Good day fellow expats. It’s finally come time for me to apply for my APRC and I’ve hit an unfortunate bureaucratic speed bump: My ARC has been on my ancestral Irish passport since arriving in Taiwan 6 years ago. The consultant at the immigration department insists that I must submit a police clearance certificate for the country issuing the passport used for my ARC. I can’t get a police clearance certificate from Ireland because I’ve never lived there.
Has anyone had a similar problem and overcome it somehow? Does anyone have advice for me in dealing with Taiwan’s seemingly rigid response to exceptions rules?
Generally, only local ROC criminal records are required unless one stayed abroad for extended periods of time. Did you ever leave Taiwan for extended periods of time? If not, the staff at the NIA may be mistaken and you should inquire again.
If I were you, I’d inquire with the Irish police directly and explain that you need your criminal records for applying permanent residence overseas. They would probably be more flexible than the NIA.
Thanks for your response. I did unfortunately stay out of the country a few days more than the 6 month period so I do fall into the category of needing to provide a PCC.
Can’t you submit a request of a record to the Irish police, then get a rejection letter from them stating it cannot be issued because you haven’t lived there?
Apply to the police in Ireland for a “no criminal record” document.
If you know someone in Ireland have them speed up the process by dropping in the application and ecplaining the situstion. It can take months, i did it before
Thanks Liam, that sounds like exactly what I need. Do you mind briefly describing the process that you went through? The Garda site isn’t very helpful in that regard. Do I need to send a written request by mail?
In my case a family member in Ireland went to the garda station picked up the form, scanned it, sent it to me, I filled it out, posted it to them. they brought it back to the station. Then it took months. It says three weeks on the website.
If I was you I would call them on the phone. every garda station in ireland is on this directory.
Hey Liam. I finally got that letter that you suggested but the officer at the immigration office is refusing to accept it. Could you please tell me which immigration office you went to and how you framed the problem to get them to understand that some expats have ancestral passports?
When I got and submitted the no criminal record check I was in mainland China and they just accepted it as it was with no other question asked. Sorry that you are getting an additional run around.
If they are not accepting it then surely they told you why? Is it becasue they want it to be authenticated by the ROC office in Dublin? Or what?
Also. What you have is a standard ordinary Irish passport. If you talk about it as an ‘ancestral Irish passport’ - something that doesn’t even exist - then you are not helping your case, I would imagine. They are liable to think it is some kind of second tier overseas national passport, or whatever, which is not correct. It is just a standard passport.
Cheers, apologies if the tone of my meassge appears harsh about the ancestral thing. but yea, you might get them double thinking if you present it in that way.
Also pity ireland closed its office in taipei, but thats another story.
Did you get it translated into Chinese and authenticated by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Ireland? If not, that is something you should do first before trying to submit a foreign document.
