Yes that process is right. For step 1 you need a single status document from your home country to prove you aren’t already married, and this needs to be authenticated by TECO in your country. This also needs to be translated.
Getting married was quite easy once we had all the documents. We spent about 2 hours at the HHR and it was all done.
However your partner needs to have a minimum of 6 months left on her ARC for you to be able to do step 2 and 3.
Interesting. We are both foreigners, so BOCA told us my husband needs to apply for this resident visa
https://www.boca.gov.tw/cp-166-281-b948e-2.html
But it seems if your spouse is a Taiwanese citizen then you do need a police check to get the resident visa
https://www.boca.gov.tw/cp-166-280-9f808-2.html
Hi guys!
So I’ve hit another hurdle. To recap quickly, my husband and I are both Australian citizens. We got married in Taiwan at the HHR earlier this year.
My husband is going to leave Taiwan to apply for a resident visa and then return. He was planning on going to Denmark to do this as he has family there. Australia is not a good option for him to travel to given the recent restrictions placed on the number of incoming travellers.
However TECO in Denmark is telling us that they checked with BOCA and have been told that they can’t accept our Taiwanese marriage certificate and we need what they call an “Australian marriage document” that has been authenticated by TECO in Australia. This was news to us.
We asked TECO in Sydney and they told us that our Taiwanese marriage certificate is fine and does not need to be authenticated by them as it was issued by the HHR here.
After looking into it, our marriage is recognised by the Australian government but they do not register foreign marriages, so I’m stumped as to what document I should provide to TECO in Denmark that will show we are considered married in Australia.
Has anyone encountered this kind of issue before? It’s confusing that the 2 TECO’s are providing conflicting information. BOCA are not being helpful, the counter person we spoke to said that each TECO may have different requirements for the visa. This seems odd given the requirements are listed on BOCA’s website here https://www.boca.gov.tw/cp-166-281-b948e-2.html
I’d assume all TECO’s just follow this list of requirements.
people use affidavit normalized by their countries embassy in that case, I think.
That is good to hear! I had thought of that, but wasn’t sure it would be accepted. I will investigate further with BOCA and TECO. Thanks!
So I spoke to BOCA this morning and they insisted we need a government issued document showing our names, details and martial status.
This is turning into a nightmare!
Has anyone heard of how Australians who have married in Taiwan have dealt with this issue in the past? We were married in Taiwan in March, and haven’t returned to Australia since, so we don’t yet have anything from Medicare or the tax office that show our martial status.
If you want to apply at TECO which is not in your country, they may request more documents?
Did you ask to TECO in HK, if they accept an affidavit authenticated by Australian embassy along with Taiwanese marriage certificate? They must handle many westerners who try to get visa without going back to their home country.
That’s what we asked BOCA today, they said a government document showing marital status from our home country is a requirement of the joining family resident visa so any TECO will require it. We pointed out that affidavits are accepted for Americans in lieu of single status certificates, but she said that’s for HHR marriages, not for resident visa applications.
I’ll ask HK TECO anyway and see what they say, at this point he’ll go anywhere that will give him the visa!
Running into the same problem with LA TECO. Maybe we need to get married in the US, too
This might help somehow?
Thanks @tando. I saw that but we are in the US now. We could modify so it doesn’t say AIT, but I don’t know what office here could sign it.
I checked the requirements for the joining family resident visa on the TECO website of my country, and sure enough they seem to require both certificates: the one from Taiwan and the one from your home country, which has also to be authenticated by the Taipei Representative Office in your country.
I will e-mail them again, because last time I asked they didn’t mention the marriage certificate from the home country; I got married with a Taiwanese in Taiwan and I submitted the Taiwanese marriage certificate to my “consulate” in Taipei which sent it to the Marriage Registry back home. Have you tried asking the Australian “consulate” in Taipei if they can register your marriage in Australia? Once registered you can let an agency or a relative in Australia collect your certificate, and have it authenticated from TECO in Australia. After, they can send it to you in Taiwan: I did the same with my criminal record certificate, takes time but it’s doable. DHL Europe to Taiwan takes only three days, so from Australia would take the same time or less. TECO took around 7/8 days after submission.
