Overseas chinese ROC passport! Can Singaporeans apply?

Legal Dual Nationality
1

Hey all,

I am Singaporean Chinese with zero ties to Taiwan. My grandparents were born in the mainland and parents born in Singapore.

I am very interested in this overseas chinese taiwan passport. It would be cool to have another passport in hand. I’ve also heard it makes it easier to work/live in Taiwan though I am not sure how. I really want that passport. I visited Taiwan last year and really liked the place a lot. The people are refreshingly friendly.

I’ve been reading a lot about this overseas chinese taiwan passport. I’ve heard that all enthic Chinese overseas are eligible to receive a taiwan passport without the hukou.

I have emailed the Taiwan authorities and also contacted the Taiwan embassy here but received no clear answer to it. I was jerked around both times like they didn’t want to entertain me.

Has anyone actually gotten their overseas chinese taiwan passsport? If so, could you please tell me what are the documents needed and what is the process like?

2

I believe you can! All ethnic Chinese can get ROC passport.

In Israel, all Jews can become Israeli, and the ROC based its nationality act on this similar idea because of the contribution of overseas Chinese to the Xinhai revolution (according to Wikipedia).

3

I “believe” I can too but I need to be certain. Do my parents need to be Taiwanese to receive the overseas chinese roc passport? :bow:

Renzai I heard you are persuing the overseas chinese roc passport too? would you care to PM me your email or MSN account, I would love to chat with you.

The jews are different. They can take up Isreali citizenship easily no matter where they are. Even Indians now have the overseas indian citizenship. Us overseas Chinese, we’ve got nothing !

4

Singaporean citizenship is nothing? You don’t consider yourself a Singaporean? Above and beyond all else you are Chinese? Have you made up a similar moniker like ABC or CBC to describe yourself? How about SBC…Singaporean born Chinese? The Americans and Canadians seem to think that the monikers ABC and CBC are in someway relevant. I always thought that people born in America were American and people born in Canada were simply Canadian. You know ABA…American born American! CBC…Canadian born Canadian!

My parents are naturalized US citizens originally from Holland and I was born in America. Should I refer to myself as an ABD,American born Dutch? I’ve always referred to myself as an American and when people ask me about my ethnic heritage I tell them Dutch. Have I been doing it incorrectly? Should I refer to myself as an overseas Dutch?

“Cool to have another passport in hand.” But, perhaps not the responsibility of citizenship and national pride that goes with it? Is there anything such as national pride for ethnic Chinese people?

5

Calm down Captain America, galactic defender of national pride. It is not as serious as you think it is.

Meanwhile if anyone has any idea if I qualify for an overseas chinese roc passport…your help is much appreciated

6

You are absolutely right. I hope the PRC will one day get its act together and revise its nationality law, but I am not counting on it.
Japan, Turkey, France, Morroco, France, Greece, etc are all countries who preserve the link with its people who go overseas…even if they accept another nationality. I do not see a problem with double or even more citizenships; it increases opportunities for people to compete and build contacts globally.

I will PM you my MSN.

7

Having more citizenships has nothing to do with ‘responsibility’ or ‘national pride’. Many Chinese Americans in fact also have ROC nationality, and are they less American? And to have a Singaporean passport and ROC passport would make totally sense IMHO, and I believe quite a few Singaporeans are ROC passport holders and perhaps even Taiwan citizens.

8

I’m actually totally calm. I guess you misjudged my intended tone, which can at times be difficult to decipher from just an online posting. I am actually quite curious about this and I’m really interested in knowing about ethnic Chinese thoughts regarding citizenship versus passport versus ethnic background issues.

Some extremely confusing examples I have personally experienced are:

  1. An ethnic Chinese, born in America to two Taiwanese parents. Has never been to Taiwan and has no inclination to do so, doesn’t speak, read, or write Chinese. Doesn’t possess R.O.C. citizenship. However she always refers to herself as Chinese-American, or Taiwanese, or ABC. Why? Why is this important at all? Why doesn’t she say she’s an American? If she feels she has to add the Chinese part, then why doesn’t she say she’s an American with ethnic Chinese background?

