Wow! If this is in fact implemented, this is extraordinary news. Northcoast Surfer: do you have any link for this?
Guy
Tiger Mountaineer, I was that fracked guy, and had already turned in my application and because I had already met with my agent, I was only allowed 2 weeks to fix my salary problem or I was going to have to start the entire process again. Of course I made more than that original amount but I was under by about 6,000nt, but my cram school doesn’t report our total wages to the government. Three months prior to this I went into the NIA and got the rundown the APRC application process and my agent didn’t even mention to me that the minimum wage might rise in 3 months. Three months later it did, but it wasn’t even on their website. Long story short, my agent actually said that that my employer could change this immediately. I asked if my employer could call her to tell her what she should do, so my boss actually called up my APRC agent and a week later I was back at the tax office picking up a revised income tax statement. Hahah, so ridiculous. So if you and your employer are on good terms then you should be able to fix your problem ASAP. I was lucky enough to get my APRC in the end, but it was a nightmare for me. Northcoast surfer was also helping me fight that battle too, so that was also extremely helpful. Good luck!
Wow! If this is in fact implemented, this is extraordinary news. Northcoast Surfer: do you have any link for this?
Guy[/quote]
Of course I have links. This is old news. The only question which remains is if the Legislative Yuan has implemented it yet or not. I suggest you contact your NIA branch to find out and then report your findings back to the forums. 
Taiwan News Article Link of 11-08-2012
[quote=“Taiwan News on 11-08-2012”]
Taiwan Cabinet relaxes APRC restrictions
[color=#FF0000]The Cabinet decided Thursday to do away with a requirement that foreigners with an Alien Permanent Resident Certificate should stay in Taiwan for at least 183 days a year. The regular weekly Cabinet meeting replaced the previous limit with the stipulation that foreign residents would lose their APRC if they stayed outside Taiwan for at least five years.[/color]
In an effort to make the country more attractive for senior international talent, an applicant’s spouse and children would also be allowed to receive APRCs, reports said.
The package approved by the Cabinet also included a number of separate reforms which would simplify the procedures to apply for Alien Resident Certificates.
The government planned to tighten its supervision of agencies which facilitated marriages between local and foreign nationals. Any agency found to be posting advertisements for immigration or wedding services without the necessary license from the National Immigration Agency could be fined from NT$100,000 (US$3,400) to NT$500,000 (US$17,000) per incident, reports said.
International marriage brokers involved in illegal immigration would be subject to fines ranging from NT$200,000 (US$6,800) to NT$1 million (US$34,000) in the government proposal.
Premier Sean Chen said the reforms were an essential element of the government’s plans to make Taiwan more attractive for professionals from overseas. He expressed the hope that the Ministry of Interior would cooperate with lawmakers to approve the Cabinet measures.
In addition to amendments to immigration legislation, the Executive Yuan on Thursday also approved measures putting spouses from China on the same level as other foreign spouses.
Up to 20,000 spouses from China could benefit immediately from the change allowing them to obtain Taiwan citizenship after a minimum of four years and a maximum of eight years instead of having to wait six years, reports said. Detailed conditions for acquiring citizenship included different minimum periods of stay in Taiwan depending on the number of years the applicant wanted to wait for local nationality.
Ministry of Interior data showed that last September, a total of 460,000 foreign spouses of Taiwan nationals lived in the country, including about 300,000 spouses from China. More than 90,000 of the Chinese spouses had already acquired Taiwan citizenship, according to the government statistics.
The amendments showed the Cabinet’s determination to safeguard the rights of immigrants, Chen said.[/quote]
[quote=“jamielee”]I have a question regarding 5-year continuous stay requirement.
- I have stayed in Taiwan for 3 years through a dependant ARC. My husband has a work permit and an ARC through employment.
- Now I am applying for a work permit and possible an ARC. My husband may leave his employer and Taiwan in a year.
