So will transgender people get an E prefix?
Does the E stand for eunuch?
“Everybody else”!
It’s good if they autonotify banks and telecoms but somehow I have a feeling it’s gonna be a manual job.
I think each of us (non-citizen ARC/APRC holders) will need to do the legwork to contact all employers, banks, telecom companies, etc we deal with.
The exception (according to the fine detailed focus taiwan article linked above) will be APRC holders who elect NOT to change their numbers. Apparently that will be at the discretion of the individual as APRCs do not have an expiry date.
But at least for ARC holders and the APRC holders that elect to go forward with the change, the ID numbering scheme will finally be harmonized.
Guy
Wouldn’t it be easier and cheaper when all institutions, web sites just add another uniform algorithm to accept ARC’s, APRC’s?
“APRC holders would not be required to change the number if they do not want to, because the card does not expire, the official said.”
Well, it expires kind of, when your passport expires you need to renew your APRC.
Good point. This means ALL ARC or APRC holders will eventually be within the harmonized number system—at least within ten years. (Are there countries that issue passports for longer periods than that?)
Guy
Unless they don’t dumb ass print every detail on the front of APRC, ARC. Passport number should basically be irrelevant. ID# is and should be your only number to deal with.
(Are there countries that issue passports for longer periods than that?)
Some countries do/did 1, 3, 5,7, 10 years. I still remember I had the choice between a 1 year and 5 year passport back in the nineties. And it can be valid for specific countries or all.
1 Like
You can bet I’ll be first in line to get a new number.
I’ve had to update my ID details a few times over the years. It’s not a big deal in reality.
It will be easier if the govt automatically updates the NIH number but again not too difficult.
I think it’s much better to one number format for all citizens and residents.
This is because it makes it harder to implement discrimination against non citizens and those citizens without the local ID number.
Because this is all caused by the need to provide a local ID number automatically for almost all services.
3 Likes
I think in order to limit discrimination the government needs to do like Japan.
The arc is only for government ID, companies cannot force its use.
In Japan foreigners can apply for services with a drivers license and a health card that way the provider needn’t know you are a foreigner.
HK does it better. You have a HKID you get served
1 Like
According to unnamed government sources in: http://m.focustaiwan.tw/news/aeco/201811210022.aspx
the numbers 7,8 and 9 will replace the second letter in the ARC/APRC numbers to denote the cardholder’s gender, as male, female or transgender,
… that’s not going to work, right? Sites use the second number in their validation right now, and that will expect a 1 or 2
2 Likes
If that is what they are doing, then the existing problem with letters will not be solved.
2 Likes
The proposed format will change nothing, in practice. Updating the system to accept the current format would be precisely the same as updating the system to accept the new format.
3 Likes
If anything, this new format will cause more problems since the systems already created to accept the current ARC format will no longer work, therefore ARC numbers won’t work on any websites…
Only Taiwan could respond to a problem by making it worse.
5 Likes
Yup
So the companies that have already done the work to accept our ID cards now will have to do the work again.
This time they may just say forget it … not worth their efforts
3 Likes
Argh, I thought the whole idea was to change ARC ID numbers to the format accepted by all Taiwanese ID number checking software. I really hope this is what ends up happening. What an absolute faff around otherwise.
That’s what I read in some articles…the reason the change was made was to make ARCs more useable and be able to do things such as online shopping with ARC ID.
Would be quite sad if the change ends up making things worse.
Hey, you can’t blame them for not trying!