I am a Dutch citizen, currently engaged to a Taiwanese man. We are planning to get married in Taiwan this summer. Right now we are LDR until June-ish. The idea was for me to go to Taiwan on a visitor’s visa, get married there, and then apply for the residency visa and ARC without having to leave the country. (This was suggested by the Taipei Representative office in my country).
But I recently came to realize that the residency visa application requires a marriage registration from my home country. We are marrying in Taiwan, so this is something I simply cannot provide there. I can get the marriage registered in the Netherlands, but this would require me to go back, supply a ton of documents and the whole process could take up to 8! months. I am currently pregnant so frankly I do not have that kind of time.
I have read stories of others who were able to marry in Taiwan and apply for a residency visa without having to leave the country first. Of course I will check with officials what I could do, but I would really like to know if anyone has any experiences or advice in this situation.
If the Netherlands has a marriage registry then there is no way around this. You must register your marriage in the Netherlands before you apply for a resident visa/ARC. It would probably be easier for you to register your marriage in the Netherlands first.
Australians (I assume @yinggeaussie is Australian too) are exempt from providing a marriage registry document from Australia because Australia does not have a marriage registry. Many countries don’t have a marriage registry, citizens of these countries are exempt from registering the marriage and providing documents from their home country.
if you come on resident visa for other purpose and get an ARC, then change the reason of residency to marriage, you don’t need a mariage certificate from your country. iirc.
We were married in Taiwan whilst I was on a “Visa Exempt” status. I did have to get a “Single Status Certificate” from the State in Australia where I normally lived first. Taiwan was quite happy for us to get married here and there was no mention at all of having to get Married in AU first and bring that Certificate along to get married again in TW. Imagine the shambles worldwide if such a requirement was enforced when a local married a foreigner.
After we got married I started putting together the necessary documents to enable me to apply for a JFRV Resident Visa (Medical in TW, Police Report from AU). Then on my next visit to AU, I applied for the JFRV at the Sydney TECO - approved and sticker in my passport in just one week. Then upon arrival in Taiwan 3 weeks later (in March 2020, just before the Immigration gate was locked!!) it was a requirement that I apply for an ARC within 15 days, which I did and was issued with a Marriage based ARC as a result.