Interesting story. I intend to do all this when the time comes. If the Good Lord spares me. Ha ha.
That green residence permit is an odd thing. You have Taiwanese (OK, “ROC”) nationality but no ID card. Bizarre stuff.
WH,
One thing I haven’t mentioned in a while is that right after I got that card, I got a Taiwan passport!! This year before I get my ID card, I could actually have left Taiwan if I really wanted/needed to. However (as Satellite TV had mentioned on the previous page or two) that will add one year to getting your ID card.
-Without leaving, you can get your ID card after carrying this card for one year.
-If you leave one or more times, you’ll have to wait 2 years and then get an entry/exit document that proves you were in Taiwan more than 270 days per each of those two years.
That’s a pain, so I didn’t leave. My passport even has a stamp thing in the back called “Entry/Exit permit”. It’s as if my own country gave me a visa to enter Taiwan, in my Taiwan passport. 
I am honored that so many people are following in my footsteps. I know a Welsh guy who is already stateless and waiting for the next step. Many people have indicated that they are waiting for me to get citizenship before they embark in the process. Once I post the results of my military service (need or not) I’m sure there’ll be a host of foreigners becoming citizens. I think this is a great thing.
Poagao and Satellite TV are good resources, too. However, they have finished their processes too long ago to be applicable to today. I think that’s why a lot of people are eyeing my situation.
The day after tomorrow, I will get my health exam and go to GaoXiong to apply for my “settling down” certificate. As these things unravel, I’ll post here–no worries.
It’s been a week since my last post. I picked up my health exam and took it to the GaoXiong “entry/exit office” (or whatever). I had my already filled out form and gave them my TARC and other things. I waited about 10 minutes and it only took about 3 minutes for them to process my paperwork. Typhoon days are great–not many people want to go out. (Cost: $400. Gua Hao envelope: $26).
I had the same problem where they wanted to know “whose house I was living in”. Hello? The point of “ding ju” or “settling down” is finally GETTING household registry. She made a call and said I could write whatever I wanted. Which is exactly what I had just told her.
In 10 days, I should get my Ding Ju Zhen and then give it to the Household Registry office. I hope I get my TARC back–they kept it.
I GOT IT!!! I’m just back from the Household Registry office!!! I’m totally excited. I can’t stop holding it and looking at it!
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Congrats, the end of the road has been finally reached. Well done :bravo: :bravo:
Thanks, Traveller. I really appreciate that.
I was too excited earlier to write the details that anyone interested might need to know. Now that my tower has cooled (haha), here they are:
The Entry Exit Bureau told me “10 days” until I get my Ding Ju Zhen (Certificate of settlling down). I started wondering if that was 10 calendar days or 10 business days. I turned in the application form on 8.31 and received it on 9.8. That’s only 8 days and one of those business days was a typhoon day. I think this is not bad at all. They must be programmed to say “ten days”, I think.
I originally wanted my Household Registry to be at my current home in An Ping, Tainan. My landlord is a “second landlord” and getting all of the notarizations for that would be a pain in the ass. My 4-year buddy at the Tainan South District HR office told me that and advised me to find a South District friend to set my HR. My trusty neighbor from when I first lived in Taiwan said “OK” and I got the proper form from her. (I had to have the receipt that says that the tax was paid for that property for this year.)
Today I went to the HR office, armed with all my documentation and gave it to “Mr. Wu”–the guy who has been helping me with this process since March of 2002. The laoban of the whole HR office (Mr. Huang) called me into his office and made tea and we talked and drank tea for an hour while waiting for them to finish my ID card. He’s a good guy. He often goes abroad to study things like “disaster management”, social improvement, and this and that. He has met with the US Congress before (don’t know if this is a good thing or not…) He even had won an award last year for “quality of service” from the Executive Yuan. Next Saturday, he leaves for Australia to study English for a month. He is likely to be in his late fifties, but he always wants to improve himself and his office. Age means nothing to him. I like that. If Tainan City, South District HR office seems to be a friendly, helpful place to get things done–Mr. Huang is behind all of it. (He didn’t “get” any of my jokes, but when he recommended a buffet place to take me out, I said “Oh, that’s ci dao si”, or “eat until you die”. Most people say “ci dao bao”, or “eat until you are full”. He laughed so hard he had his face in his hands. I guess we don’t share the same sense of humor.)
ONE STRANGE THING:
As we were drinking tea and talking, Mr. Wu came in and asked me about my brothers/sisters. I said “I have one older sister”. He said “so, you’re the first son?” I said “I am the ONLY son.” He wrote down something as if this were important. I think that’s interesting. You’d think that Taiwan is past the “first son being more important” stage, but I guess not.
