Let’s say you have plenty (I mean plenty) of money in the bank. You worked your arse off for a few years living off a quarter of your earnings and banking the rest (or you inherited a healthy estate/won the lottery/whatever) and you feel like taking a big break and being a bum for 5 years in Taiwan. You want to get Taiwanese citizenship. To get citizenship, you have to hold an ARC for 5 years. To hold an ARC, it appears you have to have a job in Taiwan first. So, how do you get an ARC without working? Possible to be employed on paper and pay taxes without actually working? Better to work part time for 5 years maybe?
Getting married would probably be less trouble
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Getting married is never less trouble…trust me! You’ll just have to get a job throwing sticky balls at kids’ heads for 14 hours a week like everybody else.
That’s five years on ARC’s to get an APRC. Citizenship has additional requirements.
Good point, I totally missed that.
I’m still trying to wrap my noodle around what kind of a mental patient would, with that level of financial freedom, choose to live here, for jumping out loud.
What’s that old saying?
“If I owned this place and Hell, I’d rent this place out and live in Hell”
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How appropriate comment you made 
But citizenship has the advantage that they do not ask for tax returns, or minimum earnings. Just giving up your previous nationality.
I’d think of my Mom, who has plenty of money, good looks and health, and would love to live in a convenient, safe environment where she can practice her favorite sport: let’s snoop on and criticize the neighbors.
Ha ha ha HAHA!
Citizenship, he says. That’s easier said than done. The BEST you can get is to be a permanent alien always doomed to higher taxes, and having to argue to use certain online stores because your ID number doesn’t fit the correct pattern.
That is, unless you give up your citizenship, become stateless. Then you will have a good but not guaranteed chance of becoming a Taiwanese citizen. I’ve not heard of anyone being rejected, but it is a possibility. Once you get your new citizenship, I’ve read on this forum that you are under a five year probation. They can revoke it for the smallest of crime, or even a violation of certain morales. Perhaps, they could revoke it at anytime, even after five years. One of the more diligent Forumosans could show us the regulation.
Members on this board have said that they know of some New Citizens have quietly come back to their country of origin and got their citizenship reinstated after the “naturalization” process was over. The home countries understood the discrimination Taiwan has against non-citizens and was cool about give back citizenship. NOT THE USA, however. Their attitude seems to say “We ARE THE BEST, GO AHEAD, Don’t come back”, like a hurt stuck up child.
Something else you should know. My children, born here to a Taiwanese mother, have dual citizenships. My wife can get American citizenship if she qualifies and it doesn’t affect her Taiwanese citizenship at all. Infact, one of my doctors at the hospital clinic showed of his many passports to me. Taiwanese, USA, Australia…
According to other threads here, we poor non native Taiwanese are only allowed to have one. If we acquire an other citizenship, we have to forfeit our Taiwanese citizenship. That is why some fellow members won’t say if they or their friends recovered their original citizenship.
Now Seriously, how would you spend your time on this rock if you are not in school or making some money! There’s not much entertainment.
Spend 183 days a year here playing video games while spending the other 182/183 days working elsewhere in a 2 weeks on 2 weeks off type job? The 183 days could be split up into several chunks.
You wouldn’t even have to give up the right to work in your home country if you already had a second citizenship to renounce…
Never really looked at it this way, as I help folks stay in country legally and work on their art. But I suppose I could arrange something for the OP if he was serious.
Staying 183 days a year playing video games would make you a tax resident, but you would still be a tourist (or “visitor”) as far as immigration law is concerned. You need 5 years on ARC’s (again this is just to get an APRC not to get citizenship), and they don’t need to be issued for employment, but they can’t be issued for education, if I understand correctly.
Nice to see they finally waived the piss test for new mods. Congrats!!!
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Ok. So you need 5 years on ARC’s to get an APRC. I thought the rule was more or less the same for getting citizenship. So what’s the difference between residency rules with getting APRC vs Citizenship?
You could play for The Taiwan National Hockey Team without getting a transfer card from your home federation. And you can forget about landing visas. oh, and you can vote.
You’d have to be good enough at hockey to get in to a team first. Everyone knows sports stars can get citizenship or permanent residency super easily. What about ordinary people?
Ya, I was just being a card. Seriously tho’, if you were willing to work on the occasional commercial set as a background model, I could sponsor you for a performers’ work permit. If you stayed willing to do that for 5 years, you could get your APRC.
The main sticking point with getting citizenship is having to give up your own.
The thing is though, I’m not personally in this circumstance. I’m just talking about it out of personal interest.
I believe the correct term is “yanking our chains.”