2020 : My journey towards getting Taiwanese Citizenship for myself and my infant daughter

Legal Dual Nationality
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It’s time for a BIG PROGRESS UPDATE! (PART 1):

By early January, 2021, the suckiest part of the process was done, which was getting my daughter’s “single certificate” and my own “police clearance certificate”. I was now ready to apply for naturalization, but first…

<< Pre-requisite 0 : Authentication, Translation and Notarization >>

I took both documents to MOFA office in Kaohsiung to get them re-authenticated (prior authentication having been done by a TECO)

After completing MOFA Taiwan authentication, I took the documents to an English-speaking public notary in Kaohsiung (this one, if you are interested : Google Maps ). Two days later both documents had been translated to Chinese and notarized. It cost about 1500 NT+ per document.

There were two more tasks I needed to complete BEFORE going in for application submission :
1. Passing Naturalization Exam OR providing a certificate of 200 hours of Chinese study
2. Going to the post office to send money orders of 1200NT$ x 2 to the Ministry of Interior

<< Pre-requisite 1 : Preparing for The Exam >>

The HHRO office had provided me with a list of places offering Chinese lessons, along with their timings. But given that I could only take classes after work, and there were only a few hours offered each week, I estimated that it would take me 6 months to get the certificate, plus I didn’t want to give up the few hours I get to spend with my daughter each day. So I decided to go for the exam route.

There were 252 questions provided to learn for the exam. All in Chinese. So, I devised a plan to crack it. In total I spent about 100 hours over 10 days (not consecutively) to create a guide that’d help me to pass. It was a complex task that involved extracting all the Chinese content from the PDF file provided by HHRO, then organizing everything in to an excel sheet, then google translating everything in to English and finally using a whole bunch of formulas/analytics to look for patterns etc…

I have since shared the guide with all Forumosans. Here’s a link to that post : Cracking the Naturalization Exam - 2020 Edition

Once the guide was ready, I took 20 mock exams online to verify that the guide worked. IT DID!

<< Pre-requisite 2 : Sending Money Order to MOI >>

I went to a nearby post office with the following information printed on a piece of paper :

  • 申請項目 (Application Project)
    歸化國籍 (Naturalized Nationality)

  • 申請原因 (Reason for Application)
    自願歸化 (Voluntary Naturalization)

  • 證書規費新臺幣1,200元 (請以 郵政匯票 繳交，受款人： 內政部 )。
    (The certificate fee is NT$1,200 (need to pay for postal order, payee : Ministry of Interior)

After a bit of struggle with communication, the postal office worker took the money and processed it. In the end he said something in Chinese, which I made out to be, “congratulations”… something something… “you MUST learn how to speak Chinese”.

Touché :zipper_mouth_face:

I left feeling happy at the completion of the task yet also feeling somewhat embarrassed, because the old man was right. It feels undeserving to get citizenship of a country whose language I can’t speak. I bet locals in another country e.g. US would also feel upset giving me a citizenship if I weren’t able to speak any English.

Someday! I promise myself that I’ll fix this! I will learn Chinese!

<< The Day of the Application >>

Funny Story :

I had to apply for a work leave in order to go to the HHRO office for my exam. When I told my boss, he was very concerned about the exam, given my shitty Chinese. So, I had him attempt the online mock exam together with me. My boss is a mature guy with law & business degrees. No doubt, he’s quite proficient in his own native language. Yet, somehow I always picked the correct answer before him, sometimes in <2 seconds after a question would pop up.

After two consecutive exam attempts together, my boss got up and said, "I am 100% sure my Chinese is much better than you. So, I am absolutely sure you are not even reading the questions. How are you doing this ? ". Later , after I explained, he went around the whole office telling everyone this entertaining story about how I cracked the exam. :joy:

After arriving at HHRO and saying your prayers (to the deity of your choice - ‘Ancient Aliens’ in my case), I proceeded to submit two sets of documents for the ‘naturalization applications’. :

For Myself, I only submitted these :

  • My ARC
    合法有效之外僑居留證或外僑永久居留證。

  • Police Clearance Certificate (from Country of Origin)
    原屬國政府核發之警察紀錄證明或其他相關證明文件。

  • Proof of Self-support (Last income tax statement + last month’s pay slip)
    相當之財產或專業技能，足以自立，或生活保障無虞之證明。

