I wonder if they will use the new ID number format as an opportunity to redesign the ARC.
Sometimes through sheer incompetence it would have been better not to have tried in the first place and found someone with some good old fashioned common sense to do the trying.
Probably, if someone can secure a budget and give some money to their friends kids design business or something.
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Complain to the NIA director: https://www.immigration.gov.tw/sp.asp?xdurl=bossmail/mailfEN.htm&mp=2
They do check this box.
There’s also the MoI mailbox: https://service.moi.gov.tw/ecss/bin/eng001q1.asp
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There are also plenty of MPs (Members of Parliament) to talk to. I’m going to go to the same one that helped me change the rule at APT.
I think this is a great opportunity to actually get our opinions out there. Try it! It might work!
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For these kind of concerns, I’d suggest going through ForwardTaiwan. They have been fantastic advocates so far—the NDC and other government agencies under Tsai actually listen and act upon their suggestions.
Guy
What’s “APT”?
Guy
Asia Pacific Telecom
Forward has already told me they’re aware of the issue and will be following up.
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Excellent. Thank you!!!
Guy
Unfortunately either the MoI is completely clueless how their own ID is designed or they intentionally want to keep foreigner ID numbers separate. This is the explanation I received:
“The current coding format of ARC number will be changed to mirror the coding format of Taiwan nationals’ ID number.Therefore, the revised ARC number will also be validated as Taiwan nationals’ ID number is.
In case some websites may not accept the second digit as 7,8,or9 initially, Ministry of the Interior will keep monitoring the private sector and encouraging them to modify their system before this policy is implemented,to make sure the revised ARC number will be widely accepted.”
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Basically as long as the ID number ‘gives us away’ companies can still either not bother coding it into their computer or they can still maliciously block foreigners from getting services intentionally such as what Taiwan mobile does if a foreigner tries availing themselves of their online promotions.
Also they will encourage the private sector to take our numbers. They’ve been doing that for years and the private sector said get lost.
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If that goes through with 7,8,9 then they can just stop. It will make the mess even worse.
The problem is not that on the second character is a letter, but that it is not a 1 or 2 as defined in the ID standard!
The second character is for gender only and they try to squeeze information about origin of foreigners in there too. Why is it necessary to identify a resident as foreigner just by the ID number? This is the only thing that lets local companies discriminate against alien residents.
Those who accept the current ARC format will fail with new format until they update their ID check code. It sets us back to zero where nobody accepts new format and it will take a decade to improve that situation.
Somebody who has to code an ID check in the future has to consider the new ARC format, the old ARC format (for those who did nor receive new ARC yet) and the national ID format to accept everyone.
The only solution is to give alien residents ID numbers in exact format as nationals ID, with 1 or 2 as the second character!
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Well all know this, tell it to the NIA and MoI:
Complain to the NIA director: https://www.immigration.gov.tw/sp.asp?xdurl=bossmail/mailfEN.htm&mp=2
They do check this box.
There’s also the MoI mailbox: https://service.moi.gov.tw/ecss/bin/eng001q1.asp
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Totally agree!!! Why bother making the second character 7,8 or 9 when the existing systems only accept 1 or 2? They might as well leave it as C or D…unless the existing systems have been programmed to accept all single numerical digits in the 2nd character of the ID format, this change will be of no help to foreigners.
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I’m going to write to them and I encourage you guys to do the same.
@slawa, if you don’t mind, I’ll use part of your message while doing that, as I think you described the issue very well.
For those who don’t want to write the whole thing, here’s the message I plan to send them:
Dear Sir,
I’ve been watching some news stating that the MOI is planning on changing the format of ARC numbers to line up with Taiwan National IDs. While I applaud such action, I do have some concerns that I’d like to point out.
Such change is aiming to facilitate registration on online systems to accept IDs of foreigner nationals, which current have different format than Taiwanese IDs (2 letters + 8 numbers vs. 1 letter + 9 numbers). However, these news also mentioned that the numbers 7,8 and 9 will replace the second letter in the ARC/APRC numbers to denote the cardholder’s gender.
This, unfortunately, does not solve the issue.
The problem is not that on the second character is a letter, but that it is not a 1 or 2 as defined in the ID standard.
For instance, those who accept the current ARC format will fail with new format until they update their ID check code. It sets all back to zero, where nobody accepts the new format and it will take a long time to improve that situation. Also, those who will have to code an ID check in the future will have to consider the new ARC format, the old ARC format (for those who did nor receive new ARC yet) and the national ID format to accept everyone.
The only solution is to give alien residents ID numbers in exact format as nationals ID, with 1 or 2 as the second character.
I’d appreciate if the points raised were taken into consideration before implementing the new ID format.
Thank you in advance.
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I’ll write in tonight. We all should get after them.
Only if we act in a concerted manner will this issue get noticed.
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They can ‘modify’ it now too!
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I pushed back (in Chinese this time) and I’m afraid they absolutely think it’s necessary to build in a way to easily identify non-citizens:
目前國民身分證統一編號第2碼為性別碼「1男性；2女性」，為區分國人及外來人口，爰統一證號第2碼性別碼為「7中性；8男性；9女性」。
Basically, “in order to differentiate between citizens and foreigners the second digit gender code will be 7, 8, or 9.”
It’s not an oversight–this has been their plan all along.
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Idiots!