A foreigner’s experience in 2018 trying to get residence visa for a Filipina Wife

The behavior you described from TECO is similar to what I experienced. They even made the exact same excuses.

You saved yourself a lot of headache by not taking no for an answer and fighting back immediately. I wish I had done the same, sooner.

I have only been here a little over 4 years so I can’t tell how things are progressing. Unfortunately for me things have been difficult since day one, specifically whenever I had to deal with BOCA or TECO. Nevertheless I sincerely do hope they can keep making improvements in this area and teach their foreign representatives to use common sense whenever encountering special cases, instead of outright refusing to handle them.

I hope you were successful in getting your citizenship. How about your wife ?

getting married and registering the marriage are different things.

I believe a citizen and a foreigner can get married in Taiwan, unless the regulation has been changed.

Instructions for applying to notarize a marriage
https://www.judicial.gov.tw/QnA/en_content.asp?seq=248
As of Jan. 7, 2006

To register the marriage in Taiwan, it should be registered in the foreign spouse’s country.

@tando

This is the email sent by TECO India :

  1. Get married in Nepal/ Inida/Bhutan first and attest the certificate from the Foreign Ministry and Embassy of orignal country then bring the document to our office for interview. You should make an interview appointment with us first. The marriage certificate should be English Version.

  2. Bring the related documents to interview:

*The household registration the Taiwanese couple
*The ID and Passport copies of both of the couple
*Attested Marriage Certificate
*Attested health check of the foreign spouse (please request the hospital to fill the Health Certificate for Residence Application Form (http://web .roc-taiwan.org/in_en/cat/17.html ) according to the result. Each and every item should be fulfilled and with all the original medical report.)
*Attested Police Clearance of the foreign spouse
*The Declaration for Chinese name (http://web.roc-taiwan.org/in_en/cat/17.html)
*the introduction letter for the couple including both side’s family background, education background, how do they get to know each other, the description of your Marriage ceremony.
3. If the Foreign spouse need to apply dependent visa Taiwan, he or she have to prepare other documents:

The Taiwanese spouse should take the attested marriage certificate and other related documents mentioned to go back to Taiwan and register the marriage first and have a renew household registration from Taiwan.

Submit the Visa application with the documents as follows:
*online application form
*2 passport photos (3.5cm x 4.5cm, shows 60 percents face)
*the passport copies from the both side.
*the renewed household registration note the marriage registered.

  • Attested health check of the foreign couple
  • Attested No criminal report or police clearance of the foreign couple of his/her original country.

(Marriage certificate and police clearance of foreign spouse should be issued , registered and attested by the spouse’s jurisdiction state before the documents are submitted to MEA for attestation)

Can registration in Taiwan be done on a later date in the future or does it have to be immediate since I’ll be residing in UAE post the marriage registration in India ? Like in the above mentioned steps, it says to get police verification , declaration to a adopt Chinese name, bla…bla…I’m assuming all this is required if the intention is to reside in TW and get naturalized.

Sorry for the long read ! :grimacing:

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She is on a dependent visa. However, now, as the wife of a citizen, she has more rights. She can work legally, whereas before she could not. That was one big reason for taking the step of getting citizenship. Another was that my children could not stay in Taiwan past age 20 without finding a way to get visas on their own. Now, it is possible for the children of those who have changed citizenship to get visas and to work legally in Taiwan until age 26. At least, that is my understanding.

So for marriage to Pakistani nationals, sounds like it’s MUCH easier to get married in Pakistan first then register the marriage in the spouse’s home country. The only hitch is that you have to be a Muslim, or at least pretend to convert.

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It’s good to hear that things can get a little easier for my wife when I become a citizen. I am planning to apply in Nov, 2019.

By the way, I think a person on a dependent visa should be able to do any type of work even if their spouse is not a citizen yet, as long as the spouse has an ARC. I say that because right now my wife is actively job searching and that’s what she has been hearing in the job interviews so far. It seems that companies do not have any legal restriction in hiring her. So far the only deal-breaker has been her lack of Chinese language.

Yes, precisely.

Don’t know if there will be other such cases in Taiwan i.e. inter-national marriage between a Pakistani and another foreigner but if someone is going to do this, my advice would be

  1. Don’t marry a Pakistani :laughing: :wink: (too much paperwork and hassle)… Better be worth it
  2. If you must, memorize some Islamic scripture in Arabic, do the marriage process in Pakistan and then register anywhere else you like.

P.S. I don’t know if I mentioned this but when I tried do a local marriage ceremony in Philippines, I couldn’t get any priest to solemnize our marriage there (not for cheap at least) unless I converted. So funny enough, while my wife converted to Islam in my country, I converted to Christianity in the Philippines.

it is not any type of work, but they can work.

ASO.Spouses of Foreign Professionals Taking partly-hours Specialized or Technical Works
https://ezworktaiwan.wda.gov.tw/en/cp.aspx?n=88A58793EA5CB0F6

Thanks for sharing the link. I had no idea there were some limitations.

