OP was a Chinese citizen born in China. He only later became a US citizen.
Thank you for all the replies, itās unfortunate that itās not straight-forward to resolve this issue. Iāve been wanting to move to Taiwan for a few years now as Iām ready to start my next journey outside the US.
I called the Taiwan Gold Card help center and they suggested I reach out to Ernst and Young (???) to have them help me grab my āhukou renunciationā without me having to go back to China. They said Ernst and Young can work with their China offices to help grab the documents.
This seems like a huge hurdle to jump through and Iām guessing will likely take me many weeks. Still looking to see if thereās some kind of easier way 
Doesnāt sound cheap. Probably 20-50k USD to run around going to your birth city fetching documents and authenticating it with the straits for you. Iād be skeptical if there were any successful cases who went this route and whether itās a canned response for this problem since it gets asked a lot. If you didnāt have Shenfenzheng as a Chinese infant, itās not likely the mainland household registration office will work with someone else with power of attorney.
Iād recommend you fly to China and treat it as part vacation. Budget maybe 3 weeks to get everything done and authenticated with the straits foundation. Hotels in China are cheap right now.
1 Like
yes, taiwan treats a former chinese citizen having lived abroad for long enough and getting a foreign citizenship as a foreigner. when a foreigner was born in mainland china, the person is requested a proof of no prc nationality or hukou, apparently even if the person has never been a prc national.
even if former prc nationals have proof of PRC renunciation, they are treated as prc nationals if not living abroad for 4 years, and non prc nationals born there are also requested a proof of no prc nationality. they may have their logic.
There was a case a while ago on this forum of a foreigner born in China to foreign parents, hence he never had PRC citizenship, left China, and Taiwan wanted him to provide proof of renunciation. In his case, itās impossible to get any documentation since he was never a PRC citizen.
Another option is you could call NIA and ask to appeal to their supervisor / head of NIA.
yes, i was thinking of that one. comparing to the case, opās situation is simple.
1 Like
Maybe you could just submit an application for a PRC citizenship certificate and provide whatever rejection letter they give. If the letter states the reason for rejection as being that the applicant is not a Chinese citizen then that + straits foundation authentication should be sufficient.
They didnāt accept my Chinese visa on my Canadian passport as proof of renunciation, so not sure how flexible they are. The China embassy wouldnāt have granted the visa if I still had PRC citizenship.
The straits foundation can only authenticate a list of documents. They donāt know the process for authenticating documents not on their list so you should call them to check first.
Also Iām not sure they would reject the request for PRC citizenship? Anyone born as a PRC citizen in mainland China has the right to claim back citizenship anytime after renunciation.
Request for a citizenship certificate. not citizenship. Also do you have a source for anyone being born as a PRC citizen in China being able to claim it back after renunciation?
1 Like
Article 13 in the nationality law:
āForeign nationals who once held Chinese nationality may apply for restoration of Chinese nationality if they have legitimate reasons; those whose applications for restoration of Chinese nationality have been approved shall not retain foreign nationality.ā
I guess you may give an invalid reason for restoration
without requested documents for the application, the application wonāt be received, or the reason of rejection would be insufficient documents.
Yes unfortunately.
@jimbob132 Thank you for the information. It is super helpful. Iām planning to fly to China to renounce my hukou and get it authenticated by the Straits. Do you mind sharing a bit about your experience doing that? I understand it may take a few weeks, but Iām curious to know if the process was straightforward for you. Thanks
@jimbob132 Iām also curious about this process. My husband will need to go through this, and we would like to make sure we have all the documents we may need. Thanks!
@leliang @circusmom Sorry for the late reply as Iām not in Taiwan. I would suggest you to call the Straits foundation in Taipei and ask for steps including where you can get the renunciation authenticated in the mainland (they have a list of places they accept documentation from, one for each city/region typically).
The other part is fetching the documentation in mainland China. This can be simple or complicated depending on whether you had shenfenzheng/passport as infant or something to prove your identity, or maybe a relative to prove your identity. You can go to a local police station in your birth city to apply for the documentation. Could be as quick as a day trip or several weeks, depending on your birth city and whether they have things digitalized, and your current status in mainland China. I think you should have automatically given up household registration there and be marked as settled abroad in most cases (I am not sure what triggers this - maybe when applying for a China visa from abroad?). After you get the proof, you can start the authentication process, they will send things over to the Straits foundation in Taiwan, I would wait until everything is accepted by Straits foundation before you leave mainland China.
The good news is that hotels are cheap in mainland China. Maybe go for a trip to Zhangjiajie, enjoy the spicy food in Hunan and the $50 a day brand new hilton/marriot hotels while this is processing.
4 Likes
Thank you so much for the detailed information. I really appreciate it!