Jesus those guys make Steve Smith look like Mother Teresa.
New one today - 63 year old engineer from Austria, with 29 years in Taiwan. The article also says he is the 23rd to naturalise under the new regime.
Can we lower then the nationality requirement for 25 years instead of 50 then?
What does it mean "for many years, he tried different methods to get nationality but couldn’t get it?
鄭宇恩 helped him get the nationality. Mmm…
The Article probably meant "for many years, he tried different methods to get nationality without giving up his original nationality, but couldn’t get it…
He says he asked 4 different people how to get nationality and he got 10 different answers. 
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Yeah same as me basically. Total chaos. They don’t have a clue. Mainly because you have to deal with MOFA, immigration agency and household registration office and then professional review board for this new process.
Also why is the councillor standing there what Kind of bullshit non transparent
system is this. He’s also teaching English at a school ( nothing wrong with that but I don’t know how he got approved magically ).
Also numbers are pathetically low.
Hmmmm…The article says he’s an English teacher in Danshui Elementary School…so what exactly were his “amazing” qualifications that put him above all other English Teachers??
The councillor deserves the credit as it was she who pushed the aplication through.
Believe me, good for him, but the question remains: why? Persistence? Only one in Tamsui? European applicant?
OK folks. I was intrigued by the confirmation in the past two articles that there were only 23 people awarded citizenship by this method since the law came in.
So, here’s a summary of everyone we know about that acquired citizenship without losing their nationality:
There’s 15 too many, so there are probably some listed who used a different way (eg Tim Chow had a Taiwanese grandfather?)
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Fascinating - Spock Probably said
Cross-post. 
9 more people and they are pattiong themselves on teh back.? Ain’t the numebrs teh same, just that now they are disclosing them? 
Taipei, April 17 (CNA) The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) approved Tuesday a review to allow for the naturalization of nine more skilled foreign professionals in Taiwan while enabling them to retain their original citizenship.
In a statement, the ministry said the latest review brings the number of applicants eligible to apply for Taiwanese citizenship to a total of 32.
…
Among them, an Iranian professor whose background is in electrical engineering, has even designed an “emotional” robot and is well-renowned on the international stage, it said.Meanwhile, a professor from the United States whose expertise is in biotechnology and artificial intelligence is also among the list of applicants approved by the ministry.
The problem is that with this, many people think it is a breeze getting teh nationality. they believe the hype. I had a neighbor reply when I told her that is was not that easy that she knew someone at Academia Sinica that had gotten it. One! Academia Sinica alone has hundreds of atogas working. The numbers just do not add up anyways.
EDIT
The more I read this, the angrier I get. If I can believe what CNA says, look, it states that they had to make an amendment to the law that allows atogas to become ROC nationals without giving up teh original nationality. Now, where the &^%$#@ in the text of the news piece does it say what was the amendment to the existing law that allowed these extra special 9 selected atogas to become citizens?! 
32 is pathetically small for a country with 20 million plus population.
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Th ething is, as the previous chart showed, they had those 32 since Feebruary. So, it is not that these are new people but that they are coming clean that they had to bend/make new regulations to justify having these folks as citizens. Someone squeeked.
@BrianJones, There are not 20 million foreigners, but still 32 of maybe 500k is still very few.
@Icon, what do you mean “had those since February”? These are not (only) hand-picked individuals anymore. There is an application process to get considered.
My view on this dual nationality change is that it is squeezed in between a PR stunt to show qualified foreigners that they can get a citizenship, but also to keep the numbers low enough to not offend the locals.
That in mind, the requirements will be set so to keep the number approved not too many, but also not too few.
Long term, my guess is that the bar for dual citizenship will get low enough to allow anyone with a degree get it (but to keep the Filipinos etc out).
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I think you hit the nail on the head.
They can brag that Taiwan is inclusive… while at the same time really not letting anybody in.
You are right about trying to let the locals not get offended, no locals that I know have any idea that Taiwan is accepting professional Western foreigners in at all, hell, they don’t even know that all the Vietnamese wives here have citizenship. Its all kept quiet so as not to rock the boat,
On the contrary, locals now think getting ROC nationality is as easy for us as it is for them abroad. They think we complain too much.
And as long as the application and selection process is muddied and murked, I personally will keep on complaining. Can’t see how random is any different from hand picking. Too much leeway for corruption.
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I was told that today… “no you’re wrong… Taiwanese can have more than one passport.” (Everyone murmurs in agreement) I said yes, but to become Taiwanese you need to give up your original one. (Everyone murmurs again that it cant be true)
“why don’t you just give up your original and then just apply for it again?” someone said.
Sure I could do that, if I reapplied as a immigrant, went through the points process, and hopefully passed. Which is unlikely.
followed up by everyone saying that they would never give up a more powerful original citizenship for Taiwanese.
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Do you guys still want a dual citizenship, even if APRC holders would have the same rights and duties with locals except for vote and conscription?