I’ve got a few questions regarding the application for residency in Taiwan. We plan to marry outside of Taiwan.
First, I’d like to know if a local (province or state) police record will do or does it have to be a national/country search? And is the record only good for three months?
The second question is when I get the marriage certificate and criminal record certified does it have to be translated into Chinese or will the Enligsh certification version do?
Third, which is the correct application form to download if I (foreign spouse) wish to apply for residency? Or is there no application at all, just the required documents (marriage cert, police record, passport, household registration). I have found the list requirements on the web, but no official application form. Can I just print this out? I will enter Taiwan on a vistor visa first, then switch to the resident visa…but is there an application form for this? I’m asking because in order for me to apply for my police record, I need documents or application forms showing that I am required to have the police check. I’m not sure where to get this document?
Fourth, is it true that since we will not be getting married in Taiwan we will not need a certificate of impediment?
And if anyone has any tips on anything I should think about getting done before I head back to taiwan, please let me know!
[quote]First, I’d like to know if a local (province or state) police record will do or does it have to be a national/country search? And is the record only good for three months?
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I think the local police record will do. Yes, documents like police record or health certificate are only valid for three months. Do not forget you will also need the health certificate.
[quote]The second question is when I get the marriage certificate and criminal record certified does it have to be translated into Chinese or will the Enligsh certification version do?
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The immigration office told me that English version will do as well when I applied for the resident visa.
No need to download the application, get the application form and fill it in when you get to the immigration office.
Two other important things to keep in mind:
All the documents applied from foreign country will need to be inspected by Taiwanese Institute in that country. So it could be your police record or even health certificate. I will suggest you to do the health check in Taiwan, faster and easier.
Your marriage will need be registered both in your country and Taiwan. The marriage certificate alone is not enough. So you should get something like house registeration in your home country with your wife’s info in it.
Do not forget those tiny little detail, it took me and my husband 4 months to get his ARC. He also had to go to HK to extend his visa.
P.S. If you are planning to married outside of Taiwan, be sure what documents your spouse will need to get married such as single status certificate. In addition, you can try to get six month marriage visa only for one entry with your marriage certificate in Taiwanese Institute if you are planning to get married in your home country.
Actually, it’s easier if you are married outside Taiwan. I got married to my ROC wife in Taiwan, and stupid mee believed that a ROC marriage license was good enough proof the the ROC that we were married - that also held my application up a month or so.
If you’ve been in Taiwan for more than 5 years a local CCRD will suffice,if not a home country certificate is required. It must then be certified by the local TECO. I believe that the certified English copy will be good enough. If you are Canadian, your ROC marriage certificate will be good enough, Americans and Brits require an announcement from thier representative offices aknowledging the union. Other nationalities, I’m not sure about. You are better off filling out the form at the office, as whichever form you choose will most likely be the wrong one. Bring everything you could possibly need, old passports etc and photocopies of everything as well, they tend to ask for stuff that wasn’t on the list, or on thier websites.
Here are some of the answers I got when we called Taiwan Immigration. For immigration purposes to apply for an ARC, certified English versions of documents (marriage and criminal record) are fine. For household registration purposes, the documents must be in translated in Chinese and certified by TECO. According to the TECO, to obtain a Chinese translation, a form needs to be filled out (either by downloading it or by obtaining the form in person). This form then acts an the tranlated version and gets certified. Is this information true?
I’m not sure a household registration in my home country would look like. I just know they exist in Taiwan. So a marriage certification is not enough, what other documention is needed? And why did it take four months to get an ARC? We were told it was a quick process.
We were told that a certificate of No Impediment was needed only if we were to get married in Taiwan. If we are planning to marry outside of Taiwan, the single stauts cert was not needed. We were also told to obtain a 2-month visitor visa. I’m not sure if we should be applying for a 6 month visa. Can someone explain the difference?
The more official documentation you can obtain, the better. Maybe you won’t need the certificate of no impediment for marriage registration, maybe you will. Maybe you will need it for something else.
Obviously, get the longest visa you can.
