Is the Gold Card experiment a flop?

You answered your own question. Plus uneducated presumably. Who makes offers to what one would assume is a low level desk jockey. Something tells me most dont have private sit downs with top level decision makes in the government. Then the lack of knowledge on local customs. face alone would shut down that type of shit in a heart beat.

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I was just happy that the girls were pretty and they liked me. Also didn’t really need winter clothes

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Yes, and also a harem of KTV girls at my beck and call

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Seriously? Standards of living vary quite a lot between countries. For me, my standard of living has gone up by coming to Taiwan

It helps that i came here because i had a good job lined up, i already speak Chinese, and i knew how to ride a motorcycle in crazy traffic

Oh, my move was mostly subsidized. Plane ticket, visa, and half my container shipment

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I worked in Saudi for a bit half a decade ago on issues related to their Vision 2030. Left in disgust because of the mercenary expats.

The Saudis are often unable to separate the good from the bad when it comes
to foreign talent. I have the same lack of faith in most Taiwan organizations outside of one or two tech companies (although had really good experiences working with senior leaders at HTC). The French like Jerry Lewis because it reinforces their stereotypes, mostly wrong, about Americans. I think the Taiwanese prefer Johnny Dumbfuck Canuckistaner from Moosejaw working at Kid Castle than creative collisions with exceptional talent. He’s harmless and non threatening.

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I’m 2/3 :sweat_smile:

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It is a bit of both. Personally I wouldn’t want to accept a hand-out because I am not that type of person and resent any implication that I am. I threw out the figure to get people to agree that it is better to cut the red tape than to spend taxpayers’ money.

I presume though this class of adventurers came to Asia younger and at the start of your careers?

May have gone up but others were asking why I needed a car. So I told them why.

What job is this that your move was subsidized? How did you speak Chinese already?

Great food in KSA, though. Not much else you were allowed back then, prayer and exercise. But seriously good eats :yum:

Arabic, Thai, Persian, Italian, Japanese, Indian… we used to go to this little thali place that served migrant labor (who looked at us funny) and made these fresh paper dosas for eating the thali. Cost like nothing, so delicious

Al-baik – amazing X100

I don’t think anyone really needs this expense.

You don’t have to live in the city centre out of budget.

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Yeah, I came quite young, moved around a bit, late to the Taiwan party and haven’t been here long

I work in education, my qualifications are unique. I’m not GC, the government didn’t directly pay for my move

I spent a few years in China, back then nobody spoke English and everyone wanted to be my friend. Very easy to learn

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Many countries live differently, if an American wants to live like an American and is worried about the expense, why leave America? Taiwan has its own way to bring a high standard of living, and that is through public transit.

Either you’re coming because you don’t like America anymore, or you’re coming because you got a better package.

If it’s the former, then trying to live like an American will be very expensive.

If it’s the latter, then the cost shouldn’t be an issue.

If you want downtown living, with a car, in one of the densest cities in the world that makes New York look like the sticks…you’re going to pay.

On the other hand, if you really wanna live like an American, buy a cheap house in Sanzhi or Wanli and commute an hour to Taipei. The houses there are cheap.

Gold Cards are an independent programme. Relocation packages come with the company sponsoring your visa.

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If you are Johnny Dumbfuck Canuckistaner from Moosejaw working at a kid castle, you ARE exceptional talent :grin:

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huh? No. I’ve never heard of anyone paying more than 3.
And “conservatively”? :rofl:

Why would you want to do this? I only rent for road trips

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I haven’t met many GC holders, but the ones I have are like myself – barely working, certainly not working for a TW company, and just enjoying things. Not sure how long they’ll end up staying. Not sure how long I’ll end up staying either – probably a while – but in any case I’ve contributed greatly to the economy so the GC program is a win either way

oh and inviting more foreigners here might one day even make people realize the difference between Taiwan and Thailand.

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It is 3 months rent + 2 months deposit. So you have to come up with cash upfront of 5 months.

BTW all the figures I mentioned above, of up to say NT$500k for your first month here - should be brought as cash. Because you won’t have a Taiwanese bank account to remit money to from abroad, and while you could use your foreign credit card to withdraw cash from an ATM, it will probably cost you.

“Conservatively” because the last thing you want to have happen is run out of cash. So I budget with a 20+% margin of error.

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I haven’t been here that long, but I brought less than 20% of that.

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We really should start another thread on the accumulated knowledge of expats trying to save money here.

My first thread, memories

Looks like I brought 20K, wished I had 30K

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I’m always happy to share the knowledge. But my point is, Taiwan is Taiwan, and lots of things listed, the cars especially, are an unnecessary expense that either is not needed now or even at all.

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