 10 days is NT$1,000; for 11 to 30 days NT$3,000; for 31 to 90 days NT$5,000 and for more than 90 days NT$10,000.
As well as urging visitors to pay attention to their visa restrictions, Tsao advised those who wanted to extend their visas to do so at least 15 days before they expire.
The department also handles more unpleasant matters affecting foreigners, such as crime, traffic accidents and disputes.
Tsao said the most common crime reported to the department was theft.
"Based on this, I would like to especially caution the city's expatriates not to expose their money, jewelry or valuables to avoid being targets for criminals," he said.
"Fortunately, unlike most Taiwanese who prefer to keep their most treasured items at home, the losses reported [by foreign nationals] are relatively small because they usually keep valuable items in bank safe-deposit boxes rather than at home," Tsao said.
Drugs, bar brawls and sham marriages
On other hand, Tsao said that disturbances at bars, drug-taking and phony marriages with Taiwanese nationals in exchange for permanent residency in Taiwan were examples of crimes committed by foreign nationals that the department has to deal with.
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