Experienced (And Pregnant) ESL Teacher

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

Hello! My husband and I (both US citizens) are are planning to visit Taiwan and Mainland China for a month in mid-November to mid-December. We had the intention to move to China or Taiwan early next year.

However, I have just found out I am pregnant. Only about a month in. We would like to keep our plans to move to Asia, and we feel Taiwan is likely cleaner/safer/easier than Mainland China.

I am trying to work out if it is possible to obtain a job, and/or medical insurance in Taiwan while pregnant. It’s hard to find straight-forward information about this. I have years of ESL experience, a Bachelor’s degree, and a TESOL certificate.

My husband repairs cars and has an Associate’s degree.

Does anyone have ideas regarding the following:

a) Is it possible for my husband and or I to get jobs and/or NHI insurance (pregnancy being the issue for me, lack of Bachelor’s degree potentially problematic for him)
b) How much medical care/giving birth in Taiwan costs without insurance
c) Recommendations of companies, places, or any other advice that can help us sort out our future plans.

I really appreciate your help with this, I’ve been Googling like crazy but haven’t found answers yet.

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From what I understand your birth procedure wouldn’t be covered because you are both not citizens.

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Firstly, congratulations! If you move and find employment you will be covered by NHI immediately, being pregnant doesn’t matter. If your husband is the one in employment and you are on a spousal ARC you need to wait six months before being covered by NHI, again pregnancy is not a factor. A very important point to note is that currently a newborn for a wholly foreign couple is not covered by NHI until 6 months old. The law is supposed to be changing but I’d be surprised if it does before your child is born.

You can read the FAQ and contact the NHI on here

Don’t miss this beauty which still exists on their site to get some idea of what they think of foreigners with NHI…

“If you are not an employee but own your own company, you will have to wait for 6 months before you are entitled to join the NHI. This may sound odd, but because these people are usually better off than others,they could probably afford to purchase private insurance during that waiting period.” Classic!

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For you, probably not a major issue in finding a job since you are qualified to teach. Teaching jobs are not very difficult to find, but good bosses are. For him, it will be tough for him to find a job since the minimum requirement for many jobs is a bachelor’s degree. It’s not impossible, but it doesn’t look too good for him. Fortunately for him, if you receive sponsorship, he can be listed as your dependent.

For companies to help you out with the process. Normally, you want the school your accepted to help out with the process, but as I said before, good bosses are hard to find. Make sure when signing a contract to read the fine print. Also sure you research on the individual schools you apply to and not just the chain it belongs to.

You can do a little research here on past posts and schools. Join FB groups for ESL teachers in Taiwan for more info too. Other than that, to my knowledge, I do not think there’s a company that can help with the process.

I hope that was helpful. Good luck with the move and decision.

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There are ways around the degree requirement, sometimes, but car repair may not be feasible. The Employment Service Act, its associated regulations, and the culture in general have a combined effect of restricting foreigners to specific jobs and presuming that blue collar workers are uneducated peasants from poor countries who will jump at the chance to overstay their visas and eat people’s pets. For details, see the “Qualifications and Criteria Standards for foreigners undertaking the jobs specified under Article 46.1.1 to 46.1.6 of the Employment Service Act”. http://law.moj.gov.tw

It’s been claimed several times that an associate degree + teaching certificate = enough to teach in a buxiban. In theory the certificate alone is sufficient, but the Workforce Development Agency calls the shots if I’m not mistaken (after the employer decides whether or not it’s worth applying).

For your rights as a woman and a mother, see Art. 49 to 52 of the Labor Standards Act*, Art. 31 to 32 (etc.) of the Labor Insurance Act**, and the Act of Gender Equality in Employment. NB paternity leave is now five days, not three.

*not applicable to all teaching jobs: buxibans yes, private schools sometimes, public schools no (unless it’s recently changed)
**sometimes compulsory, sometimes optional: if optional, you decide, not your employer

Do you already have something lined up for yourself, or are you planning to job hunt after arrival? I wouldn’t want to be visibly pregnant during an interview, of course. How much you get paid for maternity leave depends on how long you’ve been working in your current job, and for insurance it depends on your average salary over the previous six months (or not – it’s complicated). Labor laws are routinely violated, so you may need to sue your employer to get what you’re owed, which of course is not something you want to try while you’re still working (or ever, ideally). Labor insurance benefits are paid by the government, but if your employer underreports your income to save on premiums, you need to sue your employer to receive the difference.

Ps. The government does explain a lot of these things online, for example www.mol.gov.tw, but in general the English version of any ministry or department’s website will not be very useful.

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6

You might want to read this if you plan on giving birth in Taiwan.

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A good cautionary tale. Also, if you’re hoping to raise your child as a local citizen, please have a read through the threads about how difficult the path to citizenship is and what people think of the education system here.

