I’ve been reading through the 10+ pages about getting married in Taiwan, but I haven’t been able to find an answer for this question.
MyTaiwanese fiancee and I are going to get married in my home country (Norway) this summer. When we return I would like to be on a marriage visa, or if I understand it correctly this is called a Joining Family Resident’s Visa . Actually, anything that I can stay on in Taiwan and extend would be allright. But the JFRV sounds like the logical choice.
But to be able to enter Taiwan on a JFRV I would first have to send the translated Norwegian marriage certificate to the Taiwanese trade office in Norway to get a stamp on it. Then send it to Taiwan to get a Taiwanese marriage certificate based on the Norwegian one, and then use this Taiwanese marriage certificate to apply for a visa in Norway. Sounds like 2 months of pushing paper around, and I don’t really have time for this. Especially since my fiancee can only stay in Norway for 30 days on her visa.
Ofcourse, I could return to Taiwan on a tourist visa. But I have been told by MOFA that I can’t change from a tourist visa to a JFRV. (someone in the marriage thread suggested to do so in a different case, but I don’t think it’s possible). I’ve had too many visa-trips to HK. I’d really like to avoid going there again. Is there a sensible way of solving this problem? :?
You should come in on a visitor’s visa. Under reason for visit, tick ‘visiting family’ (that’s your wife. Actually I’m not certain, but I think you can extend this up to 6 months.
Whoever told you you can’t change from a visitors visa to a JFRV doesn’t know shit.
Whoever told you that you can’t come in on a visitor visa first is dead wrong. I was told by the Taiwanese trade mission in Canada that I had to do this first. Thus, I came on a tourist visa and then did all the paperwork in Taiwan and had my JFRV about three weeks later.
Dear lysfjord
I can assure you that you can come in on a visitors visa and then change it over to a JFRV later in Taiwan. Because I came in on a visitors visa and changed it over to a JFRV. If you have all the required documents the process is quite quick. Important to remember, once married in your country have the marriage certificate translated and have them both certified at the taiwan trade office of your country. Also do the same with the Police check.
Here is what you need. I hope it’s helpful to you.
Best of luck.
Joining Family Resident Visa (JFRV)
Statement of clean Criminal Record Documentation, with Translation & Certified at the nearest Overseas ROC Mission office of your country.
Proof that your Marriage is Legally Registered in the country of the foreign spouse. This also needs to be certified at the nearest overseas mission. Once this is completed, have the marriage registered in Taipei, and have the foreign spouse added to the Household Registration.
Get a Health Check Certificate at a large public hospital. (Renai Hospital, on Renai Rd, on corner of Da an Rd.) Takes one week.
Ok. So although the visitor visa actually is supposed to be non-extendable, this doesn’t matter? Or will the request for a JFRV be considered an application for an extendable visa?
Also, another tricky one. I will need a ticket out of Taiwan to get a visitor visa, but I’m not really planning to leave since I will be changing to the JFRV once I get here. Will I have to book an open ticket to HK, or is there a better solution for this?
You can also get a 6-day extendable visitors visa. If they don’t give you one try a different office. It depends where you are.
You don’t need a plane ticket out of Taiwan to get a visa either. I’ve done it twice. But if they insist (again it depends where you are), buy a ticket, cancel it and loose some money. If you do that from Taiwan, it costs NT$ 800.
Thought I should post one more time to end this thread and provide a complete answer if anyone else came into my situation.
I did not need a return ticket as I explained my situation to the trade office in Norway and showed them my Norwegian marriage certificate. They gave me a 60 days tourist visa which should be enough to complete the paperwork over here.
I also read somewhere that the Clean Criminal Record Documentation could be presented in English. My Government could provide it in English, so it saved me some translation costs.
The marriage certificate still has to be translated, but it does not need to be done by an authorized translator. You can do it yourself as long as you fill in a form and get the Taiwan Trade Office to certify this as well.
I’ve almost completed the process of getting my JFRV now. Something that really delayed everything is a document that is not mentioned in any discussions on Forumosa.
Before getting married we both had to get single certificates from our country’s respective population registers. Fair enough. Knew about that. However, after marriage I also had to show a document from the Norwegian population registry that we were married! The marriage certificate was not enough! The office admitted that if my country didn’t have a central population register. It wouldn’t be required. So I guess the need for this depends on your nationality.
