It pleases me to hear this.
This is the truth.
This displeases me.
This vexes me. They had seemed so clued up when I went there. The woman said that the only problem one guy had had was that he tried to use his document after three months. Nothing about “Oh, and make sure you send this back to SA, from whence it has just come, afore ye use it.”
I look forward to hearing how it all turns out.
Attention: South Africans applying for single status certificate while in Taiwan
Here is my experience:
Total cost +/- TWD5,000, about 6 weeks and loads of patience. That leaves you with about another 6 weeks before the 3-month expiry date on your certificate.
An alternative would of course would be to send the original status certificate directly to TECO SA…
Following on from my post above, I now plan to apply for the JFRV. From all the posts under this topic it seem these are the documents needed:
Regarding #5, I’ve not got this yet. My crim check authentication is being processed in SA right now and this little piece of paper is of course it is highly time sensitive.
Can any South Africans comment on the procedure to get this (#5) and what sort of timeframe am I looking at?
I didn’t apply for my single cert through the SA Liaisons Office here in Taipei. I just asked my father to request it directly from Dept of Home Affairs. He just let me know that it has arrived at the post office. Does it have to be sent to the Taiwan Liaisons office in Pretoria? What is wrong with the one in Cape Town? If it was Cape Town my dad could drive it over and have it stamped quickly. I had all my degree authentications done in Cape Town. Single cert is not acceptable?
What is TECO?
Guess it’s time for a Google.
It’s been two months and my police record has not arrived yet.
Yeah, I’m all arse over tit about this one.
Went to the SA Office here on Feb. 27th, and they sent off for the single status cert, and took my fingerprints. I thought I was being cunning and shrewd, and waited a month before I sent the fingerprints to my old lady in Cape Town - reasoned that it would be best to be married first before the fingerprints came back.
Mom told me yesterday that she now has the police clearance - dated May 8th. But there’s no sign of the single status cert. Which (as Snowy points out) still has to be sent back to SA so that TECO can have a gander at it.
We’ve already spoken to the landlady about having my SO change her household registration to our apartment, gonna go get my name sorted out, health check not a worry (actually, is it different to the teachers’ health check and if so, how?)…
BUT
Didn’t know about the whole ‘have it registered in your home country’ thing. Does that mean dealing with the shambles that is Home Affairs once again?
It really sucks not being in control of all this. I’m especially irked because I’d hoped to have had all this sorted out before we hit SA in July (two weeks driving around Namibia AND a Man Utd game… I’ve come over all tumescent just thinking about it). Now it looks like I’m going to have to go through all this again after the vacation. The SO is even sorting out her birth certificate and single status cert here in case it all gets too complicated and we just end up getting married in Cape Town.
And I was wondering…
You SA blokes who got married here… which regime did you select when you got married? In or Ex community of property? Made some (stupidly expensive - lesson learnt: parents can afford more expensive lawyers than you can, so don’t use theirs!) enquiries about it all. Turns out that according to SA law, the husband trumps the wife when it comes to marriage law. So if your, as the husband’s, registered domicilum is South Africa, then you are automatically married IN community of property, unless you have an ANC (ante-nuptial contract) stipulating otherwise. In Taiwan, you check the box you want, and can therefore get married EX community of property without an ANC.
We’ve spoken to a lawyer here who can sort out an ANC for us to the tune of 15 grand, with translations and authentications and translations and gold embossed copies in laminated sleeves and translations and authenticated certified translated etc. etc. etc. What he cannot tell us, and what the (stupidly expensive) lawyer in SA can’t tell us, is if an ANC from the one country is valid in the other.
Any ideas about any of this?
Of course, as with anything else I’ve written, I humbly stand to be corrected on any foolish errors I have made or mistruths spaked thusly. I’m repeating information as I’ve read it on websites or had it explained to me, and it is now being repeated back to you through my own broken telephone of cognitive interpretation.
Really?
In Taiwan there is just a box to be ticked? No pre-nuptial contract is necessary?
I don’t know if it’s literally a box, but my SO did some calling around and that’s pretty much what it seems like. I searched online, and found this (wonderfully named) website:
international-divorce.com/ta … ntract.htm
Scroll all the way down to the bottom, and there it is, article 1044. However, I sent this off to the lawyer in SA asking if it would be applicable under SA law, and she wasn’t sure and said that an ANC would be the safest bet. However, once again, she couldn’t say if a South African ANC would be be valid in Taiwan, nor if a Taiwanese ANC would be valid in SA.
You can get ANCs here, and the lawyer we contacted here said that they’re becoming more popular… amongst rich people, and foreigners!
Is it possible to switch from a work visa to JFRV visa without leaving the country? I went today and the lady told me I have to make a visa run and get a vistitor visa, come back, and then apply for the JFRV visa. The lady was in a bad mood, so I want to see if anyone has switch from the Work Resident Visa to the JFRV.
I did it. That was 6 years ago. I don’t think it’s changed (but I could possibly be wrong).
My wife called MOFA and got the same info. Have to leave, get new visitor visa, then come back and apply for JFRV. Bloody hell.
When getting a regular ARC, there is no need to leave and come back again… surely the process would be the same.
Hi,
Can I just check with “informed posters” that if I am a resident of Taipei County, I should still go to MOFA on Jinan Road or do I need to go to a different location? I file my tax rebate in danshui etc.
