We got this email from the old country. A woman married a Taiwanese guy like 20 years ago. In the old country. He left her and the country, no divorce, no calls, nothing. She tried looking for the guy to at least get the marriage dissolved. No luck. She recently heard a rumor he passed away.
How can she get a death certificate to continue with her life? She has not been able to get married again because in legal records she appears as married. Marriage seems registered only in the old country, where there are no ROC representatives of any kind.
She has never been to Taiwan, has no money or intentions to come to Taiwan but really needs to get some confirmation the guy has died. Where and how can we fellow women in Taiwan can help her?
This probably isn’t going to help, but it’s the best I could do.
I’ve Googled around today, and I still don’t have a clear idea of what to do, but I think I found out a few things.
I think that when somebody dies in the hospital here, the hospital issues the death certificate (死亡證明書).
I think that if somebody dies at home (and something that I read indicated that dying at home is traditionally preferred), I read that there are now people who specialize in doing death certificates at the home of the deceased, or something like that.
I read that the death certificate and other documents are taken to the household registration office, and presented there so that the deceased person’s name is removed from the household registration. But I wasn’t clear on whether there was some sort of record of the death in the household registration.
At least one source mentioned registering the death at the local police station, but I’m not sure if that information is up-to-date:
From what I read, there’s supposed to be a national database or registry for death certificates, but I couldn’t find out exactly where it is, and how to get access to it.
I think one possibility–just a possibility–would be to contact the Department of Household Registration of the Ministry of the Interior, here: https://www.ris.gov.tw/. There also seems to be a list of individual household registration offices here: https://www.ris.gov.tw/zh_TW/20.
Did she report the disappearance of her husband to police?
Does she have any contact of his relatives in Taiwan?
To get any document on the husband by herself, she needs to get her marriage certificate authenticated by TECO covering her country. If she can ask it to his relatives, that must be much easier.
A colleague once married an American who up and disappeared one day. She spent years trying to track him down and get a divorce–and this was with his parents helping her! She ended up getting help from state politicians, who passed a law especially to deal with her case. But Taiwan should be easier, as long as she knows his Chinese-character name.
Nope. Police there are no help. He just left her, so probably they would come against her as he got his passport through her and then left.
Nope. As said, there are language issues. She was 16 at the time, barely legal there, let alone that savvy. And I do not think relatives may help at all, as a matter of fact they may feel threatened if there is anything to inherit. So the least they know, the better.
I wonder if any of us can be appointed her legal representative and as such apply. I think a wife would have that right, but this being Taiwan, I do not take it for granted.
I thought the record of her report to police could be one of proves that her husband had been missing.
Can she request something like his entry/exit record of her country?
A wife may have the right, but their marriage is not reported to taiwan yet. Even if she has the right to apply, she must have a proof of his disappearance such as a report to police. If she report it to taiwanese police, they may contact to his relatives.
If she can tell to his relatives that what she wants is just a divorce or death certificate and she gives up the right to inherit if any, they might help her.
We are calling it disappearance, when it was just a hit and run, got married, got ID, puff. Do not think relatives want anything to do with it and she never had contact.
I will tell her to see if she can register the marriage now, but I think that only an ROC citizen can do it.
In the old country, the marriage records are open, so you can with the ID number know if the jerk you are dating is married. Here, I wonder how even a private investigator could get such data. People change their names to evade debt.
Can’t she sue him for a marriage fraud and get a court order that the marriage is invalid? His address is required for that or the statute of limitations already run out?
I think there are not much things she or her representative can do in Taiwan, unless his death was recorded in taiwanese household registration system.
I guess they can trace that kind of things by household registration.
jo’s United Daily News blog post also seems to mention household registration.
Even though the death certificate and other documents are taken to the household registration office for the purpose of removing the deceased person’s name from the household registration, I can’t help but think that the household registration should nonetheless contain information (hopefully of an official character) identifying the deceased by name and serving as proof of his or her death.
According to the regulation linked below, she or her representative has the right to get his Household Certificate Transcript or review his Household Registration Record as the interested party.
If she knows his taiwanese ID number or the info of his household registration such as Chinese name, address, birth date, etc., that is what she can do. If there is recorded his death, she can get the death certificate from Taiwan.
申請戶籍謄本及閱覽戶籍登記資料處理原則
“The Processing Principles for the Application of Household Certificate Transcript and Reviewing of Household Registration Record”
When you say he got his passport/ID through her, do you mean he acquired citizenship of the other country? In theory the representative office that has jurisdiction (even if it belongs to another country) can inquire about one of its own citizens.
In general a relative can be appointed as a representative for court purposes if it comes to that, if she has a known relative in Taiwan. Otherwise, she may need a lawyer.
They don’t even have an agreement with a friendly third country? For example, Canadians in countries with no Canadian embassy are allowed to use the Australian embassy in most cases (British in one case, and Swedish in North Korea iirc).