Moving family to Taiwan and Applying for Household Registration

So I recall you said her JFRV was initially issued for a 1-year term. Do you know if the subsequent renewals are also for 1-year terms or can they be longer? Seems a bit of a hassle to have to remember to update her JFRV every once in a while (as I’m guessing accidentally overstaying on the JFRV probably carries some sort of penalty) but that does still seem better than going through the whole renunciation process.

Could I ask if you guys just decided to not have health insurance for the first 180 days you were in Taiwan? Or did you purchase some sort of local private insurance and/or had travel insurance or US insurance that covered you while you were in Taiwan? We’re healthy, but the idea of just going without insurance is still scary, so would be interested in what people tend to do while going through this process.

Oh also, does anyone here have insights on what the Taiwan tax obligations are? I understand the US has a worldwide taxation system and therefore still requires US persons living abroad to file and pay US taxes if their income is over a certain exempted amount, but does anyone know if Taiwan taxes US-sourced income? For example, let’s say you’re not yet working in Taiwan, but in order to pay expenses there, you continue to receive passive income from the US such as rental income, royalties, dividends, interest, etc. – does Taiwan have a claim to tax you on those after you’ve acquired the TARC and/or the National ID?

Many thanks @scrubolio for sharing the notarization and translation language! I anticipate they will be very handy for TECO documents.

yes, initial 1 year term then after that it can be up to 3 years max I think. But it’s also based upon the validity of your TARC. So I got a 3 year TARC, my wife when she went to renew her ARC was only allowed to get an additional 2 years up until the expiration of my TARC. Once I get my TW national ID, I believe she will be able to renew it for 3 years.

We still had insurance in the US. We self reported to our insurance the receipts and other documentation of the medical expenses that we had here. We didn’t even have to have them translated which was nice. They break it down for you and reimburse you for what they think is appropriate. We had the chance to dispute if we didn’t feel that it was adequate, but we were just happy to get money back. Although, your typical medical bill here is pretty cheap comparatively even if out of pocket (unless you have some major surgery/operation I guess). Medications are ridiculously cheap, even without the insurance. But, I’m not a good person to ask, I’ve never been afraid of not carrying insurance.

no idea. but I haven’t heard of anything where TW would have a claim on your US income. someone else may know better. I think if you have income in TW, the first 105,000 USD is exempt from US taxation? Good question though, I haven’t even thought about paying taxes in TW.

My impression from other threads is that once you have been in Taiwan for a certain number of days you become liable for taxes on income earned while working in Taiwan, even if from a foreign source. I am trying to figure out the details myself and will eventually need to talk to an accountant in Taiwan.

please update us when you hear back!

see image of affidavit that I had done at AIT

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In case it’s still helpful, I arranged coverage as discussed over here:

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Thanks for sharing this!

Yes, still helpful and relevant. Reviewing insurance terms is a whole other project, and interesting to see others who might be using travel insurance in the meantime. Thanks!

Submitted the TARC application to TECO last week, so just adding a data point here that this is still doable from the US. TECO estimates it will take about a month because they send it to Taiwan to adjudicate. In case this helps anyone, the TARC application package included:

  1. Signed application form
  2. A copy of US passport and a copy of the Taiwan passport
  3. TECO-authenticated birth certificate in English plus a TECO-authenticated Chinese translation
  4. TECRO-authenticated FBI Identity Summary in English plus a TECO-authenticated Chinese translation
  5. TECO-authenticated health check form
  6. A copy of parents’ National IDs
  7. Application fee of $45 in cash

Will report back once the results are in!

Turning now to the spouse visa application and assuming they grant one at all in light of COVID-19 restrictions, does anyone have insight on whether it’d be better to apply for a Visitor Visa or a Residence Visa for the spouse to enter Taiwan? I understand that relying on a landing visa or using the visa-exempt entry that’s normally available to US citizens socially to visit Taiwan does NOT work for the spouse, because neither of those are convertible to an “ARC” (Alien Resident Certificate, plus those routes are suspended due to Covid-19 anyway). The cost of either a Visitor Visa or a Resident Visa appears to be the same at $160 for US passport holders. However, it seems like a Visitor Visa has fewer documentation requirements than a Resident Visa. And at least according to this immigration guidance as well as the experience of @scrubolio above, it seems like a Visitor Visa for the spouse is convertible to an ARC after arrival in Taiwan. So am I missing something – does anyone here know why one would bother applying for the longer-stay Resident Visa instead of the shorter-stay Visitor Visa just to enter Taiwan?

Separately, does anyone holding a US passport have recent experience during Covid-19 of applying for a “special entry permit” to visit family in Taiwan? I’m wondering if this is this an additional permit needed on top of the Visitor Visa or Resident Visa (separate application, extra fees?), or is a special entry permit granted if they grant the visa? Would be interested to hear what the application process was.

Thanks!

when you convert a visitor visa to an ARC, you should provide the documents you didn’t need for a visitor visa, and you should pay the fee to get a resident visa in addition to the fee for an ARC. I guess people choose to do this because doing health check in Taiwan is easier and cheaper.

I’m also looking into applying for the TARC from the US.

  1. Where did you access the documents for the TARC application form and the health check form?
  2. Did you have the get the Chinese Translation for birth certificate notarized before getting it authenticated?
  3. I have read that parent’s marriage certificate (registered in Taiwan) is also needed, including parent’s household registration. Are these not required for this application?
  4. Do the copies of the US Passports/parent’s national ID’s have to be notarized too?

Thanks!!

