WOW! Is that 3 names or 4 ?
Sorry to hear that. At least you will collect some good memories (and also bad ones) from military and tell your grandkids once you get old 
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You will be 35 in 2021, you will be 36 in 2022, you will be draftable after Jan, 1 2023 and that will be your 37th bday year so no⌠no military service for you!
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Thatâs wasnât even on my radar to be honest. This is the first time I have read about this case.
oh yeah, I keep forgetting about the 1 year grace period. Thanks Frank for pointing this out.
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I donât know where I read it, but Iâve heard that if you have two young kids you can be exempted. I already have one. Iâll start working on making another one, just as soon as my wife starts talking to me again. 
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I read a great book by an American man who naturalized in the 90s and did his two years of military service. He didnât exactly have âno Chineseâ but I think youâd find his experience interesting and relatable as an obvious foreigner.
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But what about your job? Would you go back after military service or find a new job?
My boss is good to me. I am fairly confident I wonât lose my job if I go for military service. But even if I do, as long as I am a citizen and canât be kicked out, I hope Iâll be able to find some work eventually.
Thanks for sharing this. I will definitely check it out. Sounds very interesting.
29, 4 names.
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20, 3 names. My parents were probably too lazy to give me another name 
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just curious on why the color of your Taiwan passport is Turquoise-ish. Is this given exclusively to NWOHR holders?
I took the picture with my phone under bright lights and adjusted the colors a bit to make it clearer. Hereâs an unmodified photo.
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UPDATE! :
<< Renunciation Struggles >>
Just an update on our renunciation progress and its challenges.
Myself :
The only place I can apply for renunciation is at our embassy in Hong Kong. Thatâs the only one that accepts documents from Taiwan. So, I filled the application, got it stamped by a public notary and shipped it by DHL along with my original National ID card.
The embassy would only accept cash payment, so I had to find âsomeoneâ in Hong Kong to submit everything on my behalf in-person. Luckily, my wife has a distant relative who works there. Everything got submitted successfully in the end.
Itâs been 4 weeks already. Still no update. In worst cases it can take up to 6 months. I donât mind waiting, except I am really concerned about TECO Hong Kong shutting down before my document is ready to be authenticated. In recent weeks this has happened:
Although Taiwan is saying they will continue operations in Hong Kong, you never know. Hopefully, China doesnât force them to shut down before my document is ready. 
My Daughter
Renunciation applications can only be filed at the Philippines Embassy in Taipei. I thought I should call them first before taking the train there.
I knew beforehand that you must be 18 years old to renounce. I assumed that parents would be able to apply on the childâs behalf, âsince we know whatâs best for themâ. Unsurprising I found out that we couldnât.
The phone call was a total waste of time. The lady on the phone was rude, had no patience and wasnât interested in our issue at all (must be the accumulated experience from helping migrant workers). We had to call her three times because she kept cutting the line on us while we were still speaking. Gave up on that quickly.
I called the consulate in Kaohsiung instead, and this time I got an answer. The lady on the phone finally made me understand the âreasonâ why my daughter couldnât renounce.
"Because you know she is under 2 years old, so she canât fill the application form or sign the documents herself." .
Aha! 
Finally agreed to let us visit so we could speak to someone knowledgeable about the laws. I met their legal cousel a few days ago. He reiterated the same thing, but I was âPREPAREDâ!
I told him that we knew that:
- She couldnât renounce because sheâs under 18.
- And we, as parents cannot renounce on her behalf either.
- But the government surely could cancel her citizenship unilaterally.
I showed him this, which says the moment you naturalize in another country, you automatically lose your Filipino citizenship.
I handed him my daughterâs âCertificate of Naturalizationâ as well as âTaiwanese NWOHR Passportâ as proof that she had ânaturalizedâ in a foreign country.
At first, he said the law was old (from 1930s to be exact). Then I showed him this from 2020 :
Thatâs the embassy in Norway saying anyone who gets Norwegian citizenship will lose their Filipino citizenship immediately, (even children under 18) UNLESS they go through the re-acquisition process. Thatâs proof the law is still in-effect.
He really wanted to help us but was also confused by this point. As we continued the discussion, he kept switching from saying âshe is a dual-citizenâ to âshe is no longer a Filipino citizenâ back and forth. It isnât clear which law is the priority here:
- One law says children under 18 cannot renounce their citizenship, and parents cannot do it on childrenâs behalf either
- Another says you will automatically lose your citizenship (regardless of age) when you naturalize in a foreign country, (UNLESS you apply for retention/re-acquisition)
- Another law says you canât apply for retention/re-acquisition until you are 18 years
I also showed him this:
It says that you canât hold onto a Philippines passport if you have naturalized but havenât applied for retention (exactly my daughterâs case). As per their law, once the embassy finds out about this, they are required to take away your passport and cut it, thereby confirming your loss of citizenship. He couldnât do that because he wasnât sure of her citizenship status.
In the end he made us write an application requesting Philippines govt. (MOFA) for an official opinion on the citizenship status of our daughter. We submitted that letter with copies of her documents. And now we just wait.
From my discussion with him I learnt that many Filipino parents (worldwide) get their kids naturalized and never tell the embassy so they can keep using both passports. Normally an embassy wonât do anything if they never find out.
In short, I basically snitched on my own daughter by telling the embassy that she naturalized, just to have her citizenship cancelled. Classic âRickâ move!
Letâs see how this goes. Either we will successfully exploit this loophole and get what we want, or our daughter will just have to wait until she is 18 to become a Taiwanese citizen. We are mentally prepared for either outcome.
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Lol. Their thinking! So a kid of 2 years plus 1 day can fill up a form?
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Incredible! A legal counsel of an embassy is confused about the laws of their own country.
Kudos for your research and being prepared.
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Surely if the Philippines government refuses to allow renunciation she can benefit from Taiwanâs rule that renunciation is not required for countries where it is impossible! Or is that too logical?
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