Getting Kicked Out of Taiwan

Yes, we were told to leave Taiwan by Monday, the day our visa expires.

I went to renew our visas today. I had looked up exactly where I needed to go and which bus to take to get there, but I left my map at home. The first in a series of unfortunate events. This led to getting off one stop after the one I was supposed to get off at. This led to me being completely turned around and lost. Did I mention that it was raining as well?

Since I knew that I get even crankier when I'm hungry, I decided to just forget all the above problems and stop in at the Carrefour for lunch. It was a nice break and I felt ready to tackle the hurdles once again. So, something good did come out of getting off at the wrong stop.

We finally found the Immigration Agency, filled out our forms and took a number. We didn't have long to wait, which was nice. However, after showing the lady our forms and passports, she said that we had entered Taiwan on a family visit visa and would need to prove that we had family here in order to renew the visa. I told her we didn't have any family here and that that would therefore be impossible. So, she said, "I'm sorry, but you'll have to leave Taiwan." I said, "I'm staying until June 6th as that's when my plane leaves and when I applied for the visa in the first place, the administration knew that and told me extending the visa wouldn't be a problem." She entered the dates in the computer and said, "If you stay until June 6th, you will have to pay a $5000NT ($150Cdn) fine when you leave. But, I don't recommend it. You should just leave and come back." I told her, "It costs a lot more than $5000 to fly out of the country and return. I'll just pay the fine." Then I asked why I had previously been told that I wouldn't have a problem. She went off to find her supervisor. Five minutes later she come back and tells me that he's in a meeting and gives me his phone number extension. What else could I do?

When we got out, it was pouring rain and I had no idea where the correct bus stop or nearest MRT was. I knew there was one around somewhere, so I started walking - in the wrong direction, of course. We walked past a few bus stops trying to find the right one, and finally I was just so wet and grumpy that I decided to take the next bus and it would drop me off at an MRT eventually. Well, we got on the bus and at the next stop, a lot of people were getting off - a sure sign of an MRT station. At least I was right. We made it home without any further mishaps, but I was still pretty annoyed at Taiwan's beauraucracy.