Here’s the story. I had lived in Taiwan for six years on a work ARC before swapping it for a marriage ARC in September. Then in October, I quit my job and moved back to the states. My wife quit hers a couple days ago and will join me. When I left Taiwan, I maintained NHI as my wife’s dependent through her work and she paid the premiums for me. I continue to have a valid ARC and both of us intend to maintain NHI for the time being. So I have had some form of ARC continuously for 6.5 years, held the marriage ARC for 5 months, and been away from Taiwan for 4 months.
Today, when she tried to move both our NHI plans to the district office, they refused to enroll me, saying I had not “lived in Taiwan for six months.” They saw that my current ARC was issued in September and stopped there. I think they’re wrong and forcing me to violate the NHI Act.
“在臺居留滿六個月” means having attained 6 months of residency in Taiwan. For me, this already happened in the year 2014. The six months refers to eligibility to enroll in the system. If it didn’t, and referred to an ongoing status, any foreigner flying out of Taiwan more than two times in any six month period would lose NHI. Once in the NHI system, there’s no getting out unless applying for withdrawal (and not coming back for at least six months) or losing the residency rights in the form of allowing the ARC to expire. Nowhere in the law is the logical absurdity that a foreigner who changes the purpose of his residency with NIA, or even simply renews his ARC while not employed, will automatically lose NHI coverage and need to wait another six months.
Can’t apply for an APRC because I have a Taiwanese parent and therefore dual nationality. Plus an APRC costs more to get for basically the same benefits of a marriage ARC.
So their computer systems could access my entry and exit records but not the fact that I continuously had multiple ARCs before this. A first time marriage ARC has 初領 printed on it even though it has the same ARC number and I had to exchange the previous ARC.
Alrighty then. If so, then why in the world didn’t you apply for Taiwan citizenship? I mean, you’re eligible for it, right? I mean, it couldn’t possibly be the military duty that stops you, right?
why should the OP apply for the citizenship, just because he has a Taiwanese parent and he was automatically given taiwanese nationality? Do you want to do a conscription for a citizenship that you are eligible for but would not have much benefit?
Of course I would! I’ve already done it. It is the honorable and right thing to do. I served over 20 years in the US military. The service here in Taiwan is laughable and avoidance is really wimping out.
By the time I turned 32 and was old enough to avoid conscription (two years of residency as a NWOHR to qualify for household registration and two years deadline after qualifying to apply for it), I had figured that I would probably be moving out of Taiwan for career related reasons before i finished the two years of residency.
Exercise of dual nationality as an adult would pretty much prevent me from getting a job requiring a US government security clearance. I have an active foreign service candidacy right now, so it’s still a real possibility I would need it.
Aside from being able to vote and avoiding those annoyances of getting locked out of dumb IT systems, I don’t see any significant benefit of getting citizenship apart from what I already have with a marriage based ARC.
But if you get a jfrv through your wife i thought you HAD to have health insurance. How can they not let you be on it? Sounds like a case of the bitchy beaurocrat.
Went to enroll in NHI, and they told me I basically had to have “6 months continuous in Taiwan after receiving APRC”. I had APRC for a couple of years without enrolling in NHI. Never got around to it and didn’t need it. Lived in Taiwan over 7 years before that.
Update on this topic. We got it fixed. My wife called NHI the next day and got someone more competent on the phone. NHI sent a formal request to NIA to pull my immigration records, and with that NIH started billing me again. NHI had indicated that they would bill me only after verifying my eligibility.
So if you get an incompetent group of clerks like we did, don’t give up! The law is clear on this.