I’m considering going through the purportedly massive hassle of applying, but would first like to know exactly what benefits having this confers. Does it mean:
…no more crappy trips to Ren Ai hospital for my yearly health test?
…no more long lines and 6 photos at the foreign affairs police office?
…I can work wherever I please and moonlight as I like?
…anything else I haven’t thought of?
Is it worth the trouble getting permanent residency? So many hoops to jump through.
While I am not certain on this point, I believe your PR status is cancelled if you leave the country for more than a certain number of months per year, effectively ruling out any extended stay overseas. 
Just get married and get the JFRV instead!
If you don’t make your 183 days in any particular year (without having gotten prior permission from the ROC government) your PARC is cancelled and you get to start from zero again. SO very similar to the US green card situation – oh wait, I forgot, with a US green card all you have to do is touch US soil once every 183 days, you can get on the next plane out for all they care. Reciprocity my a$$.
Side note: If ONE more Taiwanese official tells me that “you can’t do this here because, well, can a Taiwanese do this in YOUR country?” I’m gonna puke. Yes, Taiwanese CAN do whatever it is in my country in 99% of cases. Certainly they can get a damn phone line without a guarantor if they have reasonable credit. Well, don’t get me going. 
If you already have 5 years’ legal work, I recommend the article 51 permits. You can get an ARC based on one, and you are exempt from the quotas normally imposed on businesses wishing to hire foreigners. Best of all, it doesn’t matter how many days you’re in Taiwan in any given year (as long as your “employer” doesn’t care). I suppose you do have to do the health exam every 3 years (that’s the max for an ARC, I believe, although my Article 51 employer gave me a 5 year contract.)
Yeah, the last time I asked a police officer why he caught me making a right on red, I asked about the reciprocity thing, but he didn’t take to it too kindly. Also I think he got miffed when I said Taiwanese in the states could buy Krispy Kreme Donuts, so what can’t Americans in Taiwan buy Krispy Kreme or at least Dunkin Donuts?
Man, this rain must be getting to me.
[quote=“ironlady”]If you already have 5 years’ legal work, I recommend the article 51 permits. You can get an ARC based on one, and you are exempt from the quotas normally imposed on businesses wishing to hire foreigners. Best of all, it doesn’t matter how many days you’re in Taiwan in any given year (as long as your “employer” doesn’t care). I suppose you do have to do the health exam every 3 years (that’s the max for an ARC, I believe, although my Article 51 employer gave me a 5 year contract.)[/quote]I did a search for Article 51 but could find nothing about these permits. Could you tell me what they are or give me any links to the information?
Thanks in advance.
joesax the article 51 is THE open work permit.
[quote=“amos”]joesax the article 51 is THE open work permit.[/quote]Cheers. I’m still a bit confused though. I thought you could only get an open work permit on the basis either of an ARC based on marriage, or an APRC which you could possibly get after 7 years’ continuous work or five years’ marriage.
Ironlady talked about getting this permit after five years’ working, and said that the ARC could come as a result of it, not the other way round. If I read her post correctly, it would also not expire.
Excuse me if I’m being really dumb here, but I don’t remember having read anything about this either on the legal forums here or on the government websites I’ve seen.
I’m assuming you are not married to an ROC national, or else you wouldn’t have a visa problem (right?)
An Article 51© work permit is what I’m talking about. This is teh category for “garden-variety” normal foreigners, who are not a) married to Taiwanese, b) stateless refugees, etc. etc. (all the OTHERS get unlimited open work rights, but we do not.)
You need to prove 5 years worth of ARC-carrying legal work, plus documents from the Bureau of Entry and Exit (NT$100, no sweat there) showing that you made 183 days each of those years. You’ll need a contract hiring you, with the chop of the company and the responsble person, and (later) a written statement that you are indeed working for the company (to get your ARC after you’ve got the work permit). The application form is 1 page, one sided, and is very, very simple; little more than name, rank and serial number.
