Which office were you dealing with—Taipei City, or elsewhere?
With the former, you need to talk with the specialist in charge of this program (appointment needed—this will likely not be possible until Level 3 restrictions are lifted).
With other cities and counties, there have been very mixed reports over the years with many cases of officials simply not knowing what they were talking about (perhaps understandable given the tiny number of successful applications in this category over the years).
New Taipei City - transferred to a nice woman referred to as the designated person to speak to, but thought it odd since she didn’t ask anything except how long I’ve been a resident. Thanks for the heads-up. Will call tomorrow and see if I get the same answer.
But If I remember correctly, (I think it was @Brianjones ) who had mentioned that actually getting citizenship with the all important national ID number is a huge headache (especially if I’m not married to a Taiwanese). So APRC may be better, if I can actually keep it for a number of years.
Taiwan citizenship with ID number doesn’t seem of any use to me, at least in practical terms.
yea. whatever the correct terminology is. I remember you saying something like it was too complicated or outright not possible unless you have chinese lineage?
It’s not impossible you just have to sacrifice a lot of time , freedom to travel overseas for one year or restricted travel for multiple years, and even your own original citizenship permanently . There’s also a period where you will be without a Taiwan ID while waiting to go through this frankly ludicrous process (remember this is after you already have accumulated enough residency and already fulfilled the naturalisation requirements , naturalising is straightforward but they make getting full citizenship and ID really difficult for many …Why…It would be good to ask…But you can never find anybody who can give an answer …).
In other words, if you are ok with renouncing your original nationality and staying in Taiwan for a year, it is quite easy for many of white collar work based ARC holders.
Called NIA in Taiwan today, and got some answers. Foreign senior professionals can apply for Taiwan nationality directly (and keep dual nationality) without needing to go through a Plum Blossom Card. There’s no 5-yr wait. More info here:
A foreign national or stateless person who has made special contributions to the ROC but doesn’t meet the requisites provided in Subparagraphs of Paragraph 1 of Article 3, can also apply for naturalization.
Preceding permission of naturalization by the MOI shall be approved by the Executive Yuan.
Article 9 says
Foreign nationals shall not be allowed to reside in Taiwan prior to the submission of a certificate of loss of original nationality as prescribed in the preceding two paragraphs.
Foreign nationals may be exempted from submitting a certificate of loss of original nationality if any of the following circumstances apply:
They apply for naturalization pursuant to Article 6.
They are high-level professionals in the technological, economic, educational, cultural, art, sports, or other domains who have been recommended by the central competent authority, whose specialties are deemed to serve the interests of the ROC, and who have been approved through a joint review organized by the Ministry of the Interior and conducted by relevant agencies and impartial individuals. [this is on senior professionals]