APRC or Citizenship

I was under the impression that you can have dual citizenship (Taiwan plus another) unless you hold “high office”. So what is the advantage of an Alien Permanent Registration. The eligibility requirements seem to be the same. I am married to a Taiwanese.

The Taiwan government officials frequently state that Taiwan allows “dual nationality”, except for high officials, as you have noted.

However, (as with many government announcements in the ROC) this only applies to those who have ROC citizenship. For foreigners, the Nationality Law currently requires a formal renounciation of original citizenship, before Taiwan citizenship may be obtained.

I am lobbying to have this article of the Nationality Law amended, and this restriction removed. However, I am unable to state when these lobbying efforts may indeed produce results.

Hence, at the present time, permanent residence is a viable option for those foreigners who want to live in Taiwan long term, but who desire to retain their original nationality.

Australia has a perculiar situation, too. In that case, “down under” immigrants may retain their dual nationality, but those Australians becoming dual nationals of other countries will lose their Aussie citizenship. That is worse than Taiwan and they’re still trying to rectify it.

I can’t find the right thread, sorry…
but my understanding of the permanent residency offer (which is undergoing revision) states that if, after you get the “visa,” if you are not in Taiwan in any subsequent years for more than the minimum (183 days in the future) your permanent ARC is void and to get it back you have to go through the whole process of getting a visa to come back and all that shit.
I asked the foreign affairs police and this is what the papers they gave me indicated.
So, in essence, the permanent residency deal is only useful for those who plan on not leaving the island for any more than six months out of any future year.
I can’t imagine how this will help those “valued and aged” foreigners that hop in and out of the country…

It seems that we’re really stretching the definition of the words “permanent” and “residency” here. Is it really unreasonable to require people who want to be “permanent residents” to actually stick around for a while?

Same for the USA. If outside more than 180 days in a year, the INS can cancel your permanent residency rights.
If abroad more than 365 days, it legally expires automatically. Those whom flirt with trouble are the ones whom take visa trips once a year to “renew” their residency period as they could get caught in the above “grey period”.

The ROC should grant exceptions to the APRC rule of 183 days abroad with a ‘travel permit’ but it does not perserve their residency period for any naturalization purposes. After two years, it would expire unless one returns to Taiwan. This is like the US practice.

At the present time, it is possible to apply for an exception to the 183 day “physically present in Taiwan area” requirement in the case of overseas study, family emergency, medical emergency, etc.

My own recommendation would be that the permanent resident should be required to follow this 183 day rule for three years, and afterward the figure should fall to a much lower number, such as 30 days within every three year period.

This added flexibility is important because permanent residency in Taiwan does not lead to naturalization, as in the USA. After naturalization, a new citizen is free to come and go as he/she pleases. Under the Taiwan legal structure, one is always bound to the 183 day rule.

See Taipei Times article of April 23rd:
Residency law passes another test

If one were to want to undertake some informal study or research program overseas for a lengthy period, this could cause problems.

Question: Is it really unreasonable to require people who want to be “permanent residents” to actually stick around for a while?

Answer: Well yes. If there were candy at the end of the wait, like with the US Green card. Instead, it is more like a 2nd class citizen for life deal.

Isn’t it odd that one needn’t bother with waiting to qualify for the Taiwan Green card, and can jump directly to Taiwan citizenship long before one is even near the time accrued to qualify for the Taiwan Green card?

Imagine this were the US. Who would be so stupid to then apply for a Green card when they could jump directly to citizenship?

So what’s the catch? OK: must give up original citizenship.

Anyways, if Taiwan permanent residency is so much harder to qualify for than citizenship, that must mean it is worth much more than Taiwan citizenship.

Wait. How could that be true? If that were true I wouldn’t need to complain about all the things I can’t do listed on
http://jidanni.org/foreigner/ .

So, therefore {one foreign passport} plus {one taiwan PR (Green) card} is worth much more than {one Taiwan passport}.

This is the opinion of the Taiwan government, as reflected by their laws, no?

In our equation, “{one foreign passport}” must also have gradations, or otherwise 5000 Indonesian brides wouldn’t chuck theirs to the winds while your average westerner feels that would be unreasonable. If so reasonable then why don’t any Taiwanese ever renounce theirs when they get to the USA?

Anyway, the only way all this makes sense is if the Indonesian passport is worth 0.1 a US passport, and a Taiwanese passport is worth 0.2 of a US passport… both too low for the US to bother requiring anybody to renounce.

But wait, even with “quality passports” the US doesn’t ask folks to renounce them. Sounds like a win-win deal. Then Taiwan is a lose-lose deal.

Anyways, in conclusion, I think I had a few interesting thoughts above, but can’t help but getting mired as usual. Sorry.

OK, trying again: let’s say the US learned from Taiwan and used Taiwan’s set up. New citizenships would be way up, with hardly anybody choosing the green card option to preserve original citizenship.

OK, never mind… getting dizzy again.

Hey Richard and all you guys: don’t do like me and go get x-rayed and AIDS tested just to get the PR card with the 183 day “stick around” restriction. Instead: what if they gave a green card and nobody came! Indeed, I hear of their glorious green card, only 63 Americans have signed up. The 500 total are mainly Japanese and Malaysians.

Anyways, tell them “Oh no, I’m holding out for citizenship”.

I suppose once one gets Taiwan citizenship they won’t suddenly change the rules and take it away again. But you never know? Also you wouldn’t have to worry about some qualification board unhappy with some of your views or something.

at the very end (3+ months, $$ and hundreds of hours) of my PR application process the police office discovered that a paperwork error in 1995 which resulted in me being on a visitor visa short time has “invalidated my application” by
rendering me ineligible.

Ummm, it occurs to me that because I was a full-time university faculty (which presumably can be proven) that might in some way overwrite the “clerical error” saying I was a visitor. The police office is not aware of any way I can petition to have my PR application granted. I don’t want to wait 2 more years. Anyone have any experience with getting around such documentation errors?

I like what I was recently told about UK citizens renouncing their citizenship. Apparently, you can get it back at any time and for any reason, because in renouncing UK citizenship,legally, you are regarded as having “temporarily taken leave of your senses.”

Well, it made me chuckle.

That’s so farking brilliant and so bloody English.