I’ve a simple question. My wife is mainland Chinese. If I secure legit work in Taiwan, say at a uni, will I be able to get my wife an dependent’s visa (or whatever the TW equivalent might be)? Or will this be impossible, or a nightmare? How long might it take? I’m Australian, if that makes any difference.
I worked in TW for two years, leaving in 2001, and am looking at returning - but won’t return if my wife can’t join me.
Cheers,
HH
Not in the slightest bit simple. Probably about the most complicated visa question that can be asked.
Does your wife have residency in Australia? Permanent residency? Where do you live? I would strongly recommend that you do not consider at all under any circumstances attempting to bring your PRC wife to Taiwan. If she does not have an Australian (or other non-PRC) passport she will not get in anyway.
I’m not going to go over this again as it’s too complicated. There are posts all over this site on the topic.
My wife doesn’t have an Aussie passport at the moment, but she will have one at a later point. I am not in a position to come to TW for at least six months anyway.
To be picky, the question is indeed simple, but the answer seems complicated. As for info being all over this site, this is my first visit to the site, and I haven’t found anything which exactly matches my question to date. As a VERY busy person, I simply don’t have time to spend hours perusing old threads to find the information. Asking for information from people who know better is the simplest way to find answers - although you always get those who seem to find the questioning process offensive.
[quote=“HH”]My wife doesn’t have an Aussie passport at the moment, but she will have one at a later point. I am not in a position to come to TW for at least six months anyway.
To be picky, the question is indeed simple, but the answer seems complicated. As for info being all over this site, this is my first visit to the site, and I haven’t found anything which exactly matches my question to date. As a VERY busy person, I simply don’t have time to spend hours perusing old threads to find the information. Asking for information from people who know better is the simplest way to find answers - although you always get those who seem to find the questioning process offensive.[/quote]
The search function is your friend.
Perhaps you can’t read. I said I’d already searched, and was unable to find the precise information which relates to my specific situation. I am asking for help, not sarcasm.
Is there some problem on this web site with asking for help? Is it against the law or something? Or just the local culture?
I strongly recommend you wait until she has an Aussie passport. If not, does she have PR in Australia? Was her household registration cancelled in China? Did she leave China in order to settle abroad? If so, her ID card will have been cancelled, but her household registration may not have been (but it usually is). All of this might matter, depending on in what capacity she wishes to enter Taiwan.
Your visa status will matter as well, but it is all very open to interpretation (e.g. are university teachers “white collar workers” or whatever the latest term is, and can they therefore avail themselves of the latest regulation intended to allow PRC wives to join bankers, engineers and the like?)
Much easier if she has an AUS passport, as I suppose you would have guessed.
Can somebody fix the search function? I spent two years posting about this very problem. 
Not a legal discussion, but perhaps relevant: [TSU: Some Immigrants Shouldn't Be Citizens
Old, but similar: [Moving to Taiwan with PRC spouse
You might need health insurance for a while: [NHI for Foreign Spouse of Foreigner
Thanks, Hexuan - very helpful. There’s nothing wrong with the search function, but finding the precise information via digging through threads which may or may not provide the precise answer is laborious, and since I work VERY full time and am stuck on a computer all hours after work writing and researching a thesis, I thought I’d take the shortcut and just ask. I did search a few threads - but I just value my very small amount of free time too much to spend it scouring web pages.
But I promise I won’t make it a habit.
Also, avoid the Hong Kong visa office. It is run by a syphilitic cripple with no penis who takes out his frustrations on everybody who wants to come to Taiwan by refusing them a visa. Avoid at all costs.
Whoa! I’ll keep that in mind. You know having a p*nis isn’t everything…
Actually in a late development it looks like I have been given a “feeler” from the Tamkang University campus in lan. They want someone to teach in an area where I have some expertise - just a one semester thing at present. But it’s all dependent on my getting my PhD all tidied up before the next semester. So, anybody know anything about the new campus? From the Tamkang web site, it looks like it is still being built. Very little info. I was at Tamkang main campus in November for a conference, and gave a short paper. It’s obviously one of the more financial institutions in TW. The money they were throwing around (or appeared to be) was considerable! As for my wife, she seems to think six months apart wouldn’t be the end of the world if there was a benefit to my career.
Hexuan has a PRC wife, and I have helped him with “coordinating” her visa problems before.
This is the name and contact information for the Legislator we worked through – Daniel Hwang ly.gov.tw/ly/01_introduce/01 … 64&stage=6
I have had coffee with him several times, and he speaks pretty good English. However, his staff members really don’t speak English …
Perhaps you can draft him a nice letter and FAX it to him for advice and assistance. Be sure to be very exact about your personal details, what you want to do, and what problems/questions you would like him to assist with …
Not offensive but rather lazy is all… The quick answer is no PRC spouse will be given a visa. Even if she acquires Australian citizenship it’s still a nightmare.
Get your spouse Australian citizenship and then you’ll have other options. However there will issues that only you can sort out with the authorities here after arriving.
As you spouse may not get a visa immediatley then I’d suggest you think about wether or not you want to come here or not.
I’ll be BBQing a few yabbies and drinking some VB and waiting for your reply. I have patience.
[quote=“Hartzell”]Hexuan has a PRC wife, and I have helped him with “coordinating” her visa problems before.
This is the name and contact information for the Legislator we worked through – Daniel Hwang ly.gov.tw/ly/01_introduce/01 … 64&stage=6
I have had coffee with him several times, and he speaks pretty good English. However, his staff members really don’t speak English …
Perhaps you can draft him a nice letter and FAX it to him for advice and assistance. Be sure to be very exact about your personal details, what you want to do, and what problems/questions you would like him to assist with …[/quote]
Hartzell knows an awful lot about this and it is all bound up in government policy, politics, and multiple government departments that are allergic to one another. I never got to speak to the legislator Huang Yijiao (pinyin, don’t know the way he spells it) but his staff sorted my problem out. He is a very high-level sort of a chap and I was amazed that he would go to the trouble of helping a foreigner and his mainland wife (neither of us could ever vote for him!). Good on him.
Oh, and I found his staff very helpful (I did not speak to them in English though). They even rang me back to see if everything worked out.