I just obtained a Japanese translation of my TW car driving licence from the Banqiao Motor Vehicles Supervision Station.
No problems, here’s how it went:
Went in the first entrance, explained with gestures and Google translate to the woman at the desk by the door what I wanted. She had a brief chat with someone at the service counter who asked me to wait while finding an English speaking person. 2 minutes wait then he arrived and guided me through to another area apparently dealing with licenses. He had a few words to staff there and and gave me a queue ticket. 5 minutes wait and I went to the counter, showed my ARC and licence - that was scanned (barcode) and a double sided paper was printed and then stamped. Paid 100NTD.
I was told to keep it together with the licence when travelling.
Total about 20 minutes.
it was $100 10 years ago last I went as well. Nice to see fees didn’t go up for fairly meaningless paperwork!
You’re not alone, it’s almost the same experience as me. I came to Taiwan very enthusiastic about immigrating here and starting to feel more let down as I try to integrate with society. I.e. finding there’s no path to dual citizenship for foreigners without renouncing, APRC holders being treated as foreigners even for something as simple as applying for a credit card or opening a bank account, which means you’ll never be treated equally here. But with the recent programs like the gold card bringing in lots of foreigners from other countries with better policies, I’m hopeful things will change in the future.
I was the same. It’s why I left. All those inconveniences get really old really fast and a lot of foreigners end up leaving because of this.
My final straw was getting handed an employment contract with a bunch of illegal conditions which I pointed out and the response was ‘We only get foreigners to sign this contract’. The fact they felt they had the right to put illegal clauses in a contract especially for foreigners tipped me over the edge. Everything just got too hard.
In saying that, my citizenship application is processing so I’m not saying I hate the place. But it became apparent that spending my prime working years there would have been a waste.
There is a path for dual citizenship without renouncing. It’s discussed in the threads on forumosa.
That statement is a little misleading, I read most (if not all) of those threads, and that path is not as straightforward, nor easy or possible for most of us here (those of us that are just regular common 老百姓 and that aren’t nobel laureates, olympic gymnasts or Dominican missionaries).
It depends on your original country equally as much as it depends on Taiwan
I’m none of those things and I’ll be a dual citizen after a bit of paperwork and a long period of time. I’m just a boring cog in a machine married to someone Taiwanese
if i recall correctly, you can renoucne and then reclaim your original citizenship. also you are married to a national.
I am not married to a national, just a regular long term resident.
I feel obligated to point out that there are four paths to citizenship. The path people should be considering is for Senior Professionals. It’s different to the path for Special Contributions to Taiwan.
I think that’s what @izzy was referring to with the Nobel Prize bit, no? Like something that isn’t available to the majority of people.
This has nothing to do with
This
But yes, you can renounce and reclaim. Me being married to a National doesn’t make any difference.
The problem is the linking with “missionaries” 
So many people assume Senior Professionals is the same pathway as the one the missionaries use, and therefore assume the standards are similar(“nobel prize” being an example of such an exaggeration). The Senior Professionals route is in fact much more obtainable. My guess is a lot of likely qualified people don’t apply due to this confusion, so I’m trying to point it out where I can.
Oh yeah, that’s true. I remember that one also qualifies with a run-of-the-mill Fields Medal or Wolf Prize, and who doesn’t have one of those already. 
I am a senior professional (at least in my company 
) and even though i meet all other requirements the need to get a recommendation from the relevant government ministry is a hurdle (a hurdle that doesnt exist in other countries to the best of my knowledge).
I believe you are familiar with this document: https://www.ris.gov.tw/documents/data/en/5/965ca25a-f043-4d75-87fe-a43bc5fdcfbf.pdf
which category do i fall under? I am a somewhat senior manager in the Taiwan branch of a MNC. I dont have a PhD, or international prizes, or “unique talents or outstanding R&D capacities, unique professional skills, is able to actually promote the industrial upgrading of our nation” nor do i have (and this one is my personal favorite) “able to significantly contribute to the upgrade of our alcohol production industry, and matters which can further the
national interests of our alcohol production industry, or meet the urgent needs of our nation for professional talent with transnational experience, and copies of relevant supporting documents.”
Many of us were single when we applied. No requirement to be married to an ROC citizen.
that is great cherry picking, but let’s admit it, I am a white collar emplyee with a masters degree, 15 years work experience and more than 10 years of living continuously in Taiwan with work visa and then permanent residency.
if you replace the word “Taiwan” with the word “Austrllia” or “Canada” or “Singapore” or “Great Britain” would i need to get a letter recommendation from a government ministry to naturalize?
The default for managers would be MOEA. However, it would depend on which industry the MNC is in - if it’s not regulated by the MOEA, I would suggest applying to that other ministry at the same time.
As a senior manager, I am certain you have unique professional abilities for the purpose of this regulation (and also in reality!). The key thing to concern yourself with if interested in applying is: what documents do you have/can you obtain from a third party to back up this claim? You collect enough to make a bureaucrat happy to tick the box, and you’re gold.
The other way to think about this is: if Taiwan was writing a press release about you, to proudly announce you as a new citizen what would they put down? Create a narrative around yourself, tell the story well and you’re in.
You may need it before you even can try and naturalize. You may need it just to get permanent residency.
I think a major difference here is that only around 30% of the voting population is in favour of migration(2020 stat, N=502). For those other places, I don’t have data but assume it’d be a supermajority.