So the current situation is that I’m going to try to head over to the Straits Exchange Foundation office today or Monday (no e-mail address I could find on their website, of course) to ask about getting the certificate and patent verified.
Well…this has turned into a major ****ing hassle. I’ve just finished 45 min at the Straits Exchange Foundation office trying to clarify the situation.
The several staff members who assisted me were helpful and understanding, but apparently they can’t do anything with the documents I brought/uploaded (the postdoctoral certificate and a Chinese patent).
For the certificate, I apparently need to get the original notarized in Nanjing first (the original is currently at my dad’s house in the UK, although I guess I could get it sent over). Which seems to mean flying over to China with the original - something I’m obviously not keen to do right now for the sake of a sheet of paper - not to mention the fact that the university is closed at the moment and my former supervisor is stuck in another province for the foreseeable future. After that, and the mandatory 14 days somewhere outside of China before I’d be allowed back into Taiwan, the SEF might be able to help me more once I have the notarized certificate.
As for the patent (which is publicly available online, like most of these things nowadays), the SEF wasn’t quite sure. It may be that I need to first try to get a copy of the original patent certificate, presumably from the closed university, and then do something similar. I’m not sure whether that would also involve a trip to Beijing.
Honestly, this seems close to impossible at the moment. I’m definitely not going to be flying to China to verify a sheet of paper, at least for the next several months. I’m also not sure what other documentation I’ll be able to obtain to confirm what the MOL is asking for. I’m very tempted at the moment to just give up on this and let the application cancel itself in 6 months or whatever. 