If you arrived to Taiwan on a visitor’s visa, you will first need to apply for a Resident visa, and only then you are eligible to apply for a student ARC:

Resident Visa

-          In order to get a resident (student) visa in Taiwan you must be a holder of any kind of visa except the landing visa (landing visa = granted at the airport; cannot be changed to any other kind of visas and cannot be extended!!!).

-          To apply for the resident (student) visa you must submit following documents:

1.      Medical Check Form B – it usually is provided by the school, but if not, you can pick whatever hospital (some of them do not offer this service, but generally all the bigger ones do) go inside and ask for the Medical Check Form B and they will instruct you. To get the results takes about 7 to 10 days and it costs up to 2000 NTD depending on the hospital. You need to bring two pictures with you.

2.      Visa Application Form – before you visit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) - Kaohsiung branch you must submit and print the online “Application for Resident Visa”. Go for “General Visa Application” in:

https://visawebapp.boca.gov.tw/BOCA_MRVWeb/subroot/MRVWeb0_form.jsp

and choose “Resident Visa”. You must print the application form and bring it to the MOFA.

3.      Tuition Fee Receipt – you must prove that your tuition fee was paid with the receipt that is given to you in the bank. Taiwan Scholarship holders do not need to submit this document (the tuition fee is paid by the Taiwan Government) but instead you submit the Taiwan Scholarship Program Award Certificate.

4.      Student ID – every student has a Student ID that is given to him in the beginning of his/her studies. Even the temporary one is accepted at the MOFA.

5.      Passport – is taken by the authority in order to put the Visa stick inside. Passport must be valid for at least six months.

6.      2 passport pictures of yourself

7.      3000 NTD – fee paid at the MOFA to change the Visa (from visitor’s to resident), Taiwan Scholarship holders are excluded from paying this fee (just bring the Taiwan Scholarship Program Award Certificate).

-          Bring all these documents to MOFA (City Council MRT), 2^nd floor, clerk no. 7:http://www.boca.gov.tw/content.asp?CuItem=1665&mp=2

           It takes up to two weeks to issue the new visa.

Once you have the resident visa, you can apply for a (student) ARC:

Alien Resident Certificate

-          Once you are a resident visa holder you can apply for an “Alien Resident Certificate” (ARC).  An ARC is an identification card issued to residents of the Republic of China (Taiwan) who do not hold a “National Identification Card”, namely foreigners and ROC nationals who do not have household registration in Taiwan.

-          After you are granted the resident visa go directly from the 2^nd floor to the 7^th floor where you need to fill in the “Application Form for ARC” and submit a copy of your resident visa. The fee is 1000NTD (Taiwan Scholarship Holders are not excluded for this one).

-          It takes 10 days for the ARC to be issued.                  

-          When you receive you visa, carefully check the date until when it is valid. ARCs are usually issues for 1 year and have to be renewed every year.