wish I knew mate…
Oi Oi Oi
Has anyone been successful in claiming the tax reduction offered through the gold card although having started employment in Taiwan before applying and receiving the gold card??
Or
has this helped?
Hey y’all
After a hiatus for close to a year, I’m back!!
I’m going to apply for the gold card again.
I’m still in the same industry.
Any tips and pointers I can use this time round to get the card?
What has changed in your situation over the past year to improve your chances?
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I have a question about applying based on salary.
I applied as a technology and science professional based on the criteria of having made a salary greater than 160k. But, today I was asked to provide the following:
Documents verifying salary or income tax payment relating to employment at a technology company (if the company’s manufacturing or R&D achievements, and the individual’s contributions as a participant, are consistent with the fields listed in article 2 or 3 of the eligibility/prerequisites column), such as academic research, domestic or foreign patent certificate, technology licensing contract, etc
I called and they told me that applying for the gold card based on salary is not enough, thus, I needed to prove that I have outstanding expertise in technology. I really got confused because according to this page meeting one of the requirements was enough.
How did other software engineers here on Forumosa meet that criteria?
I ran into this exact same scenario (also applying with a software engineer background). In my case, I submitted a document explaining my experience along with a link to a technical blog post I wrote on my former employers engineering blog and a link to a video of a talk I gave at a meetup on behalf of my former employer. Once I submitted this, after another round of review my card was approved.
(On a side note - this is really frustrating. All of the documentation around the Gold Card implies that meeting one of the requirements is enough. They really need to update the requirements to match the actual process otherwise they are wasting everyone’s time and money.)
Yup, sadly this is normal. Privately, the NIA says that MOST is bending the rules.
The route of least resistance is to follow the request. The process is document-driven, so think about any document you can that proves you’re a decent engineer. Believe in yourself.
As @autorelease notes, an explanation of experience and a technical blog post is a great starting point. (Personally, I recommend a screen-cap/print to PDF rather than a link). Think also to people of status who can write you a quick letter to support your application - your colleague, your boss, a professor. If you have a work product you’re particularly proud of, especially if it has an understandable report, try attaching that.
Side note - it also doesn’t hurt to throw them additional documents about your salary status. For example, if you only provided a pay slip, perhaps also send tax returns, withholding statements, job contracts. Of course, this also depends on your invasion-of-privacy threshold.
Most of all, don’t let the document-driven system get you down. You’re something of a pioneer - in the first few hundred people ever to apply for something 
Every application we put in makes it easier for those that come after.
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I applied for the naturalization path for foreign professional and was denied.(not the same I know) Essentially they don’t care about your work or educational background if you are a relatively low level professional. They made it clear they were looking for senior level professionals that have awards or something they can brag about and showcase to the public. I appealed to the EY and received a reply that my appeal was rejected as essentially foreigners cannot appeal a decision for which they have no right to appeal. In other words it is at the complete discretion of the government department that you apply to if they accept your qualifications. If not you have no rights of appeal.
I am not surprised that they are tightening down on this gold card since they don’t want what they consider average Joes applying. It’s a way the government can pretend to be opening up while at the same time doing the opposite.
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I’m sorry you ran into this trouble. The result must be pretty disappointing.
With the Gold Card scheme, though, it’s not a question of gaining a path to naturalization (as I know you know!). What it’s doing—as I see it—is offering a path to residency for certain skilled individuals to work and do their thing WITHOUT having to a) put in five years of grunt work at a bushiban or the like—come on, Taiwan needs a boost NOW and many if not all professionals will not play this game; or b) marrying an ROC national.
There are obvious bumps and problems in all these developments in Taiwan. But at least things are changing—in my view, unambiguously for the better, despite all the challenges facing us as we navigate the new rules.
Guy
I guess I’m not so supportive of the changes. Taiwan needs a boost now but the industry as a whole has made it clear they don’t want foreigners here. As seen by how many professionals work here instead of HK or Singapore, not so many
IMO foreign professionals won’t play the game at all. Why would a professional that makes a lot of money in the West want to come here unless they were offering an insane salary which Taiwanese companies generally won’t play. Unless they are mostly targetting lower paid countries engineers and the like.
The new rules are designed to be ambiguous and allow the various government departments to make their own decisions with no oversight. A Half assed job to make the world think they are all open and inclusive.