  2. An ethnic Chinese, born in Taiwan to two Taiwanese parents. At age 22 moved to America, got a green card, and ultimately naturalized as a US citizen. After attaining US citizenship he moved back to Taiwan to live and work. I met this individual here in Taiwan and he asked me if I was an American. He told me that he just returned to Taiwan after staying in America and “getting his US passport”. So, I replied, “So, then you are an American?” He said, “No, I’m Taiwanese, I just have a US passport!” Why doesn’t he consider himself an American? Why didn’t he at a minimum identify himself as both a Taiwanese and an American?

  3. Two ethic Chinese, born in Taiwan to two Taiwanese parents. Moved to America at 23 and 26 years old, got a green card, and ultimately naturalized as US citizens. After attaining US citizenship they moved back to Taiwan to work as English teachers at a local chain bushiban. They are not in Taiwan on their US passports, they don’t have ARCs, however, because they have a US passport they were hired and are paid as foreigner native English teachers. They are not native English speakers, their accents and grammar are aweful, and they never speak English except when they teach in the classroom. When asked, they say that they are Taiwanese and not Americans, but they have US passports. Why? Why don’t they say that they are both Taiwanese and American?

  4. Blueeee11 said, “Hey all, I am [color=#FF0000]Singaporean Chinese [/color]with [color=#FF0000]zero ties to Taiwan[/color]. My grandparents were born in the mainland and parents born in Singapore. It would be cool to have another passport in hand.” Why do you refer to yourself as Singaporean Chinese? Why not just Singaporean? What connection to Taiwan or China do you have besides ethnicity? Do you actually want Taiwanese citizenship with the requirement to do your military duty or do you just want a passport? If you got it would you call yourself a Taiwanese? Perhaps you would refer to yourself as a Singaporean Chinese who only happens to have a Taiwan passport? Do you want to actually become a Taiwanese citizen or just a passport holder? Why?

Although I’ve heard other ethnic groups do this, in my experience it’s the ethnic Chinese that really go out of their way to make sure that they identify themselves first as a Chinese before any other nationality regardless of whether or not they actually hold Chinese citizenship. Why?

None of my friends have ever gone out of their way to say that they are Italian-American, Irish-American, German-American, etc, unless the question of ethnicity came up in the conversation. I’ve never had any people I’ve met in Taiwan from Australia or New Zealand or South Africa identify themselves in this manner. They just say that they are Australian, South African, or New Zealanders. I think it would be weird for them to say that they are German-Australian or something like that.

I appreciate any information that you can provide that would enlighten me to the reasons that this occurs. :bow:

9

I disagree with you on this one. All people becoming naturalized US citizens are required to take the Oath of Citizenship below. You are helping me prove my initial posting questioning whether or not ethnic Chinese have national pride if you truly believe this.

“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”

It clearly shows the requirement of responsibility and national pride through the five points below.

*allegiance to the United States Constitution,
*renunciation of allegiance to any foreign country to which the immigrant has had previous allegiances to
*defense of the Constitution against enemies “foreign and domestic”
*promise to serve in the United States Armed Forces when required by law (either combat or non-combat)
*promise to perform civilian duties of “national importance” when required by law

Apparently you didn’t read my question. Whether or not people have dual citizenship or whether or not it makes sense to you is irrelevant. I’m questioning the attitude that ethnic Chinese appear to have regarding citizenship versus ethnicity versus holding a passport.

So, again. Do ethnic Chinese have any type of national pride or is it just ethnic pride and the possession of passports because they are useful, cool, convenient, etc, and without regard to their actual legal citizenship?

I appreciate any information you can give to help me understand this. :bow:

10

You are probably thinking too much into it. In the US, plenty of men describe themselves as black american, white american, latino american and yes chinese american. In cananda, they also describe themself as french canadian, white canadian…and the list goes on and on.As you can see, it is not just the chinese describing themselves in this manner. the black,white,brown, all the colours of the rainbow do that too lol.

plenty of americans have european passports through their lineage…i was merely lamenting why overseas chinese dont get prc or taiwan citizenship through our lineage.

I wish to get an overseas chinese roc passport because I have heard that enthic chinese are eligible for one, it is just that simple. if i was eligible for an european citizenship due to my lineage, i would probably apply for one too.

now back to the topic at hand, can I really get an overseas chinese roc passport :ohreally:

11

The Passport Act only allows ROC nationals to get an ROC passport. Special rules apply for Mainland Area residents (article 18 of the enforcement rules of the passport act), and for those from Hong Kong or Macau (article 19).

