Is ARC required for diploma authentication in BOCA

Hi all,

I’m a foreigner studied in Taiwan, graduated from Taikeda in 2018. Now I need my Taiwanese diploma authenticated for employment purpose. I plan to visit Taiwan at the end of December to authenticate my diploma. However, I found online that the requirements for diploma authentication by BOCA are: passport, ARC, and documents.

My ARC has been expired long time ago, is it enough to only show my passport for BOCA authentication?

TIA

Despite your ARC being expired, the number is still valid and assigned to you and you only for the rest of your life.

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Thank you for fast response. So it’s okay to show my expired ARC to BOCA?

I wouldn’t think it’s an issue

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You may want to have your document “notarized” as well depending on your needs.

I did something like this recently:

  1. Notarize (Google maps look for: “public notary”) costs about 1000 and they will do several documents for the same fee, so if you have 2 or 3 originals they will notarize all these originals for the same fee
  2. Go to BOCA and it takes a few days and you pay per document.
  3. Visit the embassy (or trade post) of your country in Taipei to stamp or validate it there as well

Actually I just finished 1 and 2, still planning to do 3.

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Yes, I’ve made an appointment with a public notary already. It’s just I’m worried about the ARC requirement. I’ve asked around and apparently passport is enough.

Anyway, how long is the process in BOCA? From the website it takes 2 working days for the regular process, meaning that if the documents submitted on Monday then we’ll get them back on Wednesday. However, probably COVID-19 affects the speed of the process?

I can only stay in Taiwan for 1 week, so it will be awful if the process takes longer than that lol.

I think 2-3 working days is accurate. I went on a Wednesday and I believe they said I could pick it up on Friday afternoon or something, but I went a couple of weeks later. There is also an expedited option where you pay extra to have it even faster. The only thing you should watch for is maybe if there is a public holiday or something.

By the way, both times I went it was very busy there and it took me about an hour or more each time.

Edit: oh and they are very strict about not making copies for you. There is a copy machine there, but make sure you have change.

Edit2: and this is anecdotal, but I do not think I gave them my ARC, just passport and copies of my passport, but I do not quite remember.

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