I’m writing this as we are waiting for our plane to start boarding passangers at TaoYuan International Airport.
Started the visit on June 20. Fortunately my wife has plenty of extended families to let us stay. We stayed in Banqiao. Old apartment without lift. Had to carry 5 luggages as this was a long transit of our 2 months long vacation. Other than Taipei/New Taipei, we got to see Yilan, KaoShiung, Xinchu, and TaoYuan. We got to see enough to fall in love with Taiwan completely.
The only negatives that we heard are 1. Taiwanese are close-minded. 2. Earning salary potential in Taiwan is low. (Compared to HK, USA, SG) 3. Education certificate might not be acknowledge by US.
Now, we need to go back to the US, to plan for moving to TW, or maybe another visit. We think we are going to find a job to get ARC. This will let us stay in TW without visa runs, our 2 children will be able to go to school, we can get health benefits, and it might fully subsidized our expenses in TW.
We think about $3-3.5K USD should be our monthly budget for us. It will be in New Taipei or Kaohsiung due to MRT availability. Looking to rent 12-15K NTD apartment. No car, maybe motorcycle. Local government school. Home cooked meals half the time.
We think it’s gonna be another 3 years. Our oldest will be 7 by then. She will be exposed to US Kindergarten and Grade 1. Hopefully a strong enough English to last her a lifetime. We would still need to homeschool her in English and other academic just in case if she need US certification. When we get to TW hopefully she can continue with Grade 2/Primary 2. We don’t mind if she start at Primary 1 again. Depends on how good the Chinese we are teaching her in the 3 year planning. We think we will move back to US when they are starting highschool.
I will try to find accounting job… or worst case… Teaching English which my wife would do it. Need to get tesol certification. Really hoping to get enough passive income or start a business in TW.
Anyway, we decided to move. No more second guessing… I love Taiwan.
To find rent like that, your best bet is New Taipei City. Its possible in Taipei, but it’ll be tiny and run down, most likely. But with the MRT, it’s quick and easy to travel to Taipei from most parts of New Taipei City.
The grade is decided by her birthday. Putting her in a lower grade may need special negotiations. I think there are several posts on this topic in this forum.
Apartment for 12-15k per month, 100% doable in Kaohsiung, nice ones too, with elevators haha.
Low salary here yes, but when you realise its all a crapload cheaper than the US or AU you understand why.
Accounting? What you want to do with that type of proffesion is telecommuters, work from home for a US based company, get paid in US currency and transfer each payday. I do this, my salary is currently upward of 9 times the average salary here per month working from home. Already bought a 4 bedroom apartment.
Yes. Getting for a telecommuting job is the best option. Care to share resources to find? Maybe flexjobs.com? Honestly I haven’t tried. But will still need to get local job to sponsor ARC… and if we are to get APRC, then it needs to be a job with twice national salary.
Taipei is not doable with rent 12-15K… I have to look carefully. Hopefully extended family here can help find local rates.
Flexjobs have a lot but require monthly fees, indeed has a lot too, google is your friend.
I was lucky, I had my current job before I moved to Taiwan and my company was nice enough to let me continue working for the same pay.
OP In the three year prep back at home, try to see if you (or the wife) can land a job where there’s a Taiwanese branch or even jobs you can do online.
Getting paid overseas wages while you’re in Taiwan is quite possibly the best scenario. However, either you or the wife should look into getting an ARC here, so one of you can be sponsored. This will help a lot when renting, opening a bank account, the national health insurance and many other things.
Hi is there update with your move to TW? we are in the process of doing so and still searching for school for our 9- & 10 years old (English-speaking only with no mandarin). any suggestions of school would be much appreciated.