Thanks
TFL
On the first page of the thread it states that all documents needed are only valid for 3 months. Is that true? My single certificate has it written at the bottom that it is valid for 6 months. The police clearance certificate has no such restrictions on it.
Is this a Taiwan rule?
And a dumb question…does the copy of the ID or passport have to be the whole thing, every page, or just the page with the info, photo, etc?
Thanks!
[quote]On the first page of the thread it states that all documents needed are only valid for 3 months. Is that true? My single certificate has it written at the bottom that it is valid for 6 months. The police clearance certificate has no such restrictions on it.
Is this a Taiwan rule? [/quote]
It’s a Taiwan rule. Pretty much all official papers when applying for anything are deemed valid for only three months (or is it two?). Anyway - Taiwan rule.
Thanks for all the replies and info so far.
I’m completely fusedcon now, yet again. I thought I had all the steps down after studying this thread. However, when I went to Hsin Tien they told me that I did not need an appointment or actual witnesses. The witnesses can just sign on the form.
They also said, however, that we need to bring the household registration stuff in order to get married (everywhere on here it seems that you only need to do that after you get married), and they said that I need to have a Chinese copy of my single certificate, and that this copy has to go through the South African Liaisons office.
Has anybody heard of any of these things?
Do you really need a Chinese copy?
You really don’t need to have witnesses present?
Why are we told to bring all the household registration information?
This is turning into the biggest headache ever. I’m sure Carrie and Mr. Big didn’t even have to work this hard for their dream City Hall wedding. What does one do when you get new and completely different information every two seconds, including from the people at the offices that are supposed to be helping you?
In Taiwan, red tape requirements vary by location, by staff member, and by what mood they’re in on the day you visit. The same is true for their pseudo-embassies in other countries. I think they secretly get off on pulling our strings at random. It’s the only power they have in their pathetic little lives. So what do you do? Gather the best info you can, show up on the appointed day with all the documents ANYONE says you might need, but give the official ONLY the documents they asked for. Keep the others up your sleeve. There really is a reason for this tactic. You see, they delight in telling you that your application is complete except for one more document. No matter how many you provide, they will invent one more that you need. They love to see that disappointed look on your face and they delight in forcing you to come back on another day. They’re bloody sadists, I tell you.
Now, by keeping the other docs up your sleeve, when they tell you you need just one more thing, and you ask them “is that it? really, I just need ONE more thing, NOTHING else?”, and they confirm it, then you can pull that doc out. 
I recently heard that there has been some kind of change in the rules – apparently the household registration changes are now made on the same day and at the same location as the notarial marriage (I’m presuming you’re doing notarial – I haven’t read the full thread). So that would jive with what you’re being told.
We had to provide a bilingual version (similar), and it had to go through my liasons office (AIT). So that seems right. I think that we then had to get that CERTIFIED as true at MOFA before the wedding (which is of course UTTERLY ridiculous, given that the single certificate was nothing but a notarized statement BY ME that I was not already married – so what good could MOFA’s certification POSSIBLY do?), but my memory is a bit hazy.
[quote]You really don’t need to have witnesses present?
[/quote]
I was told we needed two. But hey, whether it’s true or not, surely you can find two or more friends you’d love to share the event with – we did, and we’re still very, very happy that we shared it with them. So invite a relative or two, or a friend or two, and a friend to take pictures. You won’t regret it.
Well, keep in mind that you want it to me a moment of joy and an everlasting memory for both of you, so just take a chill pill, and keep in mind these are just little hoops to jump through. You’ll forget the hoops later and will remember the positive moments. 
Add up all the things they say you need to do, and do them all, so you haven’t neglected anything.
And keep that chin up! 
I just finished up at the household registry office - they provided me with a single piece of documentation. I asked if that was all I needed to present to MOFA and they said it was. Does this mean that I don’t need to provide a marriage certificate? I’m confused. I know the policy changed but I’m afraid I’ll head down to MOFA and they’ll tell me it’s missing. Any help would be appreciated.
Just take ALL the marriage documents with you when you go (Chinese original, English version which the notary can produce when you’re getting married, household registration doc, household registration teng2ben3 (which is probably the one you refer to), and notarized affidavit that you are now married to him/her (ours was done at AIT)). Then no matter what they ask for, you can produce it. Remember, don’t volunteer more than they ask for, since they delight in asking you for additional documents just to add another hoop. If they do ask you for an additional doc, ask if that’s absolutely the ONLY thing missing. Then when you hand it to them it’s harder for them to ask for yet another one. 
Are you saying the household registration document and the teng2ben3 are two different things? Do you mean I need to bring my mother-in-law’s household registration? My wife now has my name on her ID, is that good enough?
As you suggested, I’m trying to prepare every document possible they could ask for.
I believe so, yes. The teng2ben3 is what they will probably ask you for. But we had all three (household reg., tengben and her ID with my name on it) so we took all three. I think they only asked to see our tengben but I have a bad memory for such things. If that’s all they’ve listed on the requirement list for you, and if it’s not convenient to get the others, then just take that, and see if it’s enough. 
Part of the problem is that requirements (as well as ARC duration granted) vary based on office location, personnel, and mood thereof. NARUWAN!