After dealing with the insane bureaucracy it was very discouraging
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@anyway any further developments in your rejection?
I fear I would have the same problem. In 2018 I was self-employed and would qualify. For 2019, I incorporated (flow-through US entity)to save myself some taxes. The problem is that my “salary” is only a fraction of the biz income even though it is 100% reported on my personal tax return. If they ignore half of my income, then I’m screwed. Would a tw 會計師 be able to certify my income?
I can’t believe I just read that whole thread. I earned myself a beer. (Except the part w Endy. That crap was tedious)
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Yeah totally agree with that, other expat hot spots are definitely more enticing and having Taiwan on your CV in some industries is probably enough of a detractor.
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Yesterday I received an email asking to submit my passport to the nearest diplomatic office. My online application status changed to “Passport Submission by Bureau of Consular Affairs or Overseas Missions of R.O.C. (Taiwan)”.
Today I called the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Auckland, but this was the first time they heard of the Gold Card. They had no clue. They told me to ask NIA in Taiwan to contact them directly.
Who can I contact in NIA for this?
Contact the people mentioned here:
https://foreigntalentact.ndc.gov.tw/en/cp.aspx?n=D927ED39BDAE7478&s=DA2F7BC919B77E24
In my case, Dec 2018, Martin Yang was very responsive. martin11940@immigration.gov.tw
Good luck
Mike
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Got so much information from this thread when researching the gold card so thought I would share my application experience in case it helps others.
I applied under the Economy requirement as “Those who have held positions as an operations, technical, or marketing executive of an R&D center, operations headquarter, or transnational corporation established in Taiwan.”.
In my case I am a marketing manager at a large Taiwan-headquartered company in Taipei (not explicitly an executive) and my level in the company is 副理. Note that the English term used is “Executive”, while the Chinese term seems to be 主管 (which is more like “manager”). I did try emailing the contact window at the Ministry of Economic Affairs for clarification, but did not get a response and decided to take my chances anyway.
I already had an ARC from my company, which I have held for almost 3 years. Main reason of switching to the Gold Card was the work permit allowing to change jobs easily and take on additional work.
I submitted my application which consisted of my employment contract and another official form showing that my company’s HQ is registered in Taiwan (company was able to provide this, it seems like some kind of official Government document). There were no further requests for additional documents or information during the review (no salary proof either).
Here’s the timeline of how things played out (format coped from a previous post):
2019/05/26 (Sunday): Application submitted
2019/05/27 (Monday): Payment made. Status “under inspection”.
2019/05/28 (Tuesday): From “Under inspection” to “Professional Review by Workforce Development Agency”.
2019/06/12 (Wednesday): Received email for passport submission.
2019/06/13 (Thursday): Dropped my passport off at BOCA first thing in the morning. Told to come back in 7 days to pick it up. Just a note here, if you are going to the BOCA office in Taipei, the necessary counter is on the third floor. Go the “visa” section - do a U-turn to the right as soon as you come off the escalators and head to the back set of counters. You want the counter/number ticket machine to the left.
2019/06/19: (Wednesday evening): Received email saying that my application had been approved and my card was being produced. This email arrived at around 7:30pm, so not sure if there were people doing approvals that late or it was a delayed message.
2019/06/20: (Thursday morning 11am): Email saying my Gold Card was ready for pick-up. Needed to print out the payment receipt (link in application page) and take it to NIA to pick up.
2019/06/21 (Friday): Went to get my passport from BOCA, didn’t need to wait long as there were not many people there at around 2pm. (you don’t need to take a number if picking up a passport). Then went to NIA to get my Gold Card. Did not need to show my passport but did need to hand over my old ARC. The number on the Gold Card is the same as my previous ARC number, so it was just a direct swap. I asked them if I needed to re-apply for E-Gate, they said no. There seemed to be only a handful of Gold Cards waiting for collection, maybe 4-5.
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Congrats! Thanks for sharing this success story, and providing useful tips along the way.
Guy
I am wondering if anyone has stories to share about applications that don’t fit perfectly into one of the categories, but definitely qualify by salary, etc. ( By “etc” I mean obviously a professional but not really in one of those categories, and had to “cook the books” a bit to make it work. )