- When I reach 5 years staying in Taiwan, am I qualified for applying for a APRC by myself? Will my first 3 years in Taiwan through a dependant ARC count towards the 5-year stay requirement by APRC?[/quote]
You should be qualified to apply for the APRC by counting your dependant ARC time plus your work-permit ARC time as long as your legal resident status doesn’t lapse during the time you are changing your ARC from a dependant based ARC to a work-permit based ARC. My suggestion would be to ensure that you secure your employment and work-permit well in advance of your husband’s departure. In fact, once you get a job and a work-permit, you should get it changed over immediately at that time. There’s no need to be concerned that you won’t have income statements for the first three years of being on a dependant ARC as the NIA is only interested in your income for the year immediately preceeding your APRC application. 
GROSS ANNUAL EARNINGS.[/quote] I wonder how the “bonus” is worked into that figure. Do the Taiwanese declare their Yearly Bonus for Tax ? Maybe it’s exempt?[/quote]
I don’t understand what you’re asking. Taiwanese do not need an APRC and whether or not they declare their yearly bonus is irrelevant. My wife is Taiwanese and she gets her annual Chinese New Year bonus of 2X her monthly pay + a certain percentage of company profits. All of her CNY bonus and any profit bonuses earned by her are taxed. None are tax exempt and none are excluded. However, she works for a US Fortune 500 company and they are 100% by the book with no tax cheating of any kind.
For foreigners working in Taiwan, wages, tips, bonuses, ANY earned income of any kind is taxable income…LEGALLY speaking. However, “[color=#FF0000]here is Taiwan[/color]” and the Taiwanese have scams on their scams for cheating taxes. Doesn’t make it legal, doesn’t make it right, but it is what it is.
Anecdote? Alllllrighty then…
A Taiwanese woman walks into my office and wishes to hire my services. We are ready to sign our business agreement when she busts out another woman’s identification card and employment contract for a nearby company. She informs me that I’m to put this woman’s name, identification number onto the invoice and bill the nearby company for the services that she’s going to use herself. It seems that this company is owned by her husband and the woman whose identification she has belongs to one of her husband’s employees. Basically, her husband is going to say that I provided services to his employee which his company is going to pay for. In turn, he’s going to submit the invoices to the tax authority and take a tax break on behalf of his company providing his employee with my services. Get it? When I mentioned the words, illegal and fraud, she laughed and said that it’s not fraud and it’s not illegal and that it’s just the Taiwanese way of “saving tax money”.
Kicked her out of my office.
Northcoast Surfer: thank you! If I learn anything of potential use to the forumosa community, of course I’ll let people know–as I’ve tried to do in the APRC Plum Blossom card thread. In the meantime, thanks as always for your generous and helpful service to us all.
Guy
[quote=“rk1951”][quote=“Tiger Mountaineer”]
That is fracked. I’ll call tomorrow to make sure but unfortunately, I’m now in the same boat as pg 51 guy. I haven’t submitted my application yet, however; so perhaps I can find a way to declare more ‘forgotten’ income statements from 2012, and then get new tax statements issued. The accountant at work is not going to like it but… :fume: I already told her to declare a healthy margin before.
[/quote]
Tiger Mountaineer, I was that fracked guy, and had already turned in my application and because I had already met with my agent, I was only allowed 2 weeks to fix my salary problem or I was going to have to start the entire process again. Of course I made more than that original amount but I was under by about 6,000nt, but my cram school doesn’t report our total wages to the government. Three months prior to this I went into the NIA and got the rundown the APRC application process and my agent didn’t even mention to me that the minimum wage might rise in 3 months. Three months later it did, but it wasn’t even on their website. Long story short, my agent actually said that that my employer could change this immediately. I asked if my employer could call her to tell her what she should do, so my boss actually called up my APRC agent and a week later I was back at the tax office picking up a revised income tax statement. Hahah, so ridiculous. So if you and your employer are on good terms then you should be able to fix your problem ASAP. I was lucky enough to get my APRC in the end, but it was a nightmare for me. Northcoast surfer was also helping me fight that battle too, so that was also extremely helpful. Good luck![/quote]
Thanks. I had a bit of mini heart attack when I saw the salary bump news, but after talking to the accountant at work, I think we should be able to figure sth out, and I can turn in my papers in good order.
