To me it looks like they are pulling out some of the gold card specific changes that were proposed in the New Economic Immigration Act and updating the Foreign Talent Act instead. It’s an interesting move, but I think it may result in a higher chance of these benefits coming to Gold Card holders sooner.
That number is not working for me – I get a recorded message saying “The number you are calling is being repaired”. Does anyone know of a more up-to-date number that’s not as serious as calling Mr. Huang?
It seems that every Rep Office is doing the process in its own way. When I contacted Rome TRO, I said that (based on the experiences that I read here from Singapore like @dtan) the process should just be a passport verification, but the officer kept repeating a mysterious “it’s much more than that”, “it will take as long as it takes”, etc. Looking forward to next Monday so I can update you guys as well.
They are using these three terms: “foreign professional” (外國專業人才), “special foreign professional” (外國特定專業人才), “excellent foreign professional” (外國高級專業人才), but I am not clear on the difference. Apparently, only second and third would be eligible for the 3 years instead of 5 and for joining NHI immediately.
Okay, got through! I got transferred a couple of times, so if anyone’s also dealing with this problem, the number to call is +886 2 2388 9393 ext 2361.
jimbob132 was right; they wanted me to document entries into China. I didn’t 100% understand what they were saying, due to lack of fluency, so to be safe I took pictures of every visa page in my passport to show that the trips I mentioned were the only trips I took.
They didn’t tell me to dig up my expired passport to find previous trips; I think it’s because my passport is from 2011 the trips I took were in 2016 and 2018 (i.e., more than 4 years later), but again I can’t be certain.
Sharing my (almost) complete timeline here as a Hong Kong citizen living in the US:
8/18: Applied under Economy, chose SF TECO for pickup.
8/21: Asked to correct Hong Kong/Macau residents confirmation form, fill in optional info in the online form. Submitted them the same day.
8/24: Status changed to “Under Review to Professional Review by Workforce Development Agency”
9/11: Status changed to “Under Inspection”
9/16: Approval email received, status changed to “IC Card in Process”
Hope this helps someone: worried about overstaying my visitor visa while waiting for Gold Card approval, I found out that we can extend a 90-day visitor visa (COVID special entry permit) in person at NIA exactly once (for 90 more days) if we do so 15 days before its expiry.
Just in case anyone else is self-employed/freelancing etc and wondering about health insurance:
I went to the local NHI office here in Tainan
They were extremely helpful, one wonderful lady personally helped me at every counter
I was in an out in about 30 minutes
They did ask if I had been in Taiwan for at least 6 months without leaving and after getting the Gold card
They needed the gold card, passport, photographs (but there was also a booth there to take them), and my rental contract (not needed but it helped me by having it in the end)
The only weird issue I had was actually trying to find the location, outside of Taipei it seems the official site doesn’t list locations (at least when I was searching in English). I had to ask a local friend to point it to me on the map.
Oh, and it’s below $1000 a month (at least for now) and they’ll send a monthly bill in the mail that I can pay at 7/11/Family Mart etc.
Do you know if you will have to retroactively pay a higher rate if your income turns out to be higher? Or does the self-employment income only affect future payments?
I’m really not sure how the payments get adjusted. My guess (emphasis) is it’s possibly related to the tax filing at the end of each year. Perhaps if you are in a higher bracket they adjust your health insurance rates.
Really not sure and would love anyone that knows more about the subject to reply here!
Oh I forgot to mention. This time in Taiwan (I had lived here before, years ago), I didn’t choose a Chinese name. Can’t remember why, maybe just forgot how to type my old complex name.
Anyway, it hasn’t lead me to have any problems with banking, renting an apartment, or getting a mobile phone contract (although each of those had a hell of a lot of troubles believing the ‘gold card’ was real…).
But for this health insurance card, they actually used my old Chinese name from the last time I lived here. I asked how they knew it, they said it was on record from my last one. As for why, they said it needs a Chinese name.
The nice part was they didn’t make me go get a stamp for it (perhaps because it’s not ‘official’ any more?). But they did have me take special care when writing and signing my name (a very important difference, please remember to ask before writing your English name).
Sorry to bother you! @Awvelo May I ask if your spouse dropped off the special entry visa (resident visa?) application in person or by mail? Did it take 5 biz days for TRO London to send your spouse the visa from received date? I dropped mine off and paid express service, just wondering how many days it would take for them to mail me the resident visa. Thanks!
We in fact mailed our application to the TRO in the UK, and we did not request special processing. But, the TRO did deliver as promised on their timing. They in fact beat their timing. Great staff.