Is he allowed to go to HK to apply for a Taiwan visa? If you are not a citizen/resident I’m afraid all the countries around here won’t let you in. I would also gladly go to any country closer to Taiwan instead of flying 12000 km back home just to apply for a visa; flights got very expensive, and I’ll have to do 14+14 days quarantine too, let alone find a COVID test in English three days before flying back in a country where nobody speaks English… I read in the news Australians are to pay for their compulsory quarantine even if they go back to their home country (?), so I guess for you, paying for the quarantine in HK or in Australia would be more or less the same, or maybe even cheaper.
Unfortunately Australia recognises but does not register foreign marriages, so we can’t get our representative office here to register it for us. We asked the department that issues marriage certificates in Australia what document they could give us and they said “you got married in Taiwan, that has nothing to do with us”. 
So we are still trying to find out what government document we can get to show our marriage is recognised in Australia. Speaking to a lawyer in Australia on monday to see what they can offer in terms of documents.
Hong Kong will allow entry to travellers from Taiwan as far as I know. https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_HK/covid-19/hong-kong-travel-restrictions.html
South Korea was allowing travellers to enter, not sure if this is still the case.
Australia is the most expensive option sadly, you are right that the government charges a huge amount of money for quarantine hotels now. Even worse, a recent cap on the number of international passengers allowed in to the country has created a market where business class passengers are prioritised and economy tickets are frequently cancelled by the airline. Not going home for a long time 
Hong Kong will allow entry to travellers from Taiwan as far as I know.
Thanks for that, I wasn’t sure because in many places it wasn’t clear if it was: coming from Taiwan and being resident in HK. I found this on the web site of the Consulate General Hong Kong & Macau in the US:
https://hk.usconsulate.gov/covid-19-information/
Entry and Exit Requirements
Hong Kong
The Hong Kong government is enforcing the following inbound travel restrictions:
So it should apply also to foreigners non resident in Taiwan but coming from Taiwan 
Just one of the first link I came up with, but the 14 day quarantine in HK would be still cheaper than a one way flight back home for me:
The problem might be that, as far as I know, in the remote case that one catches the virus, there are no insurance companies covering COVID, are there?
notary public?
Thanks. I think that should work but need to know what document needs to be notarized.
@TroubleWithTribbles Did the US public notarized document work based on the AIT form? I’m in a similar situation and dealing with a TECO in the US. Thanks!
@Marceline, hi, did you end up getting a satisfactory document from Australia that TECO accepted to grant your partner a Resident Visa to enter Taiwan with? Could I ask if it was the Denmark TECO or the HK TECO that ended up granting him the Resident Visa? Or did he opt instead for the Visiting Family Visitor Visa? Any details you’re willing to share would be helpful because I might have to pursue the HK TECO route if the US TECO doesn’t work out. Thank you!
@cheerim I honestly have no idea at this point.
But here is the current status to my understanding: We sent in our daughter’s birth certificate and our passports to TECO to authenticate for daughter’s visa, after first bringing them in person so they could stamp copies of them. I also brought our marriage certificate (from Taiwan) to show them. No notary involved, just showed them the marriage certificate. TECO says it will take 6 weeks to authenticate the documents for our daughter’s visa, and then we can apply for their visas. They did not mention proving we were married at that time, just that we would need the original marriage certificate when we apply for wife’s ARC in Taipei. So I am thinking they will go ahead and issue wife’s special entry permit without verifying current marriage status.
Don’t quote me on any of that. My Chinese is not good, so I could be misunderstanding certain aspects. The delay has been so long that we have given up on getting to Taiwan this year, which means really at least till next summer, so there’s is less urgency for us now.
Good luck!
Ok good, so it sounds like TECO accepted your Taiwan-issued marriage certificate without complaining that you don’t have to submit a US-issued document like you initially thought that recognizes your Taiwan marriage, right? And you didn’t have to get married a second time in the US and you didn’t have to change the AIT document and get a US public notary to notarize, then. I’m crossing my fingers that we get lucky on this! Thanks for sharing and good luck.