Applied for the APRC today. I will have an interview with Mr. Lin at some point in 30 days. Not sure what will be asked during the interview.
No problems so far, other than the original police report said I was Philipino 
[quote=“claphands22”]Applied for the APRC today. I will have an interview with Mr. Lin at some point in 30 days. Not sure what will be asked during the interview.
)[/quote]
Actually, I’m curious about the “interview” as well. It say’s on the application checklist that it takes 3 HOURS! 
[quote=“Tiger Mountaineer”]
Actually, I’m curious about the “interview” as well. It say’s on the application checklist that it takes 3 HOURS! [/quote]
There is no interview process, this is just to hand in all your documents. There are not personal questions about yourself or anything like that. If you make an appointment to hand in your documents like you should then the process only takes about an hour at the most. If everything is in order then it could even take 30-45 min.
Thanks for the newspaper link. I guess I have to go to the NIA office to check out the 183 day requirement and do it soon as I leave in July.
[quote=“Northcoast Surfer”][quote=“jamielee”]I have a question regarding 5-year continuous stay requirement.
- I have stayed in Taiwan for 3 years through a dependant ARC. My husband has a work permit and an ARC through employment.
- Now I am applying for a work permit and possible an ARC. My husband may leave his employer and Taiwan in a year.
- When I reach 5 years staying in Taiwan, am I qualified for applying for a APRC by myself? Will my first 3 years in Taiwan through a dependant ARC count towards the 5-year stay requirement by APRC?[/quote]
You should be qualified to apply for the APRC by counting your dependant ARC time plus your work-permit ARC time as long as your legal resident status doesn’t lapse during the time you are changing your ARC from a dependant based ARC to a work-permit based ARC. My suggestion would be to ensure that you secure your employment and work-permit well in advance of your husband’s departure. In fact, once you get a job and a work-permit, you should get it changed over immediately at that time. There’s no need to be concerned that you won’t have income statements for the first three years of being on a dependant ARC as the NIA is only interested in your income for the year immediately preceeding your APRC application. [/quote]
Thanks very much for your reply!
[quote=“Mia SA”]Hey there - I’ve just read the last 20 or so pages of this thread but still have a question:
My husband has an APRC (got it last year) and I’ve been here in Taiwan since 2005 on a joining family ARC (thus no work permit and therefore no tax returns)
Longest I’ve been out of Taiwan has been 4 weeks.
with the new changes mentioned above on the National Immigration Agency’s website http://www.immigration.gov.tw/fp.asp?fpage=cp&xItem=1083408&ctNode=29649&mp=1 (no police clearance/medical check), the point which applies to me most - spouses being eligible for APRC’s is still a bit unclear:
does it only apply to investors holding APRCs or would my husband’s APRC (from teaching) qualify too?[/quote]
“Bump”
[quote=“Tiger Mountaineer”][quote=“Northcoast Surfer”]
NOPE! You might think that would be the case, but guess what? [color=#FF0000]Here is Taiwan[/color] and that’s the way it is. I now direct you to page 51 of this thread so you may read about the aweful experience of rk1951 when it happened to him. He had made the minimum required, then the Taiwan government changed The Basic Wage and then he was instantly no longer qualified. Check it out. His saga begins with the fourth post on that page.
At any rate, the difference between the previous Basic Wage of $18,780 and the new Basic Wage of $19,047 ends up being a total increase of $6,408/year for APRC applicants. That’s the difference between 457,128 and $450,720. A pittance. [/quote]
That is fracked. I’ll call tomorrow to make sure but unfortunately, I’m now in the same boat as pg 51 guy. I haven’t submitted my application yet, however; so perhaps I can find a way to declare more ‘forgotten’ income statements from 2012, and then get new tax statements issued. The accountant at work is not going to like it but… :fume: I already told her to declare a healthy margin before.
[/quote]
I was in the same boat as Tiger Mountaineer.
