I don’t think telling her would be a good idea. Having me leave the country after signing a divorce would probably be a pleasing outcome for her so I’ll let her believe that’s what’ll happen.
[quote=“Satellite TV”]
congrats on the APRC. 
[/quote]
Cheers 
[quote=“spaint”][quote=“Satellite TV”]
Well just settle in with your APRC… now you can breath easy. I hope you told you wife you have that now. She might now realize the futility of trying to scare you now she doesnt have that hold on your residency status. It might even calm her down a bit… or not as the case maybe.
[/quote]
I don’t think telling her would be a good idea. Having me leave the country after signing a divorce would probably be a pleasing outcome for her so I’ll let her believe that’s what’ll happen.
[quote=“Satellite TV”]
congrats on the APRC. 
[/quote]
Cheers 
[/quote]
Well yes that would be a surprise to her. But a divorce would not stop somebody getting a visa to visit here. Citizenship next on the agenda? 
[quote=“spaint”]I don’t think telling her would be a good idea. Having me leave the country after signing a divorce would probably be a pleasing outcome for her so I’ll let her believe that’s what’ll happen.[/quote]I agree with you here. I think you should put on an academy award performance that you are going to leave Taiwan forever upon getting divorced. Start to pack up your stuff into boxes and make a real meal out of it. Respectfully ask her for a divorce so that you and her both may get on with your lives. If your wife agrees to divorce you, it’s a piece of cake. Just go to the Household Registration office and get it done! I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.
Congratulations on your APRC and welcome to the club! :bravo:
[quote=“Northcoast Surfer”][quote=“spaint”]I don’t think telling her would be a good idea. Having me leave the country after signing a divorce would probably be a pleasing outcome for her so I’ll let her believe that’s what’ll happen.[/quote]I agree with you here. I think you should put on an academy award performance that you are going to leave Taiwan forever upon getting divorced. Start to pack up your stuff into boxes and make a real meal out of it. Respectfully ask her for a divorce so that you and her both may get on with your lives. If your wife agrees to divorce you, it’s a piece of cake. Just go to the Household Registration office and get it done! I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.
Congratulations on your APRC and welcome to the club! :bravo:[/quote]
If a divorce is really what you want, I agree with NC Surfer. That would be the best and easiest way. After it’s all signed and done, no worries.
Good luck with everything and I hope it all works out for the best for you. Everyone deserves to be happy.
I finally got my ex-wife to agree to a settlement and we signed our divorce papers yesterday. Extremely quick, very simple and we even managed to be civil, respectful and even friendly.
I’m in some debt now because the sum was more than I would have liked to offer but on balance I think it was the right thing to do. I’d rather give her the money than give it to a lawyer, and the toll that (possibly repeated) court appearances would have taken on my health would not be worth any financial saving I might have made by making a lower offer. I just have to focus and be smart for the next few months and I’ll be debt-free again before too long.
So I’ve managed to come out of this with everything I wanted: a lawyer-free divorce and a way to remain in Taiwan. I think I’ll just relax and savour this now.
Thanks again everyone for your advice, concern and comments.
[quote=“spaint”]I finally got my ex-wife to agree to a settlement and we signed our divorce papers yesterday. Extremely quick, very simple and we even managed to be civil, respectful and even friendly.
I’m in some debt now because the sum was more than I would have liked to offer but on balance I think it was the right thing to do. I’d rather give her the money than give it to a lawyer, and the toll that (possibly repeated) court appearances would have taken on my health would not be worth any financial saving I might have made by making a lower offer. I just have to focus and be smart for the next few months and I’ll be debt-free again before too long.
So I’ve managed to come out of this with everything I wanted: a lawyer-free divorce and a way to remain in Taiwan. I think I’ll just relax and savour this now.
Thanks again everyone for your advice, concern and comments.[/quote] :bravo: Wow! A happy ending! Congratulations.
Oh wait,so,did you tell your wife that you got the APRC before you got the divorce? Or did you tell her that you wanted the divorce so you could leave Taiwan forever…yadda yadda yadda…and then once the divorce papers were signed you whipped out your APRC and slapped it down on the table like the ace of spades!!! Also, I guess she wouldn’t just agree to the divorce? She held the divorce for ransom and you had to buy it from her?
My APRC card wasn’t ready for collection until the 18th, so I could honestly say that I didn’t have it when we were negotiating. I made it clear that I would be moving back to the UK and if necessary I would divorce through the British courts, in which case I said that I would not be obliged to offer her anything (I really don’t know if that’s true or not). In the end I had to borrow to give her what she wanted but it was still substantially less than her original requirement.
I used my old paper ARC at the household registration office. Once it was done, I raced back to Taipei, got to the NIA office at 4:46PM to pick up my APRC, then I sped off to the CLA to apply for my work permit (4:59PM). I may have run a couple of red lights en route. 
All in all, it was a busy day.
I won’t ever tell her about my APRC. The satisfaction of having it is enough.
Congratulations, Mr Spaint! I’ve been avidly following your predicament and am most happy about the outcome. As Mr Surfer says, welcome to the club!
[quote=“spaint”]I won’t ever tell her about my APRC. The satisfaction of having it is enough.[/quote]Good on you mate! 