  1. Where did you access the documents for the TARC application form and the health check form?

This NIA page lists the TARC application requirements in Chinese and then the forms are provided on the bottom of the page in various downloadable formats. “中華民國臺灣地區入境居留定居申請書” is the TARC application form, and the one right below it is a filled-out sample. “健康證明應檢查項目(乙表)” is the health check form. One very helpful tip from a prior commenter here is that the health check form must be in a sealed envelope in order to be submitted for authentication, with an office stamp added on the sealed part of the envelope. This measure is supposed to help TECO confirm that the health check form was not altered after the doctor signed and stamped it.

  1. Did you have the get the Chinese Translation for birth certificate notarized before getting it authenticated?

No, it turns out. I did it just in case and had the notarized version in my back pocket, but I first showed them the non-notarized version and they accepted it after applying their own stamp on the bottom of the page. The stamp’s text in Chinese stated that the signer confirms that the Chinese translation is consistent with the English original and it provided a space to sign and date (本人 [SIGNER’S NAME] 聲明上述中文譯本與英文原件文義相符). It also indicated that the signer was signing in person (本人親簽). As a result, the TECO authentication page for the Chinese translation of the birth certificate says this in English: “This is to certify that the signature of [SIGNER’S NAME] is authentic” and in Chinese on the bottom: "本文件依據 “外交部及駐外館處文件證明條例"驗證申請人聲名翻譯屬實之親簽. 僅證明簽字屬實, 內容不在證明之例.”

They did not ask if I translated it myself. I suppose they just need the signer applicant to stand behind the accuracy of the translation, so I wondered what would’ve happened if the applicant is obvious to them that they do not speak/read/write Chinese or if the application is submitted by a proxy. I also wondered what would have happened if the applicant were to mail the application in or otherwise could not show up in person to sign in front of them. In those cases, I would think having it pre-notarized might be necessary and perhaps the authentication language would then be different, like it might say instead that they authenticated the signature seal of the notary public.

  1. I have read that parent’s marriage certificate (registered in Taiwan) is also needed, including parent’s household registration. Are these not required for this application?

Not so far. In addition to the link I sent above for the general application requirements, there is also this this supplementary detailed requirement chart based on the exact category you’re applying under. The first 4 categories, which I imagine are the most common, do not seem to spell out an exact requirement for a marriage certificate, so long as the applicant can show lineage relationship (足資證明親屬關係文件). The lineage connection, I believe, could be established by the birth certificate showing the parents’ names, along with the translation showing their names in Chinese, so I suppose if the parents’ names are fairly standard and consistent throughout their identity documents, then something additional like the household registration or National ID or Taiwan passports that show the parents’ names in both languages should suffice.

That said, NIA could still come back and ask for that so if the parents’ marriage certificate is available in your case, it can’t hurt.

There also appears to be a difference between what we in English discussions simply refer to as the “household registration” document. There’s the 戶口名簿 versus the 戶籍謄本, with the latter I sometimes see being referred to as the “household registration transcript” and required to have been issued within a 3-month window. I imagine this requirement might not pose undue hardship on an applicant submitting the application from inside Taiwan or if the applicant has relatives inside Taiwan assisting, but with my limited research capability, I could not figure out a way for this transcript to be issued electronically or mailed to someone outside Taiwan, especially during Covid. The original 戶口名簿 should technically be acceptable whenever it was issued (they would examine the original and return it to you on the spot and take its copy), and I believe I read about a law passed around 2014 actually replacing the concept of the 戶籍謄本 with the 戶口名簿 that is issued after the new law is passed, but there are nuances that I am sure I did not understand and one could, in any event, bypass all this potential headache by bringing the parents’ original National IDs. The parents’ original Taiwan passports might in theory also work, but for whatever reason, that is not as conveniently spelled out as an option in the supplementary chart.

  1. Do the copies of the US Passports/parent’s national ID’s have to be notarized too?

The applicant’s US Passport copy did not have to be notarized or authenticated, although the original US Passport was shown to them in person for examination upon submitting the application. Good question, and I don’t know why, since they say documents issued outside of Taiwan need to be authenticated. My best guess is that their authentication process does not accommodate a passport, because the authentication process actually makes permanent changes to a document. For example, the original birth certificate after authentication and notarization of the translation are permanently altered and then stapled together – TECO applies a seal that spans the TECO-issued document itself and the original birth certificate (for a sample, see those half seals on documents that scrubolio shared above). I think the idea is that a person could always apply for a replacement birth certificate from the Department of Health of their birth state if necessary so this particular original birth certificate permanently becomes a TECO-linked document. That probably couldn’t work with an original US Passport, and they also probably couldn’t solely authenticate or notarize the copy of it without attaching the original. Just my guess. They could theoretically apply some sort of stamp like the translation where they make you certify that you photocopied the original without alterations but maybe they figured they could avoid that by examining the original passport and photocopying it themselves, plus the US Passport seems the most peripherally related document in the entire application package.

The parents’ National IDs were issued in Taiwan so no need to authenticate because NIA could presumably just check internally, and no need to notarize either presumably due to no need for a translation. Like the applicant’s US passport, they examined the originals of the IDs, returned them, and photocopied them to include in the TARC application to be sent to Taiwan.

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Thank you so much for all of this helpful information!!

It sounds like you applied physically at a TECO office in the states. If you don’t mind, which office was open for you to go in and show documents? For some reason I thought they were all closed, and only accepting mail applications, due to COVID.

Wow, this thread is really interesting.

My situation: wife (Taiwanese with HHR) and I (American) just had our first kid in TW this year. Of course, our kid has both TW passport with ID number, and HHR, and a US passport. That’s pretty cut and dry cause she was born here.

Here