If you’re going to apply for the APRC in the future, listen to the advice already given: Make sure your employer is declaring a healthy amount over the income requirement, as it can change. Here’s my experience…
I knew I would be eligible to apply for my APRC in May of 2013, so back in 2011 I started preparing. At that time, the minimum income requirement was NT$429,120/year. Because of this…
…I made sure my employer reported what I thought would be a healthy amount for 2012: $456,000/year ($38,000/month).
In 2012 a notice was posted that, indeed, the income requirement would be increasing in January 2013 to $450,480/year. Whew, my $456,000/year was still OK. In January 2013 I verified this amount in-person with the NIA’s APRC worker in Taoyuan.
Then just 2 weeks ago another notice stated that the income requirement was increasing yet again, effective April 1, 2013, to $457,128. This was just two months before I could apply, with the result that my original reported amount of $456,000—which was $26,880 over the minimum required when I started the process—would end up being short by $1,128! :fume:
I told my boss the situation and asked if he could “correct” one of the months in 2012 to a higher amount. I caught a break, though. Upon retrieving my 2012 tax withholding statement, it turns out that back in 2011 there had been some kind of communication error, and instead of reporting $38,000/month as I had requested, they’d been reporting $38,200, resulting in a reported income of $458,400. Safe by $1,272! :yay:
So as long as the income requirement isn’t raised yet again before May 31, all is good.
Anyway, as NCS says…
[quote=“Northcoast Surfer”]
Remember kiddies…I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…don’t try to cut it too close whilst cheating taxes in your final year before applying for the APRC and the income requirement will never be an issue. :no-no:[/quote]
Dear All : Need help from the experienced.
US Chinese American worked some years in Taiwan and still hold ARC, I am not qualified according to the official ROC government requirements in getting APRC, but if I also invest in buying a house here, would I be better qualified?
I heard of some flexibility, how best to position myself to getting APRC?
Does one have to give up their original passport in order to get Taiwan APRC?
Any suggestions?
Thanks
The requirements are fixed: you must either meet the minimum salary requirement (~547000pa, IIRC), or must own outright property of significant value (5M, I think). The latest figures will be on the immigration website or the instructions the NIA gave you. There is no workaround or “flexibility”, but the bar is set fairly low. Depending on your exact circumstances, it may just be question of working and waiting.
An APRC is not citizenship; it just allows you to live here (and work here, with a work permit) indefinitely. Check out the other threads on the subject.
Hi Finley,
Thanks for the information.
So APRC is a permanent staying pass regardless whether I work or not, e.g. retirement. I do intend to buy a place in Taiwan, do have the minimum income (I assume 547K is NTD?) but so far I only have ARC for 3.5years with 2 years meeting 187 days requirements, would that be sufficient to meet the minimum requirements?
I heard from my colleagues (from Singapore) saying they do have to give up their SG passport to get APRC, that could not be true since it is not a travelling document !
Please help me understand more.
Regards
Andy
5 contiguous years min., and the process is much easier if you’ve not left the country for more than three months in any one year (if you have, up to six months is OK, but you must then produce a load of extra stamped-in-triplicate paperwork - check the other thread for details). You’ll just have to keep your nose to the grindstone for another 3 years.
An APRC is just a residency permit - nothing to do with your passport. AFAIK, once you have the APRC and open work permit (they are separate cards, but you need the ARPC to get the work permit) you can do anything you like, including sitting on your ass watching daytime TV and eating pao mian. As long as you have enough income to buy your pao mian, of course.
Hey guys,
I only just joined but have been reading Forumosa for years.
I have a question that maybe someone can help me with. I cannot find any discussion of it in past posts and that’s why I am asking.
Would paying one’s taxes a few days late (i.e. next month) affect an APRC application? Supposing of course everything else is in order.
Thanx in advance!
No. In fact, you are no longer required to submit the official blue tax forms from the tax office with your APRC application. Of course you still can, but you can also simply submit the white Record of Withholding & Non-Withholding document instead which your company gives you that you use to file your taxes.
Hope this helps.