Of course, I didn’t know about that before I had left the country, so it took me about 3 weeks to get it fixed.
The MOFA fee has increased to NT$3,000, and once you get the passport from them you have to go to the police station to apply for the spouse ARC. (And pay another NT$1,000).
Sure, the marriage certificate had to be translated and authenticated by a Taiwanese overseas mission. But the Taiwanese overseas mission ALSO wanted to see a document from the population registry proving that we were married.
[quote]But the Taiwanese overseas mission ALSO wanted to see a document from the population registry proving that we were married.[/quote]Off course you can’t just take in your marriage certificate that the priest gave you into the TECO. You need to register your marriage first at the 'Department of Births, Death and Marriages (or in your case, population registry). Even though that should be common knowledge, it is in the archives too.
When I write “marriage certificate” I mean the paper that was notarized by the public registrar. (Publicus Notarius or whatever he is called). We didn’t get married in a church, we got married in the notary public office.
Get single certificates from your population registry office.
Get married.
Get the marriage certificate stamped by your notary public office.
Send the marriage certificate to your foreign ministry to be approved. It gets stamped and sent back to you.
Since you are now married, you have to get a certificate that shows that you are no longer single. You get this from the population registry office. (IF such an office exists in your country). (THIS IS THE DOCUMENT I HAVE NOT READ ABOUT IN THE ARCHIVES)
Both the marriage certificate and the certificate from your population registry has to be translated to Chinese.
[quote]5. Since you are now married, you have to get a certificate that shows that you are no longer single. You get this from the population registry office. (IF such an office exists in your country). (THIS IS THE DOCUMENT I have NOT READ ABOUT IN THE ARCHIVES)
[/quote]
If you have the marriage certificate, you don’t need another certificate proving that you are single. Who told you that? They’re wrong. It’s not a Ministry of Foreign Affairs requirement.
[quote=“Sir Donald Bradman”]If you have the marriage certificate, you don’t need another certificate proving that you are single. Who told you that? They’re wrong. It’s not a Ministry of Foreign Affairs requirement.
Brian[/quote]You need to prove you are single before were married, that is why it used to be (still is ?) better to get married in your home country, whilst they are happy to marry you without it, you can’t regisiter it in Taiwan. Which left some people in the position of having to get divorced and marry again so they can live in Taiwan
The ROC overseas mission in Norway told me. This document stopped the whole process of getting our marriage approved in Taiwan for about 3 weeks! I think I got all the emails from the ROC office documenting this demand as well.
But like I wrote earlier. This might be a requirement for some countries, not all countries.
I believe the population registry in Norway is similar to the Household registration office in Taiwan. They need to see my name on the Taiwanese household registration of my wife to give me the “spouse ARC”. So maybe they also want to see my wife’s name in the Norwegian population registry?
Right. I got it now. The document you’re talking about is not some kind of ‘single certificate’ it’s the marriage registration in your home country.
It used to be that if you got married in Taiwan you needed to prove that your marriage was registered in your home country (whether or not your country had a registrar of marriages). Now it says that if you are from a country that doesn’t have a system of marriage registration then the marriage certificate is all you need. Still it seems very strange that with a marriage certificate from your home country you still needed that proof of registration.
Did you actually go into the MOFA office in Taipei and try and get a JFRV without the marriage reistration proof? I’m curious.
[quote]1. Get single certificates from your population registry office.
2. Get married.
3. Get the marriage certificate stamped by your notary public office.
4. Send the marriage certificate to your foreign ministry to be approved. It gets stamped and sent back to you.
5. Since you are now married, you have to get a certificate that shows that you are no longer single. You get this from the population registry office. (IF such an office exists in your country). (THIS IS THE DOCUMENT I have NOT READ ABOUT IN THE ARCHIVES)
6. Both the marriage certificate and the certificate from your population registry has to be translated to Chinese.[/quote] See, where you are loosing me is at step 3. This is where you should have registered the marriage. The step 4 should be to take it to the public notary. Step 5 is the foreign ministry. I also got married at a public register, and she was very specific to me to take that marriage certificate to the registration office before I go to TECO.