"Employment gold card" for some foreigners

#263

Congrats on your Gold Card & Welcome to Taiwan!

I am in my final step now. I got an email yesterday that my card is ready and I can go pick it up. I will probably retrieve it today or on Monday.

My situation is kind of similar to yours but I took the opposite route. Although I could probably qualify as a specialist in my field but having dealt with Taiwanese bureaucracy in the past I just wanted to take the easiest possible route so I took the salary one. Another reason I wanted to get the gold card quickly is because I just quit my job 2 days ago and this card secures my stay in Taiwan.

Either way, looking at the time they took to process yours vs mine it’s clear those applying purely on salary basis can expect much quicker results.

The only thing I am unsure of (but I will probably find out soon) is whether the gold card specifies anywhere on it how one got it (i.e based on which criteria). Because if it doesn’t (and while Gold Card is still a new thing) it should be easy enough for anyone with a Gold Card to pass themselves off as “special foreign talents”. I know it will definitely look good on the CV and I do plan to add it to mine.

#264

I also applied using the salary requirement.

The card does say it is an “Employment Gold Card”. On the card they wrote “ç‰čćźšć°ˆæ„­äșș才” as the purpose of residence, and “科技” as the professional field; obviously that may differ depending on what you put as your field in your application. So it seems like it doesn’t differentiate between people who got obtained it via salary requirement or other means.

#265

One thing I am interested in is how this Gold Card will relate to Taiwan’s Dual-Citizenship act. They did say they will allow people to retain their original citizenship if they were “special talents”. The categories and criteria look quite similar too.

I assume anyone who has a Gold Card might be considered a “foreign talent”, so they should probably qualify for “Dual-Citizenship” then ?

It would be a contradiction if Taiwan denies Gold Card holders as not meeting their criteria for “high-level professionals”.

I will find out next year when I apply. I will try this route.

#266

they don’t have salary based option for the naturalization. Other than that, quite similar.

#267

I asked the NIA manager responsible for the gold card about this. Basically, since it’s handled by a different agency (Department of Household Registration, Ministry of Interior), questions should be referred there (welcome to the cycle!). The NIA contact went a bit further when pushed and said there’s basically no correlation and that the naturalisation requirements were definitely a higher bar.

Not the news we wanted, but I don’t think it hurts :slight_smile: Also would love someone else to get a second opinion.

#268

Salary levels are not enough and there is no criteria for salary for naturalisation . There are a lot of different committees that oversee the naturalisation route. There are academic routes but there are also technical and commercial and artistic routes I believe .

#269

I have a few questions for anyone who has received the gold card based on salary of 160k a month. I qualify and also work in the IT field. I have 2 issues
 I can provide a copy of my 2555 and 2555ez form filed with the us irs however since all my work is in China and I have been working overseas all year I don’t have a W2 or any form from my Chinese company like a W2. The other problem is I receive my monthly salary by WeChat and I could show that on my phone but I don’t have a pay stub. I could ask my company for a pay stub but they might be paranoid or think weird thoughts. So would copies of my 2555 form of my tax filing salary and picture of past months salary received on WeChat be enough to make the cut? I know I do qualify. Any help is greatly appreciated.

#270

My impression from speaking to others who applied is that the authorities are quite willing to ask for followup documents if they need them. This can delay the application (resets the 30 day timer if they ask), but likely doesn’t negatively impact the application’s chances. One approach could be to send in an application with what you have, and then let the authorities explicitly request further documents should they need them.

#271

hey, may I ask whether your average salary meets the criteria of above 160K / month or only your last salary?

#272

My salary is above 160k for the year every month. Although the Taiwan site says last month salary should be above 160k, I’m guessing they can get your average by your yearly tax return figures. I’m going to jump into the process soon enough so I’ll figure it out as I go I suppose.

#273

Well, this is disappointing. I don’t seem able to apply online because all the options for “Date last visa issued” and “Date of employment” are cut off at 2008 and later, and they are required fields.

