Well, better late than never. Thanks. It’s a pain getting renewed every three years.
Aren’t jfrv holders permanent residents?
People usually use JFRV to refer ARC based on a marriage to a citizen, on this forum.
Yes, I’m on jfrv. But in my mind, I always equated it to mean I am a permanent resident because I have open work rights etc.
But I guess technically I am not. I am just an arc holder. Shouldn’t have blown my mind, but it did.
2 Likes
no
ARC (JFRV/work visa/gold card) - alien resident certificate
APRC - alien permanent resident certificate
Permanent residents don’t need to renew their resident visas.
2 Likes
Not even after 10 years?
After 5 years on marriage based ARC you are eligible to apply for APRC.
I recently got APRC this way myself.
2 Likes
Yes, I meet all the requirements. My question was referring to you saying that if you are on an aprc, you don’t need to renew your resident visa.
I thought it cost 10000 and lasted 10 years.
It does not expire (as long as you mostly stay in Taiwan)
2 Likes
One time 10000 dollar payment and it lasts forever? Ok. I haven’t read up on it for a long time because I was happy giving the wife 3000 dollars every three years and telling her to go renew for me.
A PR status helps in not having to renew ARC/GC every few years.
But I have a question from the perspective of someone who doesn’t want to stay in Taiwan long. Let’s take someone who started work here on ARC/GC and wants to leave Taiwan after a 5-yr stint. Let’s say you are satisfied with the job at hand.
As I understand, apart from a few token benefits/coupons, the aprc doesn’t do much. It’s not like the US green card which helps in immigration requirements for other countries.( at least for us poor citizens of the non-western countries)
Plus, on a aprc, whatever money my employer would have contributed to the pension account would remain locked up till I reach retirement age, even if I were to leave Taiwan (is this right?) currently on arc, my employer contributes into a special fund, which will be given to me as a lump sum when I leave.
So is there any benefit in this case of applying for the aprc?
If you don’t intend to stay very long then I see not much benefit to spend 10k on APRC.
I don’t know about the pension fund when you permanently leave. Australia has a system where you can apply to get it early when you leave permanently. Tando linked you a law about it.
I haven’t looked at it.
I’m in this situation now myself: 5 years ARC, last year of that on a gold card, now will apply for APRC.
As far as I understand, the biggest advantage of the APRC is that it is not bound to any sponsor (spouse, employer, …). So you get more freedom to change jobs (or divorcing) without having to worry about your residency.
4 Likes
Your GC gives you the same advantage for 3 years at a time.
1 Like
Correct. The gold card is “better” in this respect than a normal work or marriage based ARC. But inferior to a APRC, which is permanent.
Edit: of course that permanency is only relevant if you want to stay longer… Which, in the case you mentioned, is not the case. So yeah, for that case a GC would be cheaper and as good as an APRC. And, if after 3 years you want to stay, you could just change to an APRC (assuming the new 3y rule for GC is approved)
Permanent only till your passport validity though, right?
Actually, in some financial cases like mine, aprc is inferior to GC if you’re not planning to stay long.
Eg: lpa pension virtual account
The APRC does not expire or invalidate.
It is true that you need to update it, if your passport or address changes.
1 Like
Ok so it doesn’t have an expiry date on it. But if you have to update it when your passport changes, effectively it’s tied to it isn’t it?
Do they not detect in their systems that your passport has expired ? Does immigration or other agencies reject aprc if the associated passport has expired ?
Aprc is still an “alien” permit. It’d be surprising if it’s not tied to your passport.
They should have it in their system when the passport expires. Usually people don’t let their passports expire when in a foreign country.
You have an obligation to let them timely know about any changes.
The residency is not tied to the passport. You don’t have to apply for APRC again when you get a new passport. The update is quick and easy process. You don’t need to provide any documents besides the APRC and the new passport.
No. Airlines won’t let you fly on an expired passport in the first place.
And other agencies would not know about the passport unless they require you to show them.