MORAL:
For all you future Taiwanese, it’s very easy to set your Household Registry at a friend’s house. All you need is the (very pretty pink[???]) document that says they paid tax for the land/house. If you want your Household Registry to be where you currently rent a place, your rent contract booklet things will have to be notarized, etc. That could possibly be an unnecessary hassle for your landlord.
Anyway, I got it done, got it out of the way, and I’m free from these hassles in the future. As Travelller has emphasized “the end of the road has been reached.” I can’t say that better myself.
Welcome to the Taiwanese White Lads Club… 
So they didn’t let yuou choose an ID Card number I know they are computerized but the clerk in my HR office was in too much shock and I saw a number in the computer list that I really liked and she let me take it.
Yeah I had forgotten about having to show paid up taxes for personal and both for my house as well lol…
The clerk was also in shock that I wasn’t married, same as you heheheh I think it was an invite lol
Yeah it’s a good feeling to finally get it done… March 2002 - September 2005 for all your processing.
Walking out with your own Hujou, HR and an ID card knowing you can now do as you please is really fabulous.
Thanks for your call today. I’ll see you up at my home again after this typhoon.
ID card in action:
Just got back from a Saturday afternoon to Sunday afternoon trip to Taipei. Visited former coworkers last night and today looked at a motorcycle I want to buy.
Last night, my friend and I decided to stay in a hotel. The opportunity to flash my new card didn’t even occur to me until she said “wen jian”. I handed that card to the receptionist and she studied it for about three seconds with a “what the hell?” look on her face. That hotel was about average-price, maybe a little on the expensive side ($2400/night). The one we wanted had no vanancy ($1200/night).
This afternoon, just before boarding the bus back to Tainan, we stopped by the Da Zhong PHS store to transfer “my friend’s number” into my name. I took a number and then waited about 10 seconds for service. I said “I would like to transfer this number in her name, to my name.” The two clerks looked at each other with nearly-round eyes. I know they were about to give me the “you need a co-signer” speech, when I placed both of our ID cards in front of the one clerk. She did the same as the hotel clerk, never spoke, and then turned around to get both necessary forms to fill out. This is FUN!!!
What a great weekend: got to use my ID card twice now, saw good friends, met the owner of my (perhaps) new bike, test-rode the bike, and the sun even came out in Taipei . This was the best time I’ve ever had in Taipei!
I just got back from the Household Registry office. They had scheduled a “journalist meeting” and a lot of reporters came to interview a few of the staff and I. It will be interesting to see if they print my story.
Lian He Bao
Taipei Times (Tai Bei Shi Bao)
The Liberty Times (Zi You Shi Bao)
China Times (Zhong Guo Shi Bao)
China Times (Zhong Shi Wan Bao) Evening paper
Zhong Hua Er Bao (That “er” means “sun”).
There were others present, but didn’t give me business cards.
For all viewers of this topic, I would like everybody’s opinions here.
I have been asked to appear on a TV program where people make suggestions about how the government can improve. I haven’t said “yes” yet. When I heard the word “government”, my initial thought was “NO”. However, this might be an opportunity for foreigners’ voices to be heard. My policy about this stuff is “Government? OK. Politics? No.”
I’m not afraid of cameras or nervous about appearing on TV. Somehow, in the back of my mind, I want to be careful about doing this. I fear that if I’m not careful I might be opening Pandora’s worm-can or whatever. I would really like to hear from Poagao about this, as I think he’s had TV experience.
If this turns out to be a good idea, I will start another topic where you can post your suggestions. For now, is this a good idea or not?
I’d trust the media/politicians about as far as I can collectively throw them, and I throw like a girl. They’ll tell you the interview is about one thing, and it might be, or it might be about something completely different. They’ll manipulate it and you as they please. Don’t go into it expecting to be taken seriously, ID or no.
But it’s a gamble; you might get something out of it. I don’t come across well on TV; you might look good, good enough to become the Biggest Thing since Portuguese egg tarts. You just never know. Being a citizen was fresh to me 12 years ago, but I’ve long since become used to it; society here isn’t used to it, however, so I’m glad to hear more people are doing it.
(That’s funny, I’ve been told I throw “like a girl”, too. The only thing I know about basketball is that the ball has to go through that hole-thing. Baseball is an even different story. Me watching baseball is like a goldfish watching the stock market. When US football fans tear down the goalpost, what do they do with it?)
Thanks for the warning, Poagao. I’ll be careful about this. I’ll call and ask about the purpose of this show before I make any decision. I would really like to see what the show is like before I appear. The problem is that I don’t have a TV. I’ll try to find out as many details as possible.