Also, they’re asking basically for a job/company in Taiwan. Do you need one, even if you’re applying from abroad? If the gold card eliminates all requirements for the hiring company, could it be anyone, essentially? Or no one/no company?

#274

Great info on this thread
thanks!

Question: Does your employer have to specifically participate in one of the few industries listed for me as an employee to utilize this? For instance, I work in what I consider the sports industry
but the HR department of my employer is saying we don’t “fit” into that category
and therefore they are saying I cannot utilize this card or tax savings


Can an applicant just apply based on salary alone and not necessarily fall into a specific industry?

Thanks

#275

Practically, not possible as you are required to select which authority will vet your skills during the application process. Additionally, the act is reasonably explicit in that foreign special professionals are needed by the state in specific fields.

#276

Are you referring to the mandatory “contact in Taiwan” fields? I think @irish91 had some discussion with the NIA about those


#277

I finally got my gold card last Friday. Starting from the date of application, overall it took just 5 working days in my case.

Unsurprisingly the card wasn’t ‘gold’ (that would’ve been awesome). In fact the NIA office in Tainan didn’t even know what was a gold card. They thought it was a regular ARC and were asking me why I was changing my ARC when the other was wasn’t expired. I had to point out the differences to them. Thought I’d share it here too :

Normal ARC Front :

ARC%20front
ARC front.jpg1249×778 462 KB

Gold Card Front :
Gold%20Card%20Front
Gold Card Front.jpg1173×736 679 KB

Key Differences :

  • Title is different. Normal ARC is called “ROC Resident Certificate”. This one is called “Employment Gold Card”
  • There is a little “Golden Globe” in the background on the Gold Card.
  • Purpose of residence is changed from “Employer’s name” to “Foreign Professional” and they add a new field called “Professional Field”.
  • My ARC was going to expire along with my passport on Sep, 2019. This was going to be a pain for me because I finish 5 years in Taiwan in Nov, 2019 (just two months after ARC expiry). The gold card goes beyond my passport expiry date. I think I’ll just have to apply for modification of Gold Card once I renew my passport next year.

Normal ARC Back :

ARC%20Back
ARC Back.png1203×766 1.38 MB

Gold Card Back :
Gold%20Card%20Back
Gold Card Back.jpg1183×754 787 KB

  • No sure why but the Gold card writes NIA and MOI in English explicitly.
  • The statement on the back of the card is different for Gold Card.
#278

Yes that was inconvenient. I had to scan my documents then find an online tool to resize and compress them. I think each file has to be under 500 kb. You can do that with JPEG compression + resizing each side to be under 2000 pixels (depends on DPI and colors etc
 as well). Just check each image visually to make sure the text is readable after compression.

#279

Officially, what a company does is defined by their “business items” in the company registration. Check https://findbiz.nat.gov.tw/fts/query/QueryBar/queryInit.do?request_locale=en for your company’s entry for the section with a list like

F401010 International Trade
ZZ99999 All business items that are not prohibited or restricted by law, except those that are subject to special approval.


 if you see sport-related items in there, you could present that to your HR.

#280

Actually both.

  1. Until April, 2018 my monthly salary was under 160K but with bonuses (and some consultation work) my annual income was over 1,920,000 TWD meaning my average was still over 160K.

and then,

  1. Last month for first time my basic salary went over 160K so I had only one pay slip as proof.

For my application I provided both a) annual income tax statements for the last two years and b) my last pay slip.

I was quite worried about the last pay slip because I resigned from my company the day after I applied for Gold Card. Luckily that didn’t impact my application.

I wonder if I had only applied using my annual income tax statements (and not included my last pay slip) would they have still given me the gold card ? Because in that case I think anyone who is paying taxes on over 2 million NT$ in earnings would qualify for the gold card.

#281

I provided contact of a local Taiwanese friend.

#282

For me applying overseas, I left employer/work address empty. Also resident address and contact in Taiwan as I didn’t have any so that was also left blank.

I believe the resident address is printed on the card so unsure of the rules if I need to add it when I do get an address.