  • I took the Naturalization exam right there and then. Passed it with 80% score.
    具備歸化取得我國國籍者基本語言能力及國民權利義務基本常識證明文件。

  • One passport-size photo (white background)
    最近2年內所拍攝正面彩色脫帽相片1張

  • Original receipt of 1200NT$ money order in the name of MOI (Ministry of Interior)
    請以郵政匯票繳交，受款人：內政部

And for my daughter, the following :

  • Her ARC
    合法有效之外僑居留證或外僑永久居留證。

  • Her single certificate (from Country of Origin)
    婚姻狀況證明 。

  • Proof of Parent-Child relationship (Her Birth Certificate)

  • My Marriage Certificate to correlate the parent names with the Birth Certificate
    出生證明或其他親子關係相關身分證明文件 如法院判決書及確定證明書等 。

  • One passport-size photo (white background)
    最近2年內所拍攝正面彩色脫帽相片1張

  • Original receipt of 1200NT$ money order in the name of MOI (Ministry of Interior)
    請以郵政匯票繳交，受款人：內政部

Above are the only documents that I handed to them. But there were three additional documents that they printed/prepared and offered to me, to sign.

  • They entered all our data in to the system and printed two forms that I needed to sign :

    • Application form for voluntary Naturalization (Form 4)
      歸化國籍申請書（表4）。
    • Application form for Naturalization of accompanying minors (Form 1)
      歸化國籍申請書（表 1 ）。

  • “Agreement of legal representative” had to be signed by both me and my wife. It basically says that both parents agree to let the minor apply for Taiwanese Naturalization.
    (法定代理人同意證明)

And…That’s it! The application was successfully completed!

One minor issue worth mentioning : I was concerned that being on regular work ARC (2 years) + Gold Card ARC (3 years) would become an issue but luckily it didn’t. The thing that became an issue was the new ID number. I had recently updated my ARC to the new number format and it seems their systems weren’t updated yet. The lady there spend a good amount of time calling Taipei several times, asking which ID number to put in forms / system etc.

After 30 minutes of uncertainty they finally went with the new ID number format.

BIG PROGRESS UPDATE! (PART 2):

Our application was submitted on 18th January, 2021. About three months later on 8th April, 2021 I picked up both our certificates of Nationality from the HHRO office.

IMG_2289
IMG_22891539×2167 787 KB

These certificates were quite beautiful.

On the drive back to the office I kinda… sorta shed some tears, mixed in with bursts of laughter (kinda like Jesse when he escaped in El Camino in the season finale).

jesse-pinkman-breaking-bad-final

I could not believe it. It took me 35 years.

Next step…

<< TARC Application >>

I went to the Immigration Office in Kaohsiung (it’s on the 5th floor of the same building with MOFA in it).

Note: These certificates come with an additional data page (all in Chinese), basically a summary of your entire application and the grounds on which you were given Taiwanese nationality. This document is absolutely essential when applying for a TARC .

For myself, I submitted the following :

  • An application form for Taiwan Area residence card (all in Chinese)
    中華民國臺灣地區入境居留定居申請書

  • Certificate of Naturalization along with the data page (show the original and provide a copy)

  • One photo (passport size)

  • Lease Agreement (if you are renting a place) (show the original and provide a copy)

    • (Optional) Recent utility bills you have paid for that address (show original and provide a copy)

  • A fee of 1000NT$, paid in cash

Note : It’s very important that you figure out Chinese names for your parents when filling your application form. English names will not be accepted. Don’t worry, no proof is needed for the Chinese names. You can write whatever you like.

I still can’t believe I had to open a “Chinese Baby Names” website to name my OWN parents. I still haven’t told them :laughing:

For my daughter, I submitted the following :

  • An application form for Taiwan Area residence card (all in Chinese)
    中華民國臺灣地區入境居留定居申請書

  • Certificate of Naturalization along with the data page (show the original and provide a copy)

  • One photo (passport size)

  • Birth Certificate (show the original and provide a copy)

  • Consent for minor (need to be signed by both parents in-person)
    定居同意書

  • A fee of 1000NT$, paid in cash

It will take about 10 working days (2 weeks) for us to receive our TARCs. I am currently one week in.

That’s all for now! I will update once we get our TARCs and successfully apply for NWOHR passports.

After that there’ll be only one step remaining i.e. renunciation of our original citizenships.

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