Military Conscription for Overseas Chinese?

Thanks ranlee, although I don’t have any parents who are of dying age. I do have a grandmother who’s in an old people’s home in Tamsui, but I don’t know if that qualifies. I’ll contact OP to find out more…

Honestly, I don’t mind serving. I think it’s just concurrently the low pay and the additional time (OK, if it was high paying and short I’m sure a lot more people would do it so it’s not such an uncommon grievance). I actually wouldn’t mind teaching English for a year in a local school and contribute back. Culturally, for a year, it’d be interesting to me. The salary I can’t do much about, so, it really leaves it to the timing that I can maybe change. Do you know if Ministry of Defense would be the people to call to confirm this?

I thought the exact same thing when I was at that crossroads, “It’s only a year”. You can learn some life lessons, but it really puts your life on hold for x amount of months you spend in conscription.

I’ve had a few cousins and friends go through for a year and they come back into society as if they had hibernated for a year. They don’t really learn anything that they can apply into the real world. One of my friends was part of the army division in which he learned how to jump out of a plane with a parachute. Tell me when you need that in RL? haha

I believe it’s the Ministry of Interior Affairs. @yyy can you confirm?

It has nothing to do with age. They have to be a parent with a illness the country deems severe enough. For example stage 1-2 cancer would not have qualify, stage 3 and above does. And you must be the only son.

I think if you’re an only grandson, that applies too.

This is what the law says:

  • Act of Military Service System (兵役法): Ministry of National Defense, 兵役目 (Military Service Section?)

  • The Enforcement Act of Act of Military Service System (兵役法施行法): the same

  • Conscription Regulations for Naturalized Aliens & Returning Overseas Chinese (歸化我國國籍者及歸國僑民服役辦法): apparently the same, but the Ministry of the Interior is responsible for documents that fall under this one

  • Regulations Governing Application for Overseas Chinese Identity Endorsement by Males Who Have Not Completed Compulsory Military Service of Conscription Age or Near Conscription Age (尚未履行兵役義務之接近役齡或役齡男子申請護照加簽僑居身分辦法): Overseas Community Affairs Council, 綜合規劃目 (Integrated Planning Section?), with some MOI involvement

The MND’s Chinese website has a contact form (for the 民意信箱) that’s partly translated, so maybe this means they handle inquiries in English.
http://www.mnd.gov.tw/Publish.aspx?Prod=POMailBox.aspx&Title=為民服務&style=民意信箱&s=1

There’s apparently no contact form in the English version of the site.

The MOI’s Chinese site has a partly translated form.
https://service.moi.gov.tw/ecss/bin/ite009q1.asp
The MOI’s English site has a fully translated form.
https://service.moi.gov.tw/ecss/bin/eng001q1.asp

My understanding is that ROC Nationals with Household Registration (NWHR) (and thus a ROC ID number) must serve in the military. NWHR living overseas can temporarily avoid conscription if they apply for an Overseas Chinese Identification. ROC Nationals without Household Registration (NWOHR) do not have to serve, as they are not in the system and there is really no way to track them down. Correct me if I’m wrong.

If you are a NWOHR, do not apply for Household Registration if you want to avoid conscription…

Can someone clarify this? I thought if you have a Taiwanese passport, it means you undergone the Household Registration process and have an ROC ID. Your household registration, ROC ID Card, and Taiwanese passport may all expire, but you will ALWAYS have an ROC ID number and always have 戶籍. Thus, this poster should be a National With Household Registration, not a National Without Household Registration as he/she claims to be?

Taiwan passport is split into two different kinds: ones with National ID numbers (身分證) and ones without. The ones without ID numbers are usually issued to Overseas Taiwanese folks who have Taiwanese parents (usually ABCs, CBCs, but can be anyone whose Taiwanese parents moved abroad and had them).

If the process of claiming nationality is done when the person claiming is <20 yo, then they can go straight to citizenship, and have their name registered on the parents household registration. If the process is done when the person claiming is >20, which is the case for a lot of folks on the forum, then we are:

  1. First issued a Taiwan Passport WITHOUT National ID number (Without Household Reigstration)
  2. Have to go in, get a permanent residency card (called a TARC - Taiwan Area Resident Certificate)
  3. Establish residency (1 year without leaving, 2 years staying 270 or so days each year, or 5 years staying 183 days each year)
  4. THEN, register onto a household, of which would make me a national withhousehold registration, and eligible for the draft should I be 36. Or is it 37. Anyway the specifics at the margin I’m not sure of but that’s the general idea.

TL;DR: Having TW passport doesn’t mean we have household registration, at least not for Overseas Chinese folks.

That sounds pretty clear, thanks