Hello, hopefully this is the right thread/category to post this in, was a toss up between this and others. Anyway so I have some questions about Taiwan and the Entrepreneur visa for foreign nationals in Taiwan and wondering if anybody has any experience or guidance on this. I’ve read through the official requirements but still have questions.
So here’s my background. I’m 27 years old NZ citizen currently living with my father in the Netherlands (he’s Dutch citizen) and I have some business product “ideas” that I want to implement in Taiwan. I’ve been to Taiwan 2 times before around 2017-2018 time for about 90 days each visit and really liked the place a lot and would like to maybe move here long term but unfortunately i don’t have many “qualifications” if you will.
I am originally from Wellington but I never finished high school, only completed grade 11 before dropping out :(. I went to Australia the following year after dropping out and did TAFE (it’s like a university-ish training place for getting Certificates and such) and after that I completed a “Certificate 4” in Business with another TAFE like training provider that’s nationally recognised in Australia and NZ as well.
So the possible issue I may have here is the fact I never went to college/university and that might affect getting the visa. After looking at the requirements it did say something about putting in your highest level of education and had “High School” as an option but i’m assuming that means completing grade/year 12?? maybe.
However in other visas requirements I remember seeing something about a requirement being “High school diploma or equivalent” so i’m wondering if the certificates I have would be considered an equivalent. I’m thinking of ringing the local Wellington embassy on Monday but I thought id post this just in case anyone here might know of anything about this or have suggestions.
When I went to Taiwan I kind of got the feeling a lot of things in society are “negotiable”, I can’t exactly prove that but from what I noticed in some things maybe negotiating your way around things is possible?? Or maybe that’s just some “lost in translation” kind of thing i’m maybe seeing or something.
So also I should mention. The “products” I have designed on sketches and whatnot are not products for everyday people, it’s more something id be wanting to sell to the local governments or the government itself to roll out across Taiwan (Yes, i know this sound Elon Musk like far fetched but I actually have some ideas of things to help certain “issues”). Now since Taiwan is reasonably developed it’s not quite as developed as some other countries out there and I noticed a few issues with some things here and there and figured out some solutions, so i’m also wondering what the best way to go about this would be. I was thinking if i came back to Taiwan on a Working Holiday visa or something and maybe looked for manufacturers to pre-arrange something if they can make it then maybe speak to local town officials/mayors or someone of a higher up position to get funding or approval (which is also a possible eligible requirement for the Entrepreneur visa). It seems people are rather friendly towards foreigners so i’m guessing if I could figure some way of doing that it might work, even if i gave a discount on the product…maybe??
So yeah does anyone know if this might be possible without a degree or would I be better off maybe trying to apply for university in Taiwan instead? I might make a separate post about this next week as I have a lot more questions regarding that, don’t want to overcomplicate this post.
Anyway thanks for reading and for the assistance regarding this,
Cheers.
