In my post, I muse the seemingly drastic option of renouncing my Taiwanese dual nationality in order to avoid military conscription, allowing me to teach english in Taiwan (and study mandarin) for a few years on a visa. I explain my rational for thinking there is some risk I would be conscripted in my original post.
I thought it may be better if I posted here, to see if anyone other teachers have been the same position as me (being of conscription age, but born overseas to a dual citizen Taiwanese parent) and made it through teaching English (and study mandarin) for a few years without getting drafted?
I am interested to hear how you entered the country (on your foreign passport?/on what visa?), and how you satisfied yourself you wouldn’t get drafted. Or was it a case of just taking on the risk they wouldn’t be able to trace your dual-nationality? Seems like a big risk to take to me.
So tell me, is the idea of renouncing my Taiwanese nationality too drastic? Would it even work? Is there another less ‘drastic’ way?
My brother was in similar situation for 2 yrs… I don’t think you need to renounce your TWN citizenship, what if you do end up deciding to stay/retire in Taiwan in the future? What my brother did, was traveling to either China, HK, or JPN once every 6 months (I think, could’ve been an year…) to get his passport stamped, thus avoiding the issue of being drafted.
I understand that as a foreigner, the tuition is A LOT less comparatively. I’m actually looking into getting a Master degree while at home.
As an English teacher, you could seem a tad more “attractive” to schools as there’s less visa related effort for them to hire you. I’m only speaking of this per experience. I’m a dual citizen as well, and I just got a english teaching job at a public school in southern taiwan…
Schools generally frown upon a student working significantly during school, especially in the case of graduate school (think “our program is sooooo rigorous no one could EVER manage to…”) Don’t utter the word “work” even if you plan to.
But you will need to have some sort of visa. It will probably depend on the school whether they make it their business or not. My experience at Fujen was that no one ever asked what kind of visa I had, and I kept my mouth shut about working, so everyone was happy. But I’m sure every school is different, especially in terms of how they deal with foreign nationals.
I’m in a the same position as you are except I was born in Taiwan and left the country when I was just eight.
I learned everything the hard way. Long story short, I was hired by a national cram school chain. They knew my dual-citizenship and military conscription situation and worked with me. What we did was the school applied for a work permit using my American passport for me. Then I applied for a Visitor’s Visa in the US then entered Taiwan that way. After entering Taiwan, I had to go to the immigration agency to convert the visitor visa to a work sponsored ARC. Immigration agency will issue the ARC but they told me I still had to leave the country every four months to avoid the conscription law. I thought that was weird so I looked in my Taiwan passport, it has entry and exit stamps. I’m not sure how they can track me in Taiwan as a Taiwanese citizen if I used my American passport to enter. Either way, just to be safe than sorry, I’ll still go to HK every four months…just look at it as a small vacation.
[quote=“ryu88”]Hi
This might be against the rules, but I recently posted a thread in the Military Conscription section of this forum. Link below:
In my post, I muse the seemingly drastic option of renouncing my Taiwanese dual nationality in order to avoid military conscription, allowing me to teach english in Taiwan (and study Mandarin) for a few years on a visa. I explain my rational for thinking there is some risk I would be conscripted in my original post.
I thought it may be better if I posted here, to see if anyone other teachers have been the same position as me (being of conscription age, but born overseas to a dual citizen Taiwanese parent) and made it through teaching English (and study Mandarin) for a few years without getting drafted?
I am interested to hear how you entered the country (on your foreign passport?/on what visa?), and how you satisfied yourself you wouldn’t get drafted. Or was it a case of just taking on the risk they wouldn’t be able to trace your dual-nationality? Seems like a big risk to take to me.
So tell me, is the idea of renouncing my Taiwanese nationality too drastic? Would it even work? Is there another less ‘drastic’ way?[/quote]
Erectronics - I agree. Having considered it further, renouncing my TW nationality is something that I don’t want to do. However, I think as Jujai says to minimise my risk, I would want to enter and leave on my Australian passport (I don’t have a current Taiwanese passport).
Jujai - Can I ask what year you were born? I think because i was born after 1984, the rule is that I can’t spend more than a total of 183 days in Taiwan in any 2 consecutive years. People born before 1984 can (as you say) do the visa run to HK every 4 months.
So I think my solution is -
Enter on my Australian passport (meaning i will need obtain a work visa).
Just to cover myself - make sure i don’t spend more than 183 days in Taiwan in any 2 consecutive years. So theoretically I think i could spend the 2nd half of 2015, and the 1st half of 2016 in the country consecutively, so long as i don’t go over the limit in either of the 2 years!
Erectronics - I agree. Having considered it further, renouncing my TW nationality is something that I don’t want to do. However, I think as Jujai says to minimise my risk, I would want to enter and leave on my Australian passport (I don’t have a current Taiwanese passport).
Jujai - Can I ask what year you were born? I think because I was born after 1984, the rule is that I can’t spend more than a total of 183 days in Taiwan in any 2 consecutive years. People born before 1984 can (as you say) do the visa run to HK every 4 months.
So I think my solution is -
Enter on my Australian passport (meaning i will need obtain a work visa).
Just to cover myself - make sure I don’t spend more than 183 days in Taiwan in any 2 consecutive years. So theoretically I think i could spend the 2nd half of 2015, and the 1st half of 2016 in the country consecutively, so long as I don’t go over the limit in either of the 2 years![/quote]
I have made some more enquiries about my situation with my local consulate office.
With the conscription rule, they did confirm that it didn’t matter which passport i entered on. As a Taiwanese national, there would be an obligations on me to do military service.
They advised me they thought my best option was to renew my Taiwanese passport and get the Overseas Chinese status and then apply the 183 day rule. They told me that entering on my Australian passport (using visa) would be unlawful as because I am a Taiwanese national, I am required to enter on my Taiwanese passport.
Can anyone clarify this for me?
Do I need to renew my Taiwanese passport and get my Overseas Chinese status for the 183 day rule to apply to me? What if I didnt renew my Taiwanese passport at all and entered on my Australian passport as outlined above. Am i automatically at risk for conscription upon leaving the country (that is - if they figured it out)?
If i do get my Taiwanese passport renewed and Overseas Chinese status granted, can i still enter on my Australian passport anyway (with my Taiwanese passport tucked away somewhere in my luggage), and then adhere to the 183 day rule regardless?
I found it a lot easier to just hack it out for a year then you don’t need to worry. Plus once you are done it’s a lot easier to hire you and you can actually get a lot of extra benefits (depends where you work) and protection by the labor bureau that most foreigners cant get.
Just my 2c, I did my mitary when I was 19, and now I have been working with ease for the past 7 years