Did you find anything out by talking to your TECO? Incidentally, I’m in a situation 99% similar to yours—born overseas to a Taiwanese mother, grandparents deceased, mother has given up her passport, no current household registration—, and I’d love to hear what the TECO said about applying for a TARC. My local TECO has been unhelpful on that matter, unfortunately.
One thing I already did though that you haven’t is getting a Taiwanese passport. As such I can already tell you that it is possible to at least get the NWOHR passport, despite your mother not being a citizen anymore. As far as I remember, you only need a proof that your mother was a citizen some time in the past, and in my case my birth certificate already states that. I only had to get it translated into Chinese and let the TECO certify the translation.
I’m now in the process of gathering all information on how to apply for a TARC in a case like ours—that is, no current “household connection” to Taiwan whatsoever. As far as I know, for the TARC application you cannot utilize your mother’s sisters/brothers household at all (and our grandparents are out of question).
Broadly speaking, the process looks something like this:
- Apply for an NWOHR passport.
- Translate and certify your parents’ marriage certificate (if not already needed for the passport)
- Prepare a “household registration proof” (my wording) of one of your parents (mother’s in our case).
- Prepare the TARC application form.
The next items should be done within 6 months:
- Apply for an entry permit.
- Get your country of residence’s criminal record, translated and certified.
- Enter Taiwan with your NWOHR passport, but bring your other passport as well.
- Get your health check done in Taiwan.
- Take photos.
- Submit application with all of the documents above.
For me, it’s task #3 that is giving me a headache. On the TARC application form, you need to specify a reason under which you apply for a TARC. Most applicants can use this one: (1) 有直系血親、配偶、兄弟姊妹或配偶 之父母 現在在 臺灣 地區設 有 戶籍。
However, our mother doesn’t have a current household registration anymore. The other option is: (3) 居住臺灣地區設有戶籍國民在國外出 生之子 女,年 齡在 二十歲 以 上。
And the back of the application states that for (3), you need to bring your mother’s 身分証 or a “戶口名簿”. Most people interpret that this household registration must be an active one (which I find curious because then you could use option (1) to apply). To make matters worse, my mother doubts that I can use her 30 years-old 戶籍謄本 (even though it’s an original and not a copy).
Unfortunately, the information about what document suffices is ambigious even among Forumosa topics. For instance, in this topic: Reasons for NWOHR getting TARC the OP was able to get the TARC even though her mother already passed away (although the OP didn’t clarify if she didn’t use option (1) after all through her other direct relatives).
In this thread: Can't get dual citizenship because mom died? the OP could get citizenship directly because she was under 20 years old, but again, her mother has already passed away.
In other topics, e.g. when I tried to clarify the requirements in the past: Difficulties when applying for a TARC as NWOHR all answers state that you need an active household registration.
Please let me know if you find anything useful about applying for a TARC. With our situations so similar to each other, it could be very helpful if we can work together during this process!