About the garbage, since someone was asking (I was wondering too, actually). The police is in charge of arranging the collection, not the CDCC. During our first call, they told me, but take it as indicative because I guess this part will vary depending on the city, that it is done twice a week (Tue and Fri) in the morning.
When I mentioned “Oh, I heard that you will pop by later”, the answer was “Nah, no need” 
I just had my interview and picked up my Gold Card at the SF TECO. I remain confused about what the point of this is, given that I already had the Resident Authorization Form, but I didn’t ask about it. I was asked:
I was also asked a few other questions in response to my answers to those questions, I think because the person interviewing me was pretty confused by my background and plans, but after maybe 10 minutes of talking, she took a look at my passport, had me sign something confirming that I’d received the Gold Card, and gave me the card.
It’s crazy how inconsistent this is. I dropped off my passport two weeks ago and haven’t heard a peep from LA TECO and can’t get them on the phone so I drove back down. They said they’re still working on it and would call me when they’re done. Yet I hear other people that show up and get their passport verified in minutes, what the heck this is annoying.
Took a month for me.
Welcome to Taiwan, land of inconsistency.
It only took 24h in Hong Kong.
I’ve heard that they can be flexible. Both about being freelance and about the salary thing (as long as you can show that you met the 130k requirement during at least one month).
I had a similar experience at the SF TECO back in June (applied under the Economy category, income). I thought I would just be doing the passport check while waiting outside of their building, which they told me would take just 5 minutes. It unexpectedly turned into a 60-minute interview inside, with strange questions like the ones you mentioned in addition to:
Very nerve-wracking - I felt like I was being grilled, sized up, by someone with a lot of power over my case. At the end, I was told “Based on your experience, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to let you have the card. Will let you know in a few days.” This was confusing since I had already been accepted and had the Resident Authorization Form in hand, and was told by the Taipei office that I was good to go once SF did the simple passport check.
By the way, there isn’t supposed to be an interview from what I’m aware. The fact that it happened (and is still happening to multiple people) and they’re still asking irrelevant questions and applying rules inconsistently seems to show that not everyone at the offices understand how the Gold Card works.
FWIW, in spite of being very worried about how things would turn out in my case, there were no problems. The process went through smoothly days later.
Well that sounds stressful as hell. Thanks for sharing and glad you got yours.
Thanks for the interview info, all.
Does anyone here who has gone through the SF TECO interview happen to be a freelancer? I’m going in next week and am not sure how to explain my situation or answer the “How will you earn income in a country so different from the US?” question. I applied under Economy with the W-2 from my former software dev job, which I left last year to do contract work full-time. I currently have four steady clients who are totally fine with me working remotely and together pay the rough equivalent of my previous salary.
I think if you say that you plan to do consulting, and that you have clients lined up, they should be perfectly happy with that answer. That’s definitely a much more concrete answer than I gave them, and I managed just fine.
Good luck, and let us know how it goes!
Picked up my Gold Card from TECO LA today!
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone on this forum for all of your posts — they’ve been a great help as I’ve tried to navigate through this unfortunately under-documented process.
That being said, just wanted to provide SoCal / Arizona / New Mexico folks an update on what the current timeline looked like for me for the TECO LA part of the process…
(after more than a few round trips with the Workforce Development Agency…)
Oct 7 2020 — got the Passport Submission Notice
Oct 8 2020 — called (and actually got through to someone) at TECO LA. They asked me to come in on the 15th with my passport.
Oct 15 2020 — in person visit at TECO LA
Oct 16 2020 — status online switched to “Under inspection”
Oct 19 2020 — status online switched to “IC Card in Process”
Oct 20 2020 — status online switched to “Completed”
Nov 16 2020 — got a call from TECO LA asking me to come in to pick up my Gold Card
Nov 17 2020 — picked up the Gold Card
But just a FYI — with Gov. Newsom’s most recent order, it looks like they’ve closed the TECO LA office again (front door was locked and they weren’t seeing any walk-ins). So the updated process may be different (e.g. they may go back to asking everyone to submit only by mail).
Thanks again for everyone who posted with their experiences, and best of luck with everyone going through the process now!
Hi everyone,
First thank you for all the very informative messages and thread, it really helped me with the application process.
My application has been in phase “Professional Review by Workforce Development Agency” for 4 weeks now.
Because I am a UN employee, I don’t have to pay tax, so I only provide my official pay slips for this year.
As the process seems a bit long, I tried to call Mr. Huang multiple times this week, but he never answered. I tried in the morning and afternoon, is there another way to try to join someone to talk about my case? I want to make sure they have all the documents and would like to have an update on my case.
Mr Huang is upset about UN resolution 2758.
Ahahah, I can understand his point…
Yeah, they started grilling me and I was super confused. Luckily I was able to pull up a “letter of recommendation” I got and showed that to them to clear things up. =/
Update
Nov 14: Called TECO to book appointment
Nov 15: went down to TECO with passport, there was some confusion about gold card pickup (since I said I would pick it up in Taiwan). But after some back and forth and checking with the manger etc. they said this is ok, and there is no option to receive it via mail
Nov 19: Status under inspection
Nov 20: Got email saying approved
So I am probably going to head there in january, with just the auth letter and no gold card in hand. hope that doesn’t cause problems. But I think it should be Ok based on what I read.
Now my main concern is this new 72 hour negative PCR test requirement, need to find a test center near me that offers that turn around time.
Man, sorry you had to go through that. Thanks for sharing your experience though, I’ll be sure to bring a portfolio and letters of rec to my interview.
It seems like this interview is unique to the SF TECO. I wonder why they’ve decided (seemingly unilaterally) to make things more difficult? More Gold Card applicants than other US TECOs, perhaps? Or maybe more ‘digital nomad’ types with comparatively unusual work situations?
The lady that was trying to interview said they don’t see the Gold Card application. So I think she’s just being safe? Not sure. Definitely bring your letters & portfolio. Good luck!
I think it really depends on the TRO/TECO and how difficult the officers in charge want to make your life for their own amusement. The passport check phase is supposed to be just a less-than-one-minute thing to confirm that the person in the application, the person in the passport and the person in front of them are the same individual. Decisions are made in Taipei, not at the TRO/TECO. As far as I know (that day I had a brief chat with the staff), from their admin panel they don’t even have access to all of our application details because they are not involved in the selection process, but only in the subsequent verification part.
Oh man, I feel for you 