Which passport to use upon entering?

Hi, I wasn’t sure whether to post this here or in the Teaching in Taiwan thread. I’m an ABC with dual citizenship. I’ll be graduating college this summer and am hoping to teach English in Taiwan for a year before heading off to grad school. I’ve been reading a lot of posts online telling of the bias employers have against Asian faces. Many posts are saying just to deny the fact that you can speak Mandarin and any connections you have with the motherland. They want people who hold passports from an English-speaking country. Which is my dilemma. I hold a US passport so I fulfill that part of the job requirement. But I want to enter the country with my Taiwan passport to avoid going through the whole ARC and foreigner’s tax process. My question is: is this doable and will I have a lower chance of getting hired if the employer knows that I am a citizen and may think I’m not 100% authentic “American”. Is it alright if I enter on my Taiwanese passport and when an employer questions whether I’m a native speaker or not, I whip out my US passport(which has my birthplace)?
BTW, I’m female so no worries about conscription. Thanks for any help I can get!

I might be wrong, but I think the employer is most likely going to ask to see your passport, at least so that they can apply for your work permit (since they believe you’re an American citizen only), at which point you’ll be forces to reveal you’re actually a Taiwanese national. Not saying that and applying for a work permit anyways with a passport with no visa nor entry stamp can mean trouble.

Yeah, I knew they were probably going to ask for my passport eventually. I guess I was hoping to tell them after I got the job, since I don’t want it influencing their decision to hire me. If they ask about the work visa during the interview, I guess I have no choice but to tell them, but I’m just wondering if them knowing will lower any chances of me being hired. Is there any loss for them? It saves them the trouble of applying for work visas and sponsoring me. The only fear I have is that they might want to pay me a local’s salary. I’ve heard there’s a huge difference in salary between local English teachers and foreign ones.

Yeah, I knew they were probably going to ask for my passport eventually. I guess I was hoping to tell them after I got the job, since I don’t want it influencing their decision to hire me. If they ask about the work visa during the interview, I guess I have no choice but to tell them, but I’m just wondering if them knowing will lower any chances of me being hired. Is there any loss for them? It saves them the trouble of applying for work visas and sponsoring me. The only fear I have is that they might want to pay me a local’s salary. I’ve heard there’s a huge difference in salary between local English teachers and foreign ones.[/quote]

I have never been an English teacher, so I really don’t know the job market details. I find it difficult to believe such a gamble with your passport would work ro your advantage, though. Either you admit to being a local and enjoy open job rights (and possibly a lower pay) or pretend to be an American who does not want to have a work permit, i.e. an illegal worker (which you won’t really be). This, on the other hand, might result in a lower pay, too.

Yeah, I knew they were probably going to ask for my passport eventually. I guess I was hoping to tell them after I got the job, since I don’t want it influencing their decision to hire me. If they ask about the work visa during the interview, I guess I have no choice but to tell them, but I’m just wondering if them knowing will lower any chances of me being hired. Is there any loss for them? It saves them the trouble of applying for work visas and sponsoring me. The only fear I have is that they might want to pay me a local’s salary. I’ve heard there’s a huge difference in salary between local English teachers and foreign ones.[/quote]

I have never been an English teacher, so I really don’t know the job market details. I find it difficult to believe such a gamble with your passport would work ro your advantage, though. Either you admit to being a local and enjoy open job rights (and possibly a lower pay) or pretend to be an American who does not want to have a work permit, i.e. an illegal worker (which you won’t really be). This, on the other hand, might result in a lower pay, too.[/quote]

Since I’m entering on my Taiwanese passport, my US passport should be useless in the legal system(work permits/ARC). From what I understand, the only reason they require a foreign passport from an English speaking country is to prove that the person is a native English speaker. Other than that, my US passport shouldn’t really matter. The schools I’m looking at are willing to help with work permits and ARCs for the employee regardless, so having a Taiwanese passport is pretty much just saving them the trouble of doing that for me. The best thing is for me to mention that I have a Taiwanese passport to the employers, but what I really want to know is, will this affect their decision to employ me? Based solely on my questionable nationality?
Or should I just enter using my US passport? The employment process is much more tedious for foreigners so I was hoping to avoid all the legal complications if I could. The only good I can see coming out of it is that my employers will be 100% sure that I’m a native English speaker.

Hey there, just read your posts. Are you already in Taiwan? I am also an ABC with dual citizenship. I entered the country with my Taiwanese Passport. I got interviewed by Hess after a month in Taiwan. At the end of the interview, which went well, I told the interviewer I had both passports. He said it was a common question. He asked whether or not I had a Taiwan ID. Most people do not. Since I did, I was hired as a Taiwanese citizen. If I didn’t have it and couldn’t get one, then I would’ve had to exit the country, go to Hong Kong which is an hour away, stay in the airport literally for a minute then fly back and re-enter with my U.S. Passport so they could apply for an ARC. Being hired as a Taiwanese Citizen is different from being hired as a U.S. Citizen, though. Although it’s a faster process, and you pay less taxes, keep in mind you still have to make VISA runs (enter and exit the country) every three months or else you will be missing stamps in your U.S. Passport when you return to the U.S. eventually. I don’t know how big of a deal it is to be missing stamps in your passport. In any case, it sounds rare to be hired with a Taiwanese Passport. I was the only one in our training group who was treated as a special case and I was not the only ABC. At my school they also said I was the first teacher they had who was hired with a Taiwanese Passport excluding the local teachers. In regards to hiring ABCs, it is true they want only blond-haired blue eyed English teachers and they will take this into consideration as they are interviewing you, regardless of your English ability. But this doesn’t mean you don’t have a chance. However it has nothing to do with a U.S. Passport or your English ability. It is simply the way you look. HOWEVER, it is not true that simply because you have a Taiwanese Passport that you will not be hired. It is also not true that you will get the lower wage. At least not in my experience. You might be turned away at smaller schools though and they might try to pay you less, true. But that’s categorized under bullying which is common here, too and not solely “racism” against ABCs. I hope this answers your question.

Does anyone know what the differences are in regards to gender and age? Is working in TW completely out of question for a male who is within conscription age but is not looking to serve? Or is it legally allowed (leaving TW every four months)?

Taiwanese schools seem to prefer tall blond young males because this is what the parents envision the teachers to look like when they sign their kids up to learn English from a foreign teacher. Tall, because that’s the stereotype for Western people, blond also because of the stereotype, young because no one wants an older teacher especially since you’re bouncing off the walls playing with kids while they’re learning and lastly, male, because they are chauvanist here. ABCs aren’t as welcome. Neither are English-speakers who are dark (eg. African American, Indian descent, middle eastern etc). This is just something I’ve noticed. Of course, ABCs are not welcome.

Unless you are a Taiwanese citizen with a Taiwanese ID and enter Taiwan with a Taiwanese passport and intend to be hired as a Taiwanese citizen, I think you’re ok as far as conscription goes. But don’t quote me on that.

This is nonsense. It is not against U.S. law to hold the nationality of another country concurrently with U.S. citizenship. U.S. immigration might be interested in where you’ve been and for how long from a customs/taxation/import control point of view, but they do not care whether you have used the passport of another country. The only time the U.S. government will hold the use of a foreign passport against you is if you are trying to get a security clearance for a government job as it shows “foreign preference” and is usually disqualifying if done fairly recently.

These “visa runs” wouldn’t work anyway as Taiwan immigration will only stamp your U.S. passport (if you used a ROC passport to enter) on departure and not arrival. Wouldn’t having a bunch of Taiwanese exit stamps without the entry stamps seem odd anyway?