Getting kicked out

Today I went to the immigration office to apply for a month extension on my visa since I was planning to leave on Aug. 2nd because I need to stay at least 183 days to not pay extra taxes and get my tax refund. I went to the office this morning but I can only stay 15 days after my ARC expiration date (June 29th) which is July 14th. It's normally a 15 day extension and not a month. That made me really sad because that meant that now I have to leave in July and also I have to change the day of my flight since I already booked it for Aug. 2nd.

Then my Taiwanese coworker went with me to apply for being my beneficiary for my taxes since I needed a Taiwanese person, over 20 years, and has a job be accountable so if I'm not around, she can receive my money and send it to me later. That didn't take too long and I will receive my check around June so I will still be around. I will just apply for my 2011 taxes 10 days before I leave Taiwan. So the stressful thing was figuring out when exactly I have to leave the country.

I tried to get a hold of my boss this morning but she didn't pick up. I called her in the afternoon and when I went to work, we went over the details. For 2011, I have to stay at least 183 days and it would be fine except that I'm going on vacation to Hong Kong and Thailand at the end of May, beginning of June. With my extension, luckily I will be here exactly 183 days on the dot! I just saved myself from paying back 13% of my taxes. I shouldn't be celebrating yet since I haven't spoken to the tax office but it should be okay since they will see that I have stayed in Taiwan for enough days. My only other solution was to leave at the end of June to Hong Kong really quick and then come back to get a regular 30 day pass. I was thinking about doing that so I can stay longer in Taiwan but it would cost money to book my ticket and I would still have to leave by July 28th and my ticket is booked for Aug. 2nd.

Tomorrow I need to go back to the immigration office to apply for my 15 day extension. I need a copy of my plane ticket so tonight I had to change the date. I bought my ticket through cheapoair.com and customer service took forever. I waited about 45 mins on the phone and finally got my ticket time switched to July 14th but unfortunately I had to pay an extra fee since I changed the day. Oh well..I have no choice. Hopefully they will send me the confirmation email and then I can go tomorrow to the immigration office and get it all sorted it. Who knew this would be super complicated?

-Chihchat