[quote]The way I understood it from the press releases is that you could not have been out of Taiwan for more than 3 consecutive months at a time, but that isn’t related to the 5 years or even per year. So, based on the press release, you could be out of Taiwan more than 3 months, so long as it’s not consecutive months and also so that you still maintain the required 183 days per year.
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To clarify about the new rules, they’re not “based on the press release,” but rather the latest amended version of the Regulations Governing Visiting, Residence and Permanent Residence of Aliens, which came into effect on October 25th, and can be found on the National Immigration Agency’s website
here: immigration.gov.tw/ct.asp?xI … 29649&mp=1
Here are the relevant lines:
中華民國一百零一年十月二十五日內政部台內移字第1010933919 號令修正發布第 6、11、12、19、22條條文，刪除第13、14條條文；並自一百零一年十月二十五日施行
Rough translation: By Order No. 1010933919, the Regulations were amended and promulgated on October 25, 2012; amendments were made to Articles 6, 11, 12, 19 and 22, and Articles 13 and 14 were removed; these changes also came into effect on October 25, 2012.
And from Article 12…
外國人申請永久居留，於合法連續居留五年期間，每次出國在三個月以內者，得免附第一項第四款文件及第六款之本國刑事紀錄證明。
When aliens apply for permanent residence, if, during their five years of continuous residence, each trip abroad is within three months in duration, the document specified in Item 4 (the health check) and the home country criminal record check specified in Item 6 may be waived.
So the language is pretty clear: as long as each TRIP overseas is under three months, and you’re here at least 183 days per year, you don’t need the health and home country police checks.
It’s also great to hear from smurphr that the pencil pushers at the NIA are catching on!
I’ll definitely be applying for mine soon…