Denied in Taipei🥲

Type: remote worker (for 1 company, not freelance)

Situation: coming from non B visa

Heartbroken to say that I was denied in Taipei. It is a specific situation, as I have worked in Thailand, legally for 3 years. I accepted a remote job and came to Taipei to switch my visa type to DTV.

Even with a current contract and first payment made by current company (+600,000 tbh banked and consistent income for past 6 months from past job), they denied because they wanted me to have 6 months of income *from my current contract.*

Note: I also had everything else in order, including the employment letter (stating remote position), company registration documents etc.

The issue they had, specifically, was was that I hadn’t been in my current role for 6 months. Pretty much they told me to leave and try again in 6 months time when I am established at my new job. There was no remedying it with them.

— and genuinely this was so shocking because I’d never heard of this being the case for anyone else before. Am I wrong on this?

So, if you are coming from a non B and are switching to remote work, please be aware that this is the way Taipei approaches this scenario.

If you have a similar work history but successfully gotten a DTV visa, can you please comment? I’d really like to understand what else I can do and how I can better plan my application in the future.

If I go to Taipei, how long does the DTV visa process take once applying?

DTV Taipei success applying as a remote worker. I have had to make several trips to provide additional documents. We spoke in Mandarin but the staff seemed fluent in English as well.

Although Taiwan is still an option for non-Taiwan residents, I would be worried that this high level of scrutiny will carry over to the eVisa process after 19 November since you will only have one chance to submit an application with all these documents. You will have to wait in Taiwan for the results until the DTV is approved. Taipei hotels are far more expensive now as well.

Many thanks to all the good people in this group for sharing their experiences and advice!

*to my fellow Singaporeans applying for DTV here in Taipei, the 11k NTD application fee is waived here as well due to the reciprocial arrangement between Singapore and Thailand.