Household Registration is a German concept. The Japanese have it, and the Germans have it, and some other European countries. In North America, it is unknown. In the USA, people don’t even have ID cards . . . . .
Just an update. Our application for my ARC has been very smooth. I’ve been here for 15 days and started the application process the day I stepped off the plane.
The first day, we added my name onto the household registration. Since I’m a not a Taiwanese national, my name doesn’t appear beside my partner’s name, instead my name is listed on the bottom as ‘spouse’. I wonder what difference this makes in legal terms?
Also on the same day, went to Ren Ai Hospital to get a health check. It took a week to get the results, but once we received the results there was no stopping us.
We also paid an extra 1100TWD for a rush resident visa service at the Bureau of Foreign Affairs. So instead of waiting for one week we received the visa in 3 days.
Next off to the police office to apply for an ARC. Finally. Should be receiving an ARC on Thursday.
All I can say is the process for us has been relatively painless. May I add though we did do our homework prior to applying. Thank you all once again for all your help!
[quote=“ccn”] . . . . . . we added my name onto the household registration. Since I’m a not a Taiwanese national, my name doesn’t appear beside my partner’s name, instead my name is listed on the bottom as ‘spouse’. I wonder what difference this makes in legal terms?
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Of course, as a foreigner, you do not have Household Registration. That is a status reserved for locals. (See Household Registration Law, Article 1.) Your name is now actually in the “Remarks” column of the Household Registration document.
Now questions for the future. According to the police department, I need to reside in Taiwan for 5 consecutive years before I can apply for permanent residency. Does being here for over 183 days of the year count as one year? I was on a work sponsored ARC last year and worked from Jan 03-Dec 03, but left Taiwan to return home for 5months. If I had renewed my work visa, last year’s stay would have counted as one year. However, because I left Taiwan for 5 months, they will start counting my time spent in Taiwan this month.
Now here’s my question. If i renew my ARC next May, but leave Taiwan for 5 or 6 months, and come back to Taiwan making sure that I’ve stayed in the country 183 days of the year, would that year be counted as one full year? And the 183 days, it is a fiscal year count (Jan-Dec)?
I also have further questions regarding the naturalization process or becoming a Taiwanese national/citizen? According to the police department, if a foreigner has resided in Taiwan for five years, he/she is eligible to apply for citizenship. Now under rules and regulations I’m supposed to make a declaration giving up my home country’s citizenship in order to become a Taiwan national. However, when we asked the police department, we were told that there were ways around this? What are the ways around it and is this actually true?
Even further down the road, we plan to have children. Of course we plan to have them outside of Taiwan. I believe we asked the immigration department and children born to a taiwanese national may apply for a Taiwan passport. If this is true, then if we have a boy would this mean that he would need to serve the army? What if we only applied residency status for the boy? Would he have rights to study at a public school?
Sorry to be so cynical . . . . . however I have seen these types of questions discussed over and over again on these Forums . . . . . . WHEREBY I am offering the analytical results of what I have learned to date as follows -----
According to the Immigration Law: YES
According to the National Police Administration’s interpretation of the Immigration Law: NO
According to the Immigration Law: YES & YES
According to the National Police Administration’s interpretation of the Immigration Law: NO & MAYBE
Well . . . . in some countries you can renounce your citizenship, and then get it back . . . . . so that is certainly a way around this regulation . . . . . . also, you have not stated your racial ancestry . . . . . obviously in Taiwan there are “different regulations” for those of Chinese ancestry . . . . .
This is indeed a long way down the road . . . . . at the minimum five years, yes?? For your son to be going to kindergarten?? Then add another ten or so years for him to be coming into the sights of the goverment officials who handle military conscription matters . . . . . . and in my humble opinion it is most likely that the Taiwanese conscription laws will be much less onerous at that point.
Of course, any child with an ARC or Household Registration can attend the public schools in Taiwan. As for “overseas Chinese” with no Household Registration, I don’t believe they can . . . . . . since they don’t have residency rights anyway . . . . . . . .