Famous b****** in the HK office. I remember them giving me some s*** along the same limes when I was there .

[edited by mod]

Hi Nonso. I’m having same problem with my Pakistani husband regarding his Taiwan Visa. I’m a Filipina-Chinese with TW National ID, but my husband is not allowed to apply for ARC, so I want to seek legal advise from a lawyer. This Taiwan Law towards foreign spouse is not fair and I have contacted BOCA through phone calls and email, but they don’t give me any valid reason why they don’t grant resident visa to my husband??? We have been to local government offices to seek for help but they can’t do anything about BOCA’s decision, so I guess consulting a lawyer would be the best way! Hope you can give us your contact for legal advice. Thanks in advance!

Hi Nonso. I’m having same problem with my Pakistani husband regarding his Taiwan Visa. I’m a Filipina-Chinese with TW National ID, but my husband is not allowed to apply for ARC, so I want to seek legal advise from a lawyer. This Taiwan Law towards foreign spouse is not fair and I have contacted BOCA through phone calls and email, but they don’t give me any valid reason why they don’t grant resident visa to my husband??? We have been to local government offices to seek for help but they can’t do anything about BOCA’s decision, so I guess consulting a lawyer would be the best way! Hope you can give us your contact for legal advice. Thanks in advance!

Hi Wujialing, Taiwanese laws for families/spouses in general are indeed unfair and they tend to get even worse if you happen to be from a poor/developing country.

In your case, being a Filipina (even with an ID) trying to get a Pakistani spouse here is going to be very difficult. My situation was reverse. It took me 8 months of struggle to get it done.

A few questions though :

  1. How do you have Taiwanese Citizenship ? Were you born here or previously married to a Taiwanese (assumption) ?
  2. Where did you get married to the Pakistani guy ? You met him in Taiwan? What kind of a visa was he on ?
  3. He needs to apply for a Residence Visa from a TECO, before he can apply for a spousal ARC in Taiwan.

My wife was in Taiwan and we got married locally but she still had to leave Taiwan and go though the whole visa process again.

As far as I understand you cannot convert to spouse ARC directly from a visitor visa or blue collar ARC.

Hi. Fuzzy_Barbecue thanks for writing. To answer your questions…

  1. I am an oversea Filipino-Chinese, living in Taiwan with my family. I was born in the Philippines but my dad is Chinese and emigrated to Taiwan in the late 80’s
  2. We got married in Pakistan, and had our marriage registered in Taiwan Household office as we finished and passed our marriage interview in TECO Malaysia. We have completed and followed all the procedures required by TECO Malaysia and Boca, even with the chinese translations of our documents and had it attested in Taiwan Consulate Office in Hong Kong as instructed. (Btw, we met through a friend and we flew to Malaysia to meet and the rest is history…)
  3. My husband is now here in Taiwan since January this year under visitor visa of 60 days and extendable 2x (total of 180days stay), he flew to Malaysia this month and applied a new visa to re-enter, after 6 days he returned to Taiwan. Sadly, TECO Malaysia issued the same visitor visa with 60days and extendable 2x (180days). Both old and new visa have a remark of “TS: can not change to residency”. I feel so bad cos everytime I call BOCA and asked why my husband can’t be granted a Resident Visa since I am a Citizen here, their answers are different all the time, one said that his case is not special for others have same problem, while other staff said bcos of his country. I have asked help from other government offices but it was useless!
    Is there any suggestion or advice from you Fuzzy? Your help will be appreciated. Thank you so much for taking time to read.

where did you already ask?
Did you ask legal aid foundation? They would financially help you to get a lawyer, depending on your income.
https://www.laf.org.tw/en/
https://www.laf.org.tw/en/index.php?action=service&Sn=20

Did you contact to TransAsia Sisters Association, Taiwan (TASAT),?
http://tasat.org.tw/enPage/290
http://tasat.org.tw/page/115
The case on the Chinese page has some similarity to your case.

This case is similar too. @Hana, do you have any update?

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Hi. Fuzzy_Barbecue thanks for writing. To answer your questions…

  1. I am an oversea Filipino-Chinese, living in Taiwan with my family. I was born in the Philippines but my dad is Chinese and emigrated to Taiwan in the late 80’s
  2. We got married in Pakistan, and had our marriage registered in Taiwan Household office as we finished and passed our marriage interview in TECO Malaysia. We have completed and followed all the procedures required by TECO Malaysia and Boca, even with the chinese translations of our documents and had it attested in Taiwan Consulate Office in Hong Kong as instructed. (Btw, we met through a friend and we flew to Malaysia to meet and the rest is history…)
  3. My husband is now here in Taiwan since January this year under visitor visa of 60 days and extendable 2x (total of 180days stay), he flew to Malaysia this month and applied a new visa to re-enter, after 6 days he returned to Taiwan. Sadly, TECO Malaysia issued the same visitor visa with 60days and extendable 2x (180days). Both old and new visa have a remark of “TS: can not change to residency”. I feel so bad cos everytime I call BOCA and asked why my husband can’t be granted a Resident Visa since I am a Citizen here, their answers are different all the time, one said that his case is not special for others have same problem, while other staff said bcos of his country. I have asked help from other government offices but it was useless!
    Is there any suggestion or advice from you Fuzzy? Your help will be appreciated. Thank you so much for taking time to read.

