I just left the Taichung foreign affairs office in complete confusion. I was trying to extend my son’s ARC when they refused to do so unless I can show that he is listed in my wife’s ( hu chi tung bin) family registration book. When my son was born the local government refused to allow both mine and my son’s name from being put into the book because we were deemed foreigners. They also refused to give my son local citizenship unless my wife adopted him as his sole gaurdian.
Now some guy by the name of Peter Ho at the Taichung FAP office tells me, I cannot get my young son’s ARC extended without it. Has my son just been unofficially deported because he is mixed blood and his father refuses to give him up?
His ARC expires the first week of next month and I have never had this problem before. What can I do?
My oldest son was born here and got an American passport. When he was about 18 months old we decided to go traveling throughout SE Asia. The Foreign Police said he was an illegal alien because he didn’t have an entry visa in his passport. 
Anyway, AIT was absolutely no help. I had a friend who was working at a certain foreign trade office here. She introduced me to her friend who was the in-country manager of a certain foreign airline. My wfe flew to HK where she waited at the airport. The manager smuggled me and my son through CKS and on to the plane (passports were NOT stamped!). We flew to HK where immigration had a conniption fit. We were held for several hours and then released. We wondered around SE Asia for a couple of months and then flew to the US. A new passport for me and everything was cool when we came back here.
A friend of mine in HK (his wife is Taiwanese) when through the same thing when their daughter was born about 7 years ago.
So what the Taiwanese authorities basically said was that he entered Taiwan illegally through his birth
You’re not alone Boomer. The government agencies here are often in the dark about the regulations they are supposed to be enforcing. Don’t worry, if your child was born here to a Taiwanese mother and American father, your son can CERTAINLY renew his ARC. There are a lot of us on Forumosa who have children with ARC’s. My older daughter’s was just renewed yesterday.
One of the required documents is a copy of the household registration. You should appear on your wife’s household registration as a note (Husband, name) not as an actual citizen or household member. If your ARC is based on marriage, this should already be done. If not, you will need a certified copy of your marriage license. My children (who are not ROC citizens) do not appear on my wife’s household registration at all.
If your son is listed on a household registration (hu chi tung bin) , he does not NEED and ARC. Mr. Peter Ho is wrong. Go over his head, or take your documents and go to another office if you have to. Whatever you do, don’t let his ARC expire. It will be more difficult if you do, and might require a trip out of the country.
Is your ARC based on marriage? If so, how did you get it without appearing on your wife’s household registration? Do you have a Chinese birth certificate for your son with your name on it? Some hospitals have been known to refuse to put foreign fathers names on Chinese birth certificates. If you can show the paper trail that satisfactorily proves that you and your wife are the parents and that you are married to each other, you can get this done. (actually, if your son’s ARC is based on joining his mother, the father does not enter into the picture at all.)
I’m really surprised that this is happening when you are RENEWING an existing ARC. Sounds weird. I think the key will be in dealing with someone else higher up the food chain.
[quote=“archinasia”]You’re not alone Boomer. The government agencies here are often in the dark about the regulations they are supposed to be enforcing. Don’t worry, if your child was born here to a Taiwanese mother and American father, your son can CERTAINLY renew his ARC. There are a lot of us on Forumosa who have children with ARC’s. My older daughter’s was just renewed yesterday.
One of the required documents is a copy of the household registration. You should appear on your wife’s household registration as a note (Husband, name) not as an actual citizen or household member. If your ARC is based on marriage, this should already be done. If not, you will need a certified copy of your marriage license. My children (who are not ROC citizens) do not appear on my wife’s household registration at all.
If your son is listed on a household registration (hu chi tung bin) , he does not NEED and ARC. Mr. Peter Ho is wrong. Go over his head, or take your documents and go to another office if you have to. Whatever you do, don’t let his ARC expire. It will be more difficult if you do, and might require a trip out of the country.
Is your ARC based on marriage? If so, how did you get it without appearing on your wife’s household registration? Do you have a Chinese birth certificate for your son with your name on it? Some hospitals have been known to refuse to put foreign fathers names on Chinese birth certificates. If you can show the paper trail that satisfactorily proves that you and your wife are the parents and that you are married to each other, you can get this done. (actually, if your son’s ARC is based on joining his mother, the father does not enter into the picture at all.)
I’m really surprised that this is happening when you are RENEWING an existing ARC. Sounds weird. I think the key will be in dealing with someone else higher up the food chain.[/quote]
i agree completely, archinasia’s exp. is exactly the same as mine. just did my daughters the other day, she’s not on the household reg.
It never ceases to amaze me how little the idiots and jobsworths who are supposed to enforcing immigration laws actually know about the laws in question.
You are all in need of good legal advice. It is a pity that you don’t ask those in the know about these matters before you begin any sort of “corrective” or “remedial” measures.
About a year ago there was a foreign spouse in Taichung who contacted me about a similar problem. It would have been easily solved through the normal legal processes but he and his Taiwanese wife refused to do so . . . . . . hence I could only leave them to their fate . . . . . .
Well, this one is even funnier - my wife is trying to get our no 1 daughter into our local school. However a lot of problems have popped up in the attempt to do so. Instead of being able to do it thru the hu zheng suo, she has to go the the school itself - and they are not keen. What do we do?
In case any of you run into problems, then go for their balls, I say.
As a matter of fact, there’s no requirement of the ROC spouse becoming the sole legal guardian of the kids. The nationality law should be clear enough.
My wife took care of it the Chinese way and brought in the family registration book for them to see along with our son’s Chinese birth certificate. My name is not on his Chinese birth certificate for reasons unknown to me. She was able to get the extension but the F.A.P. Taichung, did not put a reentry permit into his passport.
Boomer, didn’t you get an English birth certificate with your name on it? I’ve been going through some websites concerning registering the birth of our child in Australia in order to get citizenship papers etc, and one document that needs to be sited by the Aussie authorities is a birth certificate that has both parents’ names.
Yes, I have an English translation of my sons birth certificate. It has my name as the father. The Chinese one does not. I assume that the English one has no legal recognition in Taiwan, that is why my name is on it. They were both given to us by Tai Da Hospital in Taipei.
Why not get your son a Taiwan passport, now that this has become a possibility, and then you won’t have to worry about all this. He can legally keep both the foreign and Taiwan passport until the age of 18, when he will have to decide whether or not to keep the Taiwanese, in which case, he will have to consider military service.
Hong Kong 1997!
So you think he’ll have a choice about military service?
I don
There is probably some details I have missed in this tread, but I find it strange that you can not get Taiwanese (ROC) nationality/citizenship for your foreign/Taiwanese mixed kid(s).
My sons, born 6 and 9 years ago here in Taiwan has ROC (Taiwan) Passport with my chinese-translated family name. They were called in to get their prescribed shots as babies, and now attend local school on same terms as other kids. Isn’t this the norm?
They also have passport from my home country.
Am I missing something that does not make them “real” citizens of ROC? My wife does not seem to have any issues with this…
The way I understood it at the time, in order for my son to get a passport from the R.O.C. he could not have a American father. His mother would have to claim sole guardianship and the fathers name could not be on the Chinese birth certificate. Thus I would not legally be my son
This information is totally incorrect.
Would you be so kind as to inform me why my name is not on my son’s only legally recognized birth certificate and why my son was refused the right of citizenship when he was born in Taiwan, to a Taiwanese mother?