i‘m in the process of relocating to TW with my Taiwanese wife and for that reason need to apply for a JFRV. As I came across some minor setback concerning my health certificate, basically my doctor being an ass and refusing to even look at the document ( „what’s that, Chinese ? I don’t read Chinese“ ) , I just had a phone call to the Munich Taiwan office . The German guy there told me there’s another way around, which is entering TW on an easy-to-get visitor visa and switching it into a resident visa once I‘m there , with the health check being done at a Taiwanese hospital. Now my question is:
Do I need to leave Taiwanese soil while doing so? Or can this all be done by the Taiwanese authorities with me staying?
Applicants outside of the R.O.C. (Taiwan) are advised to apply for the visa from an R.O.C. (Taiwan) overseas mission.
Applicants who enter the R.O.C. (Taiwan) on a Visitor Visa with annotation 「TS」 may apply for a Resident Visa 8 work days before the duration of stay expires. Applicants may, without having to leave Taiwan, apply to the Bureau of Consular Affairs or any of its Central, Southwestern, Southern, or Eastern Taiwan Offices.
thanks, I was told so by the Taiwan bureau employee with whom I was talking on the phone.
Landing visa alone also won’t suffice .
I hope the Taiwan side won’t cause trouble because of our marriage certification : we were married in TW and didn’t choose to register the marriage again in Germany, so I can’t provide any documents from my home country regarding the marriage .
Thanks for the info! This really sounds like it sucks big time . We purposely decided NOT to register our Taiwanese marriage at a German Standesamt, to save us time and money. Now you are telling me I have to re-register the marriage in Germany, just to be able to leave Germany and get a visa for Taiwan …
crazyness…
This… really f ck that sentence. I hate it so much.
This is so unfair since some other countries do not have to do that (USA). We already have to do Ehefähigkeitszeugnis bullshit to be able to marry in Taiwan.
Btw. non Germans, you don’t want to know what that crazy procedure is.
German bureaucrats are getting off to this day by thinking what they are making people, who just want to marry, go through.
Wait wait, I not from Germany but I got married in Taiwan and I didn’t registered the marry in my country, and I think you don’t have to, if you use the search normally people who marry in Taiwan don’t need to do that.
What visa do you have rigth now ? you can go to honk kong and get a visa for joining family member「TS」and then swap that to Resident Visa in Taiwan, don’t go back to Germany.
You should read the thread. And your tip for Hong Kong run does not work as he can’t provide a document that proves the marriage is registered in his home country. They will not give you a visa in HK without it. (unless you are from a country that does not have a central register for marriages like USA and are exempt from that rule)
If he got a visitor visa for marriage purpose before marrying in Taiwan, he could have gotten the ARC right then and would not need to jump the hoops now.
Don’t they have to do this anyway if they ever want their kids to get a German passport? I remember a German drinking buddy of mine complaining about this bureaucratic nonsense.
You don’t need to provide that, they only ask you that if you want to do resident visa outside Taiwan, but for doing a visitor visa for joining family member is no problem, you can ask that visa before or after marriage. There is one post of someone who married in a landing visa and go to HK and had the same problem, but after they asked the visitor visa for joining family member in Macau and use that to swap to resident, they never registered the marry in home country. but whatever
even if your country has the system of central marriage registration? I’d like to read the one post you mentioned. And more official reference, if you have.
I made a call to the Munich Taiwan Office, who confirmed the general legal need for having marriage registration prior to the JFRV application.
After my local marriage office telling me this would be a very complicated process , almost equal to us applying for new marriage in Germany(!) , I had my wife call the local Immigration Office in Taoyuan.
Seems the official there had a different opinion and told her that it would be sufficient for me entering on a 90 day visitor visa ( without the „no extension“ remark) and change it in Taiwan into a resident visa with only our Taiwanese marriage certification and household registration Required .
I’ve attached the Chinese Text for the respective legal basis on this process . The red lines seem to be what’s important:
That’s the problem in Taiwan. You ask 5 officials you get 5 different answers.
Try to get what he is saying in writing, so that they can not go back on that. And be happy they are doing their own thing, which makes your life easier.
The proper way is what the Munich Office is saying. Unless they changed laws or procedures recently. Which would be good as the process is really ridiculous.
…
ck that sentence. I hate it so much.