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This sounds like a great plan, but in this document from wda.gov.tw, I found this:

A. Questions regarding foreign workers pregnancy:

  1. Medical Exam:
    While applying for entry visas, female foreign workers should undergo medical examinations, including pregnancy tests. For those who received a positive result on pregnancy tests, their entry visa applications would be denied. In addition, foreign workers also need to undergo medical examinations within 3 working days of their entry to Taiwan; to be followed with the same medical examinations after the completion of the 6th month, 18th month, and 30th month of the work; however, requirement of pregnancy test is executed.

http://www.wda.gov.tw/uploaddowndoc?file=/pubevta/InformationModel1/201406301343010.doc&flag=doc

But American’s don’t need entry visas, so…

It looks to be near impossible to get private insurance once pregnancy has already begun.

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Thank you very much! I am more concerned that I will be denied a work visa as there appears to be a physical screening which includes a pregnancy test for women. I posted this in my reply above, you can delete if redundant:
A. Questions regarding foreign workers pregnancy:

  1. Medical Exam:
    While applying for entry visas, female foreign workers should undergo medical examinations, including pregnancy tests. For those who received a positive result on pregnancy tests, their entry visa applications would be denied. In addition, foreign workers also need to undergo medical examinations within 3 working days of their entry to Taiwan; to be followed with the same medical examinations after the completion of the 6th month, 18th month, and 30th month of the work; however, requirement of the pregnancy test is executed.
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Thank you – I am less concerned with maternity leave than prenatal care/birth and delivery. And I certainly don’t think I’ll be up for suing anyone overseas, I can’t even muster the strength to do it here!

I won’t be showing for a couple more months, and would job hunt after our arrival. Any parts of the country that have mild-warm weather or are particularly clean and enjoyable for you?

I’m having trouble pulling up the Labor Standards/Insurance Act, but I will try to get into it. Thanks again.

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Wow! Yeah, that would be a shocker. And them not releasing the baby to them, that would be the worst. I would love to go to one of the yuezi “confinement centers”, though! Sounds crazy, but actually really nice to have time to rest and bond with baby.

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I’m not sure the WDA document you found is applicable. Looking around on government sites you may find things that seem relevant but turn out to be for “blue collar” jobs only. (That’s not what the law calls them, but it’s what the government usually calls them anyway.)

I. Occupation types:

A. Fishery work
B. Domestic helping
C. Manufacturing
D. Construction
E. Institutional caretaking
F. Domestic caretaking
G. Translation
H. Food preparation and related work

Those all seem to be “blue collar”, except for translation and possibly food preparation. Teaching is definitely considered “white collar”.

For your search problem, at http://law.moj.gov.tw click on English, then enter “Labor Standards Act” in the search field, and click on “Labor Standards Act”, which btw is what they mean when they say “Labor Stanrdards Law”. Same deal with “Civil Code” and “Civil Law”. Some people just don’t have time to check official translations… :rolling_eyes: The Enforcement Rules are also worth reading if you’re actually going to work in Taiwan, but they’re not what you need to know right now.

Some documents are available in Chinese and English. When this is true, you can switch back and forth using the “Ch” and “英” buttons, so you can also search for “勞動基準法” in the Chinese version and then switch to English. You can also use http://laws.mol.gov.tw and find official interpretations (in Chinese) as well as laws and regulations, but for labor matters only.

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Wow. That is very racist. How are non-Taiwanese denied the same care when they pay into the same health care system?

I contribute to the NHI, same as every Taiwanese (probably more actually) and the yet the law can actually discriminate against me because I am not Taiwanese for certain health care procedures?

EDIT : Or did I misread this article? Is Taiwan’s NHI refusing to cover the birth procedure or the surgery that infants needed afterwards or both?

14

“Foreigners” on dependent ARC’s need to be in the country for 6 months continuously before being covered by NHI, therefore an infant of a wholly “foreign” couple must be in the country for 6 months before any coverage…That’s the “logic” behind it.

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I understand that part, but what is a bit confusing to me is did NHI cover the delivery of the baby?
I can break it down into two parts

  1. Covering the mother during and after delivery
  2. Covering the baby after birth

Does NHI refuse to cover the mother’s care during and after delivery in this case, refuse to cover care for baby after birth or both?

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Prenatal care, delivery, and the mother’s post-natal care are all covered by the NHI. The newborn baby’s care is not.
I have heard people say their hospital/doctor managed to put some basic newborn treatments (vaccines, checkups…) on the mum’s NHI card - but this will not work for major medical procedures and treatments, such as those these twin girls had to go through.

17

That is not as bad as I thought. Though it’s still bad that the system discriminates. Guess if you plan to have a baby in Taiwan as foreigners, you should have private insurance.

I wonder if the couple is blocked from leaving Taiwan until they pay the bill.

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The_boss_of_who is of the same understanding as myself on this. As far as I know the couple got a Crowdfund going which ended up more than sufficient to cover the bills. There was some complication with their ARC or NHI status as well which added to the problems.