Marrying Japanese Girlfriend in Taiwan

Legal Visa & Residency
1
  1. I am in Toronto.
  2. My Japanese girlfriend is in Taiwan.
  3. She works and lives in Taiwan.
  4. We want to get married in Taiwan.
  5. I want to try to get a Resident Visa after we get married.

Questions:

In Toronto, do I need to apply for an extendable Visitor Visa at the TECO that will allow me enter and stay in Taiwan longer than 30 days so that we can process the marriage certificates, etc., and then move to a Resident Visa? What documents will I need to apply for this extendable Visitor Visa at the TECO?

Where do we go to pay for and complete the necessary paperwork to get married legally in Taipei and apply for a Resident Visa?

Thanks for any info.

2

Sorry, but in your title you say “[color=#FF0000]Japanese[/color] girlfriend”. How do you hope to get a visa through her once you’re married?

3

If she is here working and has an ARC he can get a dependent ARC, but he will not have any work rights.

4

If she is here working and has an ARC he can get a dependent ARC, but he will not have any work rights.[/quote]
That answers my question. Cheers.

[quote=“Shimokitazawa”]1. I am in Toronto.
2. My Japanese girlfriend is in Taiwan.
3. She works and lives in Taiwan.
4. We want to get married in Taiwan.
5. I want to try to get a Resident Visa after we get married.[/quote]
Cheers, that also makes it clearer.

[quote=“Shimokitazawa”]Questions:

In Toronto, do I need to apply for an extendable Visitor Visa at the TECO that will allow me enter and stay in Taiwan longer than 30 days so that we can process the marriage certificates, etc., and then move to a Resident Visa? What documents will I need to apply for this extendable Visitor Visa at the TECO?[/quote]
Not sure. Couldn’t you find this out at the TECO office in Toronto?

[quote=“Shimokitazawa”]Where do we go to pay for and complete the necessary paperwork to get married legally in Taipei and apply for a Resident Visa?

Thanks for any info.[/quote]
I got married to a Taiwanese citizen, so not sure if it’s different. I needed:

  1. A certificate of non-impediment
  2. I’m sure there was something else, but it escapes me atm. Don’t think I needed a criminal record clearance to get married. Did need it for my JFRV, but again, your gf isn’t Taiwanese, so not sure if you’d need that for a residence visa based on her.
  3. Made an appointment at the court house.
  4. Arrived on the date, gave them all my documents. Got married and received four marriage certificates. Two in Chinese and two in English.

As far as I can remember, the marriage stuff all went through the court and the JFRV visa stuff all went through NIA. So I would imagine that after you get married your residence visa application would go through NIA, also.

I’m wondering if it wouldn’t be easier to get married in Canada or Japan. Because my immediate question is this: Will Japan recognise your marriage if it’s in Taiwan (if that matters to you at all…)?

If your girlfriend is in Taiwan, I would advise you to ask her to go to NIA (National Immigration Agency) and ask about the residence permit, and to go to the court house in her area and ask about what is needed for her to marry a foreign national in Taiwan (or basically, two foreign nationals getting married in Taiwan).

5

bismarck,

thanks for the reply. it’s Easter long weekend here. So I probably won’t receive a reply to my e-mail to TECO until towards the end of this week since they get back to work on Tuesday. Thought I’d pose my questions here to see if anyone knew what I’d have to do. Thanks again.

Everything you said makes sense re. NIA and the courthouse.

However, I’d like to arrive in Taiwan on an Extendable Visitor Visa as opposed to a 30-Day Landing Visa so that I don’t have to fly back out of Taiwan to transfer over to a Resident Visa after we get married.

So, if anyone reading this has any info for me on that, I’d appreciate learning more about how to go about getting one of those. I did it years ago to study Chinese in Taipei but I had done it in Bangkok and so the process might have been different. It was for a 60-Day Extendable Visitor Visa that was renewable twice or for 180 days, If I remember correctly.

6

Yeah, I’m a bit rusty on the visa thing. I did what you want to get more than seven years ago, so that may have changed. Although, I did everything at the Taiwanese liaison office in South Africa. I do remember that I applied for a 30 day visitor’s visa, but they gave me a 60 day one (extendable) anyway.

Sorry I can’t be of more help.