5 years actually
1 Like
First of all, congrats on getting your APRC! 
I can see how you misinterpreted the “爰” character seeing as it almost resembles the simplified version of the “愛” character (Simplified version = 爱) & thanks to Dr.Milker for clarifying what it actually stands for!!
WTH!!! The darn Govt. has been calling me a “Desk Side” all these years!!! 
2 Likes
1 Like
Juuust in case you’re not being sarcastic, it’s an old fashioned term along the lines of Sir. 
Asking for a friend, who would like to apply for an APRC within the next couple of years and becomes eligible time-wise at the start of 2022. Hopefully these are simple questions - I’ve searched this and previous threads to no avail but haven’t read through the thousands of posts concerning APRCs. Sorry if I’ve missed something discussed elsewhere.
Question 1: This instructions page from immigration says the following:
Other information proving sufficient means of self-support or living without insecurity.(a) In the most recent year (meaning either the twelve months up to and including the month preceding the date of the application, or the year from January to December preceding the date of the application) having an average monthly income that is more than twice the minimum monthly wage announced by the Ministry of Labor (if the withholding vouchers or salary income certificates used for calculating the applicant’s income traverse two years, the minimum monthly wage announced by the Ministry of Labor for the most recent year will be taken as the basis for calculating twice the minimum monthly wage;
How would one go about applying under the former route, with the year calculated on the basis of the previous 12 months? From what I can gather, it seems that the majority of people apply on the basis of tax/calendar year using the tax certificate for the previous year. What documents would be used for applying using salary info for between, say, February 2021 and January 2022 (if applying in February 2022)? Is this even possible, or is that page above just wrong/outdated? She has called immigration, who apparently suggested that the only method was on the basis of tax/calendar year.
Question 2: Are bonuses for CNY etc. included in the salary calculations for the purposes of APRC calculations?
The reason I’m asking these questions is that her total salary for the 2021 tax year will likely fall below the limit (she works a regular Taiwanese job rather than as an English teacher or something, and her salary during 2021 will have been NT$48k per month for several months and NT$38k per month for the rest of the year). However, she does apparently get a 3-month bonus for Chinese New Year, which would seem to bring the total salary in the previous 12 months above the limit if the calculation can be done on that basis and includes the bonus.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions. 
If you apply before the tax report for the last year, you are requested 雇主開立之薪資所得扣繳憑單.
Bonus is included.
1 Like
Thanks. So an employee can do that for any time period, say, for January in February or for January and February in March?
How would they show the income for the complementary months of the previous year, say February to December or March to December?
Shouldn’t that be on the tax record?
2 Likes
I don’t know, is it? (I’ve never worked for a Taiwanese company, so I don’t know if there’s a monthly salary breakdown.)
I meant the paper you get from the MoF after filing your tax declaration. Where they write how much you earned, how much taxes you need to pay etc.
Alternatively your friend could ask the company if they are willing to write an income report for your friend
1 Like
雇主開立之薪資所得扣繳憑單 is before you get the paper for the last year. I guess it is for the last calendar year from Jan to Dec, but you may ask to NIA to confirm.
1 Like
Yeah, NIA apparently just said about doing it for a complete tax year.
So does anyone know if there’s a way to do it based on income in a tax year that’s not yet complete, as suggested by the text I posted above? Or is that just wrong? 
If it’s what I’m thinking of, you have to request it special from the tax office. It’s not the usual blue sheet they give you after you file taxes. It has the monthly breakdown of your salary. It’s not on the APRC checklist, but he lady at the NIA told me I needed it. Apparently, that throws a lot of people off and she was nice enough to foresee I wouldn’t get it.
2 Likes
Finley/Anyone,
Does anyone know how much more paperwork you need to get an APRC?
ARC yearly paperwork is two or three days.
Is APRC paperwork 2x more, 5x more etc? I heard they made you run around. Taiwan imi have always been fine with me.
Re: COVID, I have 5 years of income slips from a registered business/corporate place in the center. It’s all above board. The business has been around for more than 10 years.
I can’t remember the minimum income threshold, but because of COVID, I might be below it, because of lockdown, etc.
I hope they might be relaxing rules like that under COVID. That’s been my experience in Taiwan.
If anyone has any tips, or wants to PM me some advice, that might help. I hate forms.
What’s the most up to date APRC guide? Does anyone know?
Thx.
I got mine years ago, but IIRC it was pretty painless. There was only one form (could have been the same one that you ordinarily use to renew an ARC). You had to produce a police record, and some sort of proof of income, but I suspect you won’t even need to do that now because the tax office know exactly what you earn already. The only onerous part was that you had to attend an “interview”, but this amounted to little more than affirming who you are. I think I had my interview in a random corridor and it lasted about 2 minutes.
Things might be different now, of course.
1 Like
Thanks for answering so quick.
I heard it was much harder. I’d been steeling myself for two years, for a huge kafkaesque mirror-of-corridors nightmare. I didn’t realize it was so tightly coupled to the existing ARC system.
Glad they have auto-proof of income, that helps me. I’ll take slips anyway. I guess they realize a lot of people took a pay hit because of COVID.
Someone I know said they like to give out APRCs at the start of the year.
He said they wanted to give them out now, cos expats would be used as a diplomatic human shield if China loomed.
hahaha!
I have to say the existing process, and the Taiwanese Civil Service in general, is fine, and probably the best in SE Asia. I heard, anyway. I never once met a sulky apparatchik, apart from the guy who runs the X-Ray machine.
They even give you a year off the 180 day requirement in the first year, cos they know people will be "f**k Taipei, I’m going to Laos or whatever.
I met a bar owner in Thailand who said he paid 50 grand (pounds) in bribes just to open.
Anyway. I feel like Pinocchio, or Charlie.
1 Like
Well, as mentioned, this was a looong time ago and things may have got better or worse since then. But yes, I was also expecting a nightmare of bureaucracy and was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was.
I agree that Taiwan’s officials, broadly speaking, are light years ahead of most countries in terms of competence, honesty, and efficiency. I was frankly baffled by how quickly Taiwan managed to sink into a quagmire of corruption and bullshit during 2020-2022, but perhaps it was precisely because Taiwanese people trust the authorities to tell the truth and do the right thing (most of the time) that they found it hard to accept that they’d suddenly gone completely Thailand.
2 Likes
Are you from the U.S.? Getting an authenticated criminal record check from the FBI is quite a hassle. Everything else is pretty straightforward.
Things that could be done in TW are fast. I remember for most people, your TW police report would suffice. So I ve done everything in 1 day marathon.
Anything issued back home will take longer time, of course.
UK citizen. I think I remember getting a police check for 40 quid from the UK 5 years ago. Will get one again, or see if that’s alright.
Thx for putting my mind at ease.
1 Like