The Employment Gold Card Super-Thread

Is the recently monthly paycheck of 160000TWD or above criteria really a reflection on someones skill level?

Working in a town in Ireland as a Software Engineer, low cost of living you might struggle to make that. But if you take up a job for 1 month in Dublin where the cost of living is higher, with the same skills + coming out with the same savings, you would make the cut for the gold card due to the most recently monthly pay check.

Sure if your on a average salary working in Geneva where the cost of living is very high, your well over the mark coming out with around 209000TWD a month. Even starting out in your career in high living cost areas you could make the cut being below the average salary mark.

I feel it leaves the gold card opened up a bit. Usually a salary is dertimined in 2 ways:

  1. your knowledge /skills
  2. location - low/high cost of living area

I think when Taiwan added this criteria they expect the higher someones pay, the more valuable they are.

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Yes , because very few people get paid more than 160k here, it really is a high salary and thus it is not really creating competitive pressure for locals. Also somebody on 160k is contributing more tax revenue than average. There are not hordes of high earners wanting to move to Taiwan.

You have to earn that salary in Taiwan currently to apply I assume. If itā€™s not earned in Taiwan itā€™s a bit of a loophole I guess.

It is also generally true that the more you get paid the more valuable or skilled or qualified you are. Its not a bad criteria to apply although on its own it could easily be gamed.

A) The applicant has held, or currently holds, a position with a most recent
monthly salary of over NTD 160,000 in Taiwan or another country.

Itā€™s also a criteria on its own.

Will be good to hear experiences of people applying based on the other categories and what kind of documents were requested.

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i like your analisys. that made me think, they are ruling out many people from poor countries( indirectly).

congrats, which document did you show them?

The card is ā€œValid for one to three years and renewable upon expir.ā€

If they cannot keep the salary level, they cannot renew the card?

Tax benefits kick in only if you make an annual salary of 3 million NT or above.

And you only get deducted , the tax that are generated over those 3 millions, the deduction is not overall your taxes.

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Are you sure about that? Iā€™m not doubting you, just wondering how you know this info.

So a person already with an ARC (yes, such a person can apply for the Gold Card) would have to really be making big bucks before he or she considers applying for this. There would be no other reason why such a person would want the card other than tax benefits from what I see.

I submitted my tax return and pay-stubs. I did not have to submit any documentation attesting to my role as a technology professional (i.e it was not necessary to submit my diploma or the offer letter with my position as a software developer).

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Does anyone know if the 160k salary requirement refers to ā€œbase salaryā€ only, or does it include guaranteed bonuses?

You could call and find out.

National Immigration Agency
Address: No. 15, Guangzhou Street, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, 100
Hours: Closes 5PM
Phone: 02 2388 9393

NTD $160,000 is only USD $5500/month or $66,000/year. A lot of people make that in the states. Does this mean most American tech workers or other high earners are now qualified to up and move to Taiwan with a 5 year open work permit? Thatā€™s a big change if soā€¦

Moreover, if they move to Taiwan and take a job at less than $160k/month, do they lose the gold card?

It seams that way that people are entitled to the gold card based only on providing their salary document.

When the figure $160000TWD was decided, I donā€™t think it was taken into consideration that depending what country/location you work in, the salary for doing the same job can vary.

Like I said before, starting out a career in the likes of Geneva (Switzerland), you could make the mark. Where if you go to the opposite extreme, if your working in New Delhi (India) with years of experience and skills, you would likely struggle to make the mark for this category.

As for taking a job in Taiwan for less than $160000TWD, I donā€™t see any rule that they would loose it.

I think the work permit is not for 5 years, but 1ā€“3 years, and if they donā€™t meet the criteria, they cannot renew the card.

Article 8 of Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals says,

ā€œAn Employment Gold Card as referred to in the preceding paragraph shall be valid for a duration of one to three years. Before its expiration, a holder who meets specified conditions may apply for its renewal.ā€

Oh I think it was definitely taken into consideration, they knew exactly what kind of system they were setting up. With the $160k requirement, it will mostly be well-off people with good jobs in rich countries who are eligible for this. We are talking mostly white people of course. The $160k rule quite easily cuts out any high-skilled brown people from say, India or the Philippines, because of course even a high-skilled software engineer in India will not come anywhere near $160k/month.

So really that rule is an effective way to filter out for national origin and race, without explicitly making it about those things and therefore not opening themselves up to accusations of discriminatory immigration policy.

Compare to countries like NZ which simply have a ā€œskills listā€. If you have a skill on the list, you can fast track to residency. Of course this means they have tons of Indian immigrants in NZ. I think thatā€™s great, and itā€™s a fair system. Taiwan doesnā€™t want a fair immigration system and never has, from what I can see.

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An excellent programmer in New Delhi (India) could come on the ordinary ARC, then switch to the gold card. On the other hand, an ordinary programmer from Geneva might be able to get the gold card, but would lose it after its expiration.

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Iā€™m sure there are many Indians overseas who could qualify to move to Taiwan from this as well though, if they so wanted.

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In principle, the answer should be that guaranteed bonuses are also salary, because thatā€™s (basically) how it is in Taiwan, and other countries tend to follow the same principle to deter tax evasion.

Yes butā€¦ those Indians already got out of India. And if theyā€™re making NT$160k/month then that means they got to the US/Europe/ANZ. Why would they want to move to Taiwan from those placesā€¦? They are already living the dream.