Ethnic Chinese who are not directly from Hong Kong, Macau, the Mainland, or Taiwan Area (or at least have a parent who is from there) can’t get a passport.

Even those those who have a connection to the PRC, it is quite difficult. I have not heard of anyone doing this within the last 5 years successfully unless they already held a ROC passport and were renewing or their parent already had household registration in Taiwan.

12

As a side note, I think the nationality law of the republic of china allows for the passing of nationality from parent to child. You can’t get it from a grandparent. (This is true of the PRC’s nationality law.)

I don’t know anything about Singapore’s nationality law other than they don’t allow dual citizenship. So getting a ROC passport (even an overseas one that lacks household registration) might be enough to cause Singapore to revoke your Singaporean citizenship.

13

I can understand the point that a person is ethnically Chinese and would wish for PRC citizenship. But Taiwanese citizenship? Sure, the majority of the population is Han Chinese (ethnic Chinese), but Taiwan isn’t Chinese, and hopefully never will be.

As to your question, not sure. And if you can get one, there are obligations. National service being among those obligations. Afterall, they don’t hand them out like candy.
Then again, you don’t have to be ethnic Chinese/overseas Chinese to get a Taiwanese passport either. You just have to meet immigration requirements to qualify.

A more relevant question may be: Why don’t you go down to your local Taipei liaison/economic trade office or come here for a visit and ask the relevant people in person? It’s been my experience that any info on the web his not entirely accurate and/or complete, and e-mails wont get you very far.

Here’s three sources you can check out that may be of help:
National Immigration Agency (NIA)
The Nationality Act
Enforcement Rules of the Nationality Act

The Passport Act

14

In which case you’ll be spending a bit of time in the Army.

15

Americans used to be predominantly white, but now there are many blacks and many mexicans and asians who have US citizenship. They may be naturalized or they may have gotten the citizenship at birth. A lot of Americans who are NOT your standard white American, like to add that they are Korean-American, Chinese-American, etc.

Having a passport does not automatically mean you define yourself as being from that country.

I am born in Taiwan , for example, to an American father and a Taiwanese mother. I got US citizenship by virtue of at least one of my parents being American (which in my case was my father). I was raised on Taiwan and tend to identify myself as Taiwanese, rather then American (although my citizenship is American).

I am a true Taiwanese-American , I could say.

Why do Chinese like to identify themselves as Chinese? Because the Chinese diaspora around the world do this. IF you are half Chinese or full Chinese, most Chinese will consider you Chinese. If you have no Chinese blood , then you won’t be considered Chinese. I guess that , those of us who are , at least in part Chinese like to say we are to include ourselves in the Chinese diaspora. Unless we have no association at all socially with any Chinese people. IN which case it may be less important.

A Chinese person will accept another one as “Chinese” if they are so as a matter of fact. This way you don’t get treated as “foreign”.

Although being only partially Chinese (or more correctly TAiwanese) I am never made to forget that I am half something else though by others who are “full” Chinese. And one must remember that most Taiwanese are in part TAiwan aborigine.

But Taiwan is changing. And in future a lot of “Taiwanese” will have foreign blood. Many vietnamese wives here, also from Thailand and also many western spouses now. So Taiwan is changing. Being Taiwanese will no longer mean mainly Chinese even.

There will also be cases no doubt where someone is going to be born in Taiwan of white parents (or another set of non-chinese parents) but be a citizen. He/she is going to be Taiwanese too.

16

Yes I got one. However Singapore does not allow dual Nationality so you will have to renounce your Singaporean Citizenship.

17

Japan? Japan does not allow dual nationality please get your facts correct first.

18

YOu can belive what you want… reality is different. Singapore does not allow dual nationality. I know Singaporeans who moved to Taiwan and had to give up their Singaprean Nationality to become ROC Natioanals. I gave up Australian Nationality to become an ROC NAtional.

19

Sure you can. Move to TAiwan. meet the residential requirement for ROC Nationality then renounce your Singaporean Nationality.

20

Nope. not if they did military service in Singapore first. Which is a requirement there too Bismarck.