You’re a much better man than I. I would have pulled it out immediately and slapped her across the face with it. 
Like Mr. Jimipresley, I’ve been following your “case” from day one and I’m so pleased that everything worked out in the end. Congratulations again. :bravo:
You’re a bigger man than I, Mr Spaint. I would have served it up as breakfast. :lick: 
Edit: Just a word of thanks here to Mr Northcoast Surfer who always goes beyond the call of duty. 
[quote=“spaint”]My APRC card wasn’t ready for collection until the 18th, so I could honestly say that I didn’t have it when we were negotiating. I made it clear that I would be moving back to the UK and if necessary I would divorce through the British courts, in which case I said that I would not be obliged to offer her anything (I really don’t know if that’s true or not). In the end I had to borrow to give her what she wanted but it was still substantially less than her original requirement.
I used my old paper ARC at the household registration office. Once it was done, I raced back to Taipei, got to the NIA office at 4:46PM to pick up my APRC, then I sped off to the CLA to apply for my work permit (4:59PM). I may have run a couple of red lights en route.
All in all, it was a busy day.
I won’t ever tell her about my APRC. The satisfaction of having it is enough.[/quote]
Congrats! I’ve also been following your posts, and I’m happy to hear this happy ending.
I’m loving your post I quoted above. It has the makings for a Hollywood movie!
Hi. Here is my situation…
I’ve been married for about just more than five years. I’m on a JFRV visa. I accidentally overstayed after being married for two years. I’ve been to the NIA and they confirmed twice that my clock has been reset and that I can only apply for an APRC in 2011.
My marriage is on the verge of ending. And my husband knows all to well how to use the divorce against me because he knows that I wouldn’t want to leave Taiwan right now…and that will happen if we get a divorce.
I’ve tried to apply for my citizenship but stopped because I know that he will never agree to the interview. We don’t have any children.
Is there anyway to apply for citizenship independently (not as a spouse) while being married?
In previous posts I read…
[quote]Nope actually marriage is not part of the requirement I got divorced during my citizenship processing. Getting ROC Nationality card has nothing todo with an ongoing or marriage in distress or even a divorce during the procedure.
Let alone you dont need to be married to apply for ROC nationality anyways. Gov Attache was divorced and got his and Cooling Tower and others were never married in the first place.
[/quote]
and
I would very much like to get divorced right now but that would mean that I loose my chance to apply for citizenship, right?
First of all, you cannot divorce against your will here in Taiwan, unless some very stringent conditions are met, so if hubby threatens you with divorce, relax.
Secondly, are you sure that you have to do an interview with your spouse?
I suggest that you speak to the household registration office where you live.
[quote=“peony”]Hi. Here is my situation… I’ve been married for about just more than five years. I’m on a JFRV visa. I accidentally overstayed after being married for two years. I’ve been to the NIA and they confirmed twice that my clock has been reset and that I can only apply for an APRC in 2011. My marriage is on the verge of ending. And my husband knows all to well how to use the divorce against me because he knows that I wouldn’t want to leave Taiwan right now…and that will happen if we get a divorce. I’ve tried to apply for my citizenship but stopped because I know that he will never agree to the interview. We don’t have any children.
Is there anyway to apply for citizenship independently (not as a spouse) while being married?
In previous posts I read… [/quote]
No that is not correct. if you have met the current requiremens you can apply regardless of your marital situation. PS You can’t be forced into a quickie divorce so don’t let your husband know he can’t force your hand.
Best you call me 0930750441
Hi Peony,
First let me say how sorry I am to hear of your situation. I know that if the tables had been turned in my case, and we’d been in my home country I certainly would not have used her immigration status as a bartering chip in the divorce. I can’t understand why people feel it’s necessary to become so vindictive toward the people they claim(ed) to love.
When I was considering obtaining citizenship, I fulfilled the requirements of both independent AND married applicants. The requirements of an independent do not explicitly state what kind of visa is necessary for application. There is also no talk of “clocks” and “resetting” since the way the requirements are written appears to be much less stringent and far more sloppy than the ones used by the folks who process APRC applications.
However, I was told that regardless of my wishes, there was a chance my application would still be processed as a married immigrant, in which case an interview WITH BOTH SPOUSES in the marital home would have been necessary. This was NOT a requirement back when Satellite TV obtained his citizenship, and it has almost certainly been introduced as a result of the large numbers of foreign brides now in Taiwan.
In short, the household registration people are very nice, but they would not have been able to offer definitive answers in my case until I had actually made the application (which obviously isn’t very helpful).
It’s also pretty difficult to say if you can successfully make an application for permanent residence or citizenship after your ARC has expired. The law appears to be written in a way that allows it (at least for the APRC), but as far as I can see no one has tried it out yet.
To echo Mr. He, I think you need to get as much information as you can from the Household Registration office. And to echo both Mr. He and SatTv, your husband can’t force you into a divorce but also note that should you find yourself secure and ready to sign there’s no way you can force your husband to sign either, short of threatening to sue him for some kind of transgression.
Finally, I suppose it’s also worth noting that an interview may not be the deciding factor in your immigration case. I hope you find a way to solve your problems and do please post back here with news.