They were closed on Wednesday. I just brought my passport in to get verified yesterday (Thursday).
The best person to call at SF TECO for Gold Card stuff is Angela. Her number is 415-364-5632. If she doesn’t pick up, leave a message and your phone number.
Good luck!
Hi @rottendoubt,
I think in Germany we only have the option to either pick it up in Germany or in Taiwan - I did not see the possibility to get it sent to my home address.
I updated my timeline above to emphasize that my experience reflects the situation in Germany - I’m not sure how it is handled in other countries.
Long story short: I picked up the card in person in Frankfurt, Germany. Took me about 10 minutes. Around 3.5 weeks earlier I had been there before to get my passport verified - again, was a matter of minutes and I immediately got my passport returned (just mentioning this because of the questions above).
Good luck and cheers,
Fabian
Ok that’s helpful. Thanks so much for the quick reply!
@numberonefan I just mailed a notarized copy of my passport and the Passport Submission Notice to the SF TECO without calling them first (since they don’t pick up…), and that worked just fine for me. As @rottendoubt mentioned, Angela is super helpful — you can leave a message with her at (415) 364-5632, and she should call back in a day or two. I wrote a bit about this here, in case it helps 
@rottendoubt FWIW, in San Francisco I just got a call from Angela asking me to schedule an appointment to pick it up. This took 25 days after the passport was approved for me, although I was told it was supposed to take at most 21 days.
Thanks for the info! I’m planning to pick mine up in Taiwan.
SUPER weird, they hadn’t returned my passport, so I called Angela to see what’s up, and she said her director wanted to interview me. Tammy didn’t have to do this so, I’m going to see what’s going on today at 2:30. They said the director will interview me. I asked what the point is as I already have my PDF, they said that after the interview they’ll tell Taiwan that I’m eligible to pick up my gold card? Well, I’ll report back what happens.
I had the same question. Can you use the “Resident Authorization” PDF to apply for a visa for your spouse? Did you ever figure this out?
Thanks!
wow, wtf? I assume you applied under Economy? i have a very similar background to yours and am also applying through the SF TECO, so yes please report back and good luck! =)
I think so. But we gave up because TECO tool so long to verify my passport and dependent documentation.
So I went to the Taiwan Embassy in SF and met up with some lady that Angela referred to as “her director.” I had a brief sort of interview where she asked me if I’d been to Taiwan before, what my employment plans were, etc. Then she said “ok, you’re good, you should expect an entry permit in the email soon.” I showed her my entry permit and asked if that’s what she meant. She was surprised and said “why did you come in for an interview?” I told her because Angela told me to, lol. So now I’m supposed to email my entry permit to Angela for some reason. Whatever, at least I have my passport back now.
Ok thanks for letting me know!
Well - I’ve changed my mind. I revoked my application and reapplied with correct documents. It’s 170€ wasted, but I don’t wanna wait for too long - and hope with the correct documents it goes through easier. Also I will be paying myself >160.000 NTD the next months - just in case they don’t accept my Austrian income statement.
I do wonder what they do about the cyprus ones - which are really not professional looking in my eyes…
Bad luck this time - right through the payment their payment site on https://coa.immigration.gov.tw/ went into maintenance ( 系統維護中). I can see the charge on my credit card as pre-authorised - but they did not register my payment yet… I will try again in a couple of hours to pay. Right now the site again isn’t reachable…
@topofan that website always says that, if you go directly to https://coa.immigration.gov.tw/coa-frontend/four-in-one/entry/golden-card you should be able to log in
I am able to login - but when I click to proceed to payment - it gets stuck (https://coa.immigration.gov.tw/coa-frontend/payment/detail )
I think my act somehow got muddled up - after the first payment went through (according to my credit card - it’s reserved but not booked - and now I can’t proceed. Likely have to wait to Monday for giving them a call. Or start another admission and claim back the not registered payment).
Edit 15.11 - they seem to have fixed it. my payment is now registered - and my application back to under inspection. Do hope it goes through. I will increase my monthly pay to >160.000 NTD however just in case for November and maybe December…
Updating a bit in case someone is about to fly over.
Things at the airport are pretty straight-forward, just a bit of confusion immediately after arrival when everybody stops in the middle of the corridor filling up the online form. There was no queue to purchase SIM cards in my case, but my flight had mostly Taiwanese passengers so maybe that’s the reason. Taxis can bring you anywhere in the island and the further you go the happier the drivers are 
because they can earn more. When I told the uncle that I was sorry to trouble him with such a long distance, he kept thanking me 
The price is subsidised, so you will see and hear the meter running, but what you actually pay at the end of the trip (cash or card) is a fixed rate. In my case for Kaohsiung it was something around 2,700 NTD. The police called me the following morning to check on me and exchange Line. They didn’t mention popping by so I guess I won’t receive my goodie pack I’m staying in my own place BTW. Today I received a Line message from the police asking me how I am doing, the template text message from CDC asking me whether I have any symptoms (1, 2 or 3 kind of reply) and then a lady from CDC also called me just now to ask me more or less the same questions.
My timeline
Oct 14: Applied
Oct 20: Workforce agency review
Nov 10: Passport submission (but the email went to spam so i only found out today)
I am Canadian. Now I guess I have to go to the local TECO to have then check my passport.
The processes seems to have proceeded a lot faster than I had anticipated. Not going to Taiwan for a couple of months.
On the application I had indicated I would pick up the gold card in Taiwan, but I prefer getting it mailed here ? Any one know if this is possible ?
Very interesting that they used LINE.
When I quarantined they only sent me text messages.
I did not get a goodie bag in Taipei, quite dissapointed 
They may have stopped giving them out
I quarrantined in Changhua, I got LINE messages each day from the local police.
I wasn’t given a goodie bag, but I did get sent some masks alongside some instructions for the 7 day self restriction period.