This section © Article 51, however, only allows you to work for one specific employer. It is better and easier than an ordinary work permit because as a foreigner, for a 51 the employer does not have to prove that he needs a foreigner to do the job, does not have to have a minimum capital in the business, and doesn’t “sacrifice” a slot for a foreigner’s (normal) work permit for you. You don’t count toward that company’s quota of foreigners.
You can get the forms at the CLA on Yanping N. Road. They’re fabulously helpful (really.) Best thing that ever happened in Taiwan IMHO (only, I do not see why WE should not have open work rights instead of “just partly open”, but hey, something’s better than nothing, I guess.)
Thanks very much for the detailed info. I certainly hadn’t heard of that before - I wonder how many other people for whom it might apply haven’t heard of it as well. Still, it seems that it would be more useful for jobs other than teaching English (at least in buxibans), since although buxibans have a quota of foreign teachers they don’t have to deal with proving that there isn’t a Taiwanese person available to do the job.
Just one more question: at what point does a visa come into it? Do you continue on an existing visa or, if you get a new one, does it come before or after the work permit? (I would guess it comes at the same time as the ARC, after the work permit, but I wanted to check.)
IF you are on a resident visa (that is, you now have an ARC, so you had a resident visa at one point – trust me, even if it was just 15 minutes, you had [and paid for] one), then there’s no visa problem, as long as the “purpose” of your former resident visa was to work. If you were a student-resident then I’m not sure. I’ve heard some stuff about “changing the purpose of your stay” which sounds pretty much like “Yes, please, we’d like to make another NT$1500 off you for giving you a meaningless piece of paper which will be stamped “USED” in 5 minutes when you arrive at the police station anyway.” 
If you are on a visitor visa (as I was when I got my first Article 51 – believe it or not!) then they will make you purchase a resident visa at MOFA, then trot over to the foreign affairs police to show that visa, the proof of continued employment (in case you were fired in the 7 days since you got the contract!) etc. for your ARC. The resident visa is stamped “USED” and is never referred to again so long as you keep a valid ARC through extensions.
I believe the maximum for an Article 51© ARC would be 3 years. That’s what mine is, and I’m pretty pleased on the whole. The only thing I would like to see is some consideration that there are OTHER categories of foreigners that DO perform jobs that Taiwanese cannot do besides just “high tech” work (actually, I can show that a Taiwanese can’t do my job, whereas for high tech it’s just a numbers thing really) because what I need (and the CLA folks agree) is an open work permit as a freelancer, not under a particular employer. But I digress.
HTH
Terry
[quote=“ironlady”]
You need to prove 5 years worth of ARC-carrying legal work, plus documents from the Bureau of Entry and Exit (NT$100, no sweat there) showing that you made 183 days each of those years. You’ll need a contract hiring you, with the chop of the company and the responsble person, and (later) a written statement that you are indeed working for the company (to get your ARC after you’ve got the work permit). The application form is 1 page, one sided, and is very, very simple; little more than name, rank and serial number.
You can get the forms at the CLA on Yanping N. Road. They’re fabulously helpful (really.) Best thing that ever happened in Taiwan IMHO (only, I do not see why WE should not have open work rights instead of “just partly open”, but hey, something’s better than nothing, I guess.)[/quote]
How do we go about proving it? What collection of paperwork will allow me to prove five years and where do I have to go? I just got past my five years, and have a standard permit. I recently got hired by a new company and wish to do my second work permit as an article 51.
So lemme see if I got this right:
Then are we good to go? 
Oh, also, if my Chinese isn’t great, will the CLA still seem very helpful?
:s
Thank you.
So the only benefits are that you aren’t restricted by the company’s foreigner quota, and the company doesn’t need a certain amount of capital to hire you or to prove it needs you. But you can’t do two jobs and your employer can cancel it (?)
Doesn’t sound worth the hassle.
These last few posts are very misleading. They are talking about Article 51 (open) work permits for regular ARC holders, while the thread is asking about PARC. Totally different things and no wonder Hexuan is confused.