Am I eligible for the Plum Blossom Card After I earn my Ph.D?

As a guy in his early 30s interested in working in Taiwan, I would like to ask you guys whether or not I would be eligible to apply for the Plum Blossom Card after I earn my Ph.D degree outside of Taiwan. The following are what I am going to have achieved within the next two years (likelihood of over 90%) :

  • A Ph.D degree in chemistry(Organic chemistry with a polymer focus)
  • Nearly five years of experience working at an academic lab of the Chemistry Dept.
  • Roughly two scientific journals(first author) and two others as third author

However, very likely that I don’t have any records of awards, patents, etc. And I do not have any industrial experience(i.e. corporations, etc.)

So, what are the odds?

1 Like

Are you going to get a Nobel prize soon? You might be in with a chance.

As HHII said. Plum Card is for foreigners of outstanding performace, who probably would’t be lured to stay otherwise.

As a foreign 30 something smart guy, you have two options only:

  1. Find a job: you are practically a shoo-in for Academia Sinica, or any high end research institute or university. They sponsor your work visa. After 5 years, you may apply by yourself for a permanent resident card, which gives you open work permit and the opportunity to stay in Taiwan as long as you wish. Problems include the perils of academia and the nightmare of Taiwanese working environment - overtime is per de course, as well as ulcers.

  2. Get married. This one is riskier. While it has the advantages of the sleeping dictionary and instant open work rights, it also means you are literally shackled and at the mercy of your wife’s will economically - both d’s death and divorce can get you kicked out of Taiwan, and I mean her death. She will hold the taxes, and the children are considered sacred sons of Taiwan so getting custody, even visitation rights, is a nightmare. But the “entry level” is quite attainable -foreign guys with less than sterling looks score very well- and most get good sex… or no sex at all, but that’s another story.

My point is that you cannot just live here -legally- on your own steam: someone must sponsor your visa, but then they own that visa, not you. Some people live here vis afree but must leave the country every 3 months… until they get caught. But those usually do not even have a bachelor’s degree in Whatchamacalit from Bruhaha University, let alone a PHD.

1 Like

Also check the rates of pay for post-docs in Taiwan, if you’re into that avenue of employment. In one word, post -doc salaries are risible.

Not in the sense that they will rise, either.

Even junior faculty rates are piss poor, and the working conditions for a foreign member of faculty suck. Just read some of the horror stories here (mostly from English teachers at university, admittedly).

It can be a dead end career-wise as well, but it can be a nice place to spend a couple of years if you get lucky, and maybe get an industry job.

[quote=“OZpharmer”]As a guy in his early 30s interested in working in Taiwan, I would like to ask you guys whether or not I would be eligible to apply for the Plum Blossom Card after I earn my Ph.D degree outside of Taiwan. The following are what I am going to have achieved within the next two years (likelihood of over 90%) :

  • A Ph.D degree in chemistry(Organic chemistry with a polymer focus)
  • Nearly five years of experience working at an academic lab of the Chemistry Dept.
  • Roughly two scientific journals(first author) and two others as third author

However, very likely that I don’t have any records of awards, patents, etc. And I do not have any industrial experience(i.e. corporations, etc.)

So, what are the odds?[/quote]

You can answer that question for yourself by having a look at the NIA website.

https://www.immigration.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=1090225&ctNode=30085&mp=2

While the OP probably has figured things out by now, there might be others.

There are quite a few things that have that funny phrasing where you need to be a “nobel prize winner, or a professor, or a an associate professor, or a researcher, or having a PhD, or having written a specialized book” etc, and it can be difficult figure out what you really need.

This type of fuzzy phrasing appear for instance on

  • Plum blossom APRC
  • Academic and Bussiness Travel Card
  • Biometric collection exemption
    etc

To my understanding the interpretation of these rules are by some sort of (secret) point system. You get more points for being a professor than by a mere PhD. And you (presumably) need to get a certain score to get what you are applying for.

