I know that this is a longshot but I thought that I might as well ask to see if skipping the waiting period is possible. (I have not begun the application process for anything yet. I just want to know all of my options.)
I was born in the US in the 1990s. My parents immigrated to the US in the 1990s as well. They are both citizens of Taiwan and the US. They also own an apartment in Taiwan.
When I was elementary school age, we visited a Taiwanese embassy a few times to get me a Taiwanese passport. We were able to finish that process but that passport has been expired for a while now. I did use my Taiwanese passport a few times to enter and exit Taiwan.
I’ve been missing Taiwan a lot lately and would like to go back someday. I used spend my summers there as a child. I would like to be able to be a full citizen of Taiwan but I’m not able to stay in Taiwan for an extended period of time. I just started my career and it would put me in a difficult spot to leave for a while. I don’t know if I’ll ever get the chance to live in Taiwan for an extended period of time except for when I get to retirement age (which is over 40 years away).
Any insight on this is much appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Did your expired passport have an ID number in it? Not just a passport number but an ID number too? If so then you have household registration (likely unregistered now) that you can re-register to skip the 1 year wait. If there is no ID number listed then you don’t have household registration and will have to stay on a TARC for one year before gaining it.
If you are not yet a “real” Taiwanese citizen with a household registration, and are looking to become one, then you need to live in Taiwan for at least 360 days.
If that doesn’t work for you, there are other length-of-stay options, but the shortest one is 180 days per year for three years (doesn’t have to be consecutive days, but needs to be consecutive years).
I believe the options are:
360 consecutive days within a year, or
270 days total each year, for two consecutive years, or
180 days total each year, for three consecutive years
May I ask why you are trying to obtain full Taiwanese citizenship if you do not plan to ever live in Taiwan? If you only want to visit for a few months, you may do so with your other non-Taiwan passport.
Taiwanese citizenship doesn’t benefit you in any way if you are not actually living in Taiwan.
What Marco said is part of it. I do want to have the option of living in Taiwan. It’s not that I do not plan on living in Taiwan. It’s that I’m just starting my career. Now isn’t the right time for me to drop everything and leave. If everything works out perfectly, I guess I’d never have a reason the leave the US but life is never perfect. Honestly, I don’t even know if I like my current career path. I just know that this is important to me. Being part of the country my parents loved very much is important to me.
I love Taiwan and it’s part of my identity. Maybe a psychologist can explain this better but a small part of me feels that I can somehow be closer to my family if I can become a full fledged citizen. I was extremely close to my grandparents before they passed and I’d really find some peace in being able to stay in Taiwan without worrying about visas or feeling like a visitor. I know it sounds extremely selfish to think that there was a way to skip the wait period but I just wanted to see if it was possible or not.
I’ve looked into the citizenship process and I know that there really isn’t a way to get around the wait period. I was just holding out hope that some immigration wiz would pop in and point out something crazy that I missed but it looks like that isn’t the case. (I didn’t really think that that was going to happen but it doesn’t hurt to ask.)
I’m currently not in a position to be able to live in Taiwan for too long. Maybe one day a crazy opportunity will show itself and I can start the process then. I am grateful for the people that took time out of their day to answer my question. Thank you.
Well, there isn’t an age limit by which you need to become a full citizen. If you aren’t able to do the one-year commitment now, you can just do it whenever you are ready to move here. The option will never go away.
What I mean is you can do the one-year thing while simultaneously living and working in Taiwan, whenever you’re ready to do that in the future. It doesn’t need to already be done prior to your getting a job and relocating here in the future.
Sorry I didn’t mean to leave you hanging. My brother checked my old passport for me and he said that he couldn’t find an ID number. It looks like the longer route is the only way to go.
Your old passport wouldn’t have an ID number because (if I recall) you got it when you were a child, probably before you were required to get an ID.
Are you certain your parents never registered your name in their household registration? That is usually done at birth, or in the case of a child being born abroad, done as soon as the child first comes to Taiwan.
I believe you can have your head of household (your father?) call the household registration office of his last known residence, to request a copy be sent to you overseas. If your name is already on it, then you are already a full Taiwanese citizen, even if you never got around to getting an ID.
“continuous residence of one year, or being physically present for at least 270 days in each of two calendar years, or being physically present for at least 183 days in each of five calendar years.”