More people are doing it? Yes. The big hangup is that they are afraid of military service. I know a Welsh guy who is already stateless. He’s in the process. In Tainan, I also know a guy who wants to become a citizen. He can’t speak Chinese, but his main purpose is “to get a commercial fishing license”, so he can board fishing boats. He’s been in Taiwan much longer than I have. I think this is an unusual reason, but maybe I can “milk him” for some money to help him with his paperwork.
That was a joke; I don’t know if I do throw like a girl, but I can’t throw a grenade very well and caught a lot of grief about it in the army (luckily I made up for it with sharpshooting).
He can’t speak Chinese? Now that’s just nuts. I’ll never understand how people can live here so long and not learn some form of the local language, be it Mandarin or Minnan. What’s he going to do if they implement a basic language test (I actually think that’s not a bad idea)?
That’s super coolingtower and congratulations. I agree with Poagao’s concerns on media manipulation. If your friend Mr. Wu is there to oversee things and not turn it into a circus, this would seem to be a great opportunity to strike one for the foreigners after all that nastiness up here in the North with the drug bust etc.
[quote=“coolingtower”]I just got back from the Household Registry office. They had scheduled a “journalist meeting” and a lot of reporters came to interview a few of the staff and I. It will be interesting to see if they print my story.
Lian He Bao
Taipei Times (Tai Bei Shi Bao)
The Liberty Times (Zi You Shi Bao)
China Times (Zhong Guo Shi Bao)
China Times (Zhong Shi Wan Bao) Evening paper
Zhong Hua Er Bao (That “er” means “sun”).
There were others present, but didn’t give me business cards.[/quote]
I turned down an invite to a radio station… wasnt sure and I was feeling wary of what they wanted… better to get them to write down a list of questions first perhaps… I stay away from commenting on politics… at least in fron of journalists lol
Just tell them you’ll invite all your other friends who have or who are going thru the process… there’s quite a lot of us out there who have done it… I know of one Afghani and some other non SEA nationals who have done it.
Just saw coolingtower on TV. There was a singing octopus and everything. Made me want to get my citizenship.
You thought the singing octopus was good? Wait until you see the sheep typing on computer keyboards–in the ocean.
They recorded that exactly two weeks before it aired. I guess it got stuffed into the “afternoon fill-in file”.
I did agree to one talk show. It’ll be on channel 36(?) at 9pm on Wednesday, the 28th. There were four foreigners, plus me, and two hosts. The guy sitting next to me on the couch is amazing. 42 years in Taiwan. I’m guessing he was the one who got “honorary citizenship”, but I’m not sure. I have his business card and can ask him if you need to know. The show is called “Jin wan na li you wen ti” or “What’s the question tonight?”
It was pretty wholesome–no questions about politics. It was a pretty fun time. The makeup was very itchy! Round-trip bus from Tainan, plus subway and taxi was nearly $1600, but they only gave me $800 for that show. Oh, well, it was fun anyway. Plus, in the break room at the studio I met a girl who is best friends with my neighbor in Tainan! Like me earlier this year, she can’t stand Taipei and is moving back.
Why on earth would you WANT to???
Uh…because I can:
-get a cell phone in my name
-get a house loan in my name (with loan)
-apply for a credit card
-get a car in my name (with loan)
-pay less tax on interest at any bank
-work freely (3 jobs, 5 jobs, whatever–they’re all legal)
-start a company in my name
-vote
-get retirement pension when I’m old
-travel, and not be looked down upon as a “US Citizen”, as the US is hated by virtually the whole world.
AND…
-Have the feeling that I’m actually a citizen of the country where I want to settle down.
If I were to visit the US, it might cost me around NT$2000 or whatever to get a visa. How does that balance with all the freedoms mentioned above? If you want these “freedoms” in the US, then GO TO the US. Easy, right?
It’s all a matter of preference. Live where you like. If you want to become serious about where you live, get citizenship there. Why not? I did it, and succeeded. Your life is up to you.
(Can’t wait for the first loser to flame me about my statement above regarding “US being a world enemy”. This is going to be FUUUUUN!!! )
I respect what you’ve done, but I’m guessing you probably don’t do a whole lot of travel to other countries. If you want to go to almost any other country besides the US, you’ll also need a visa if you travel on a Taiwan passport. If you have US passport, you can usually avoid these visas. I know there are exceptions and all that, but this is true for the most part.
Anyway, don’t let me rain on your parade. It’s wonderful that you’ve demonstrated your commitment to Taiwan in such a great way.