Also an application for these with a mere PhD diploma, publication list and some other certificates is going to fail. Spoke at immigrations about getting that travel card and they showed how they expect an application to look like. It was like 1000+ pages. They said they want the applicants to include their publications, theses, books, … rather than just having publication lists and ISBN numbers. Crazy but guess MOE, who judges academic credentials, might not have access to all journals so they can judge your work otherwise.

1 Like

Publish FIRST anyway, before going to Taiwan, if you have any expectation of being able to get an interview for academic positions outside of Taiwan after you leave. If you hang out for a couple of years, what you will have is a “stale Ph.D” and it will be difficult to get interviews, especially if you are a) male and b) [you didn’t say but just saying] non-minority or protected group in the US. These days there are typically 100 valid applications for every 2-year, non-tenure-track lecturer position that goes up anywhere anyone would even vaguely think of living in the US, and more and more schools are going mostly adjunct anyway. (In which case it might not matter whether you hang out in Taiwan for a decade or not. But you’d probably better do as I say, not as I did. :wink:)

What Tapani said. As I understand it the plum blossom card is ultimately awarded on the basis of an interview; if the interviewer likes you, you get the card.

People with PhDs here are ten a penny. Academic standards here are still somewhat lower than (say) Europe or the US: as long as you turn up, nod and smile to your supervisor, and crimp out an incomprehensible thesis, you’ll probably pass. There are lots of people here who have done this simply to avoid military service.

No harm in applying, of course, but you’ll probably have to serve your time like everyone else: five years, then you can get your APRC (which is very straightforward now). Since you have no real career experience, Taiwan would be as good a place as any to get that experience. However, my advice would be to seek out a company in your home country with connections to Taiwan and see if you can get a posting abroad (this can be done by, say, setting up a representative office here if they don’t already have one). You will find very little mental stimulation (and a crap salary) working for Nan Ya or their ilk.

Whichever way you look at it, you need to get your head down and do some work. There are few places on the planet where you can walk into a nice job just by waving a piece of paper around.

Just thought I’d add this here, a real-life example of a Plum Blossom Card recipient:

I’m looking into the Plum Blossom card and noticed that the phrasing of the English and Chinese documents published by 移民署 differs to the point that the requirements are not the same.

Section 5 says in the Chinese version:

(五)現任或曾任國外大學講座教授、教授、副教授、助理教授,或研究機構之研究員、副研究員及助理研究員,且現受聘於我國教育、學術或研究機構;獲有博士學位,曾獲國際學術獎或重要專門著作或於研究機構從事研究工作或科技機構從事科技研發或管理工作四年以上,且現受聘於我國教育、學術或研究機構。

In the English, this is section (e) for some reason, and it reads:

e.Being currently or formerly hired as a chair professor, professor, associate professor, assistant professor in domestic or foreign universities, or being a researcher, associate researcher or assistant researcher of a research institution, or having a doctoral degree or having received an international academic award, or having written a specialized book or having engaged in research at a research institution or having conducted technical research and development at a technical institution or having been involved in management for over four years and currently employed by an educational, academic or research institution in Taiwan.

Note, e.g., “in domestic or foreign universities” vs. “in a foreign university” 現任或曾任國外大學 in the Chinese.

Moreover, all of the “and” 且 in the Chinese are “or” in the English, making it look like you have many different criteria, one of which needs to be fulfilled. The Chinese version essentially specifies two categories of applicants who are eligible, unlike the English.

They’re speaking from a 我國 perspective, so 國外 should refer to anywhere outside of 我國, but if they simply translate it as foreign, the applicant reading it in a foreign country might think it means anywhere but in your own country, so that might be the reason for translating it as domestic or foreign.

1 Like

By that logic, the English should include “foreign or domestic, excluding Taiwan” for it to be a reasonable translation of the Chinese. A better translation would be to simply translate what it says in the Chinese and add an asterisk to prevent the kind of misreading you mention. But honestly I don’t think they mean what you propose here. It’s a bit forced, no? Domestic ought to mean Taiwan in these documents. There are other formulas available otherwise.

:+1:

It ought to, but the Chinese version prevails over the English version unless the document says otherwise, and that part of the very rambling sentence only says 國外.