Hi Wujialing,

If you are a regular Taiwanese (with local ID/Passport/Household registration), then normal Taiwan laws should apply, which means your spouse should be able to get an ARC and even an APRC/Citizenship after 3 years of lawful marriage to you (a Taiwanese national).

I didn’t know they had exceptions for Taiwanese citizens based on the nationalities they marry. That would be discrimination.

I think there should be at least ten or more cases in Taipei where local a Taiwanese woman is married to a Pakistani. Most of those Pakistanis are citizens already because they married long time ago. I think they are all friends and they get together for Friday prayers in the main mosque. I would strongly recommend your husband to visit the mosque on Friday and approach the head of the mosque and ask for help. Many Pakistanis there speak absolutely fluent Chinese and may be able to guide him as their case is exactly the same as yours (assuming Taiwan treats you like a regular Taiwanese).

Other way could be to check whether your husband can qualify for APRC after 3 years of marriage… but that would mean you would have to keep doing this 180 days visa process for at least 3 years, which I know will be a big hassle.

Unless you are fluent in Chinese, better to take someone with you and go directly to the BOCA office in Taipei. It’s harder for them to turn you away when you are standing in front of them. Make sure you print some laws of Taiwan related to marriage / ARC etc. So they know you know your rights.

In my case I was in the south, so all I could do was send them emails and making calls. I literally send emails everywhere. I even sent faxes to Ministers addresses directly. I even went to the green party office in Tainan and even they found some guy to push the head of NIA. I fought with the NIA and the embassies, and finally I personally went down to the TECO in Manila. But by the time I got there, they already knew who I was, because they got complaints from so many different directions. They were incredible nice to me then, even let me skip the queue and quietly gave the residence visa to my wife without any further hassle. It was a bitter-sweet moment. I succeeded in the end, but it cost me 8 months of pain and tens of thousands of NT$.

So all I can say is don’t give up, know your rights, and fight for your rights.

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they request different procedures for marriage between a national and a foreigner from designated twenty something countries.

it should not happen, but seems not rare that a spouse from SEA is rejected to get a resident visa multiple times. A lawyer, as @wujialing looking for, should do a help, I think.

Or, @wujialing, did you already try to ask for some help from representative/parliamentary/lawmaker of your district at any level?

he should be on ARC for 5 years to get APRC, or for 3 years to naturalize, so anyway he needs to get through the BOCA as a first step.

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they request different procedures for marriage between a national and a foreigner from designated twenty something countries.

Oh, I had no idea about this. Thanks for confirming. I had just assumed that the rules would be the same for every foreigner a Taiwanese marries. It’s a pity to hear that it’s not.

Just curious, what countries are in that list ?

FYI

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Taiwan bureaucracy in my experience is very efficient, especially in processing papers. The only caveat of course is, that the papers you are processing followed their KNOWN set of rules.

Trouble or red tape often arises when bureaucrats encounter special cases they don’t know anything about. The standard action for most part is to reject the application and get rid of the problem immediately.

So I would say that Taiwan bureaucracy is efficient but some bureaucrats are IGNORANT and LAZY!

For example, one of the requirement for APRC or Taiwan Citizenship is you must have earned, during the preceding year, an average monthly income that is twice the monthly minimum wage. For this, you need to show your previous year’s income tax return as proof. A bureaucrat in Taipei’s Zhongshan District Household Office in charge of all these applications interpreted this law as “net income (minus all the deductions you apply for in your tax) divided by 12 is the average monthly income”. Thus my application was rejected. However, when the same paper was submitted in Tamsui’s Household Office (I moved to Tamsui just for this sole purpose), they rightly interpreted the law as your Gross Annual Income divided by 12, and approved my application. Same law, different bureaucrat interpretation!

If, in most cases where you can not chose a more favorable bureaucrat to deal with, look for a POLITICIAN (a self-serving bureaucrat looking for a controversial cause to champion). Ask favors from your Taiwanese friends to help you find one.

@wujialing Contact Lorna Kung and I am sure she will be more than willing to help you. She knows a lot of politicians. If she does not respond to your message, just go to St. Christopher’s Church and ask them to help you contact her.

@Fuzzy_Barbecue I’m really sorry about your experience, and sorrier that I only read this post now. I would have saved you a lot of trouble and grief if I saw this post earlier. All your wife had to do was to get a visitor visa that do not have a “can not change to residency” stamp, and then she could have applied for a resident visa here in MOFA office by showing the authenticated marriage certificate and a medical certificate from one of their authorized hospital. She would have received her ARC in less than a month. Seeing that you will be applying for a Taiwan Citizenship soon, DM me if you need help or information you cannot find in this forum.

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and, many spouses from SEA are struggling to get the visa.


very agree. I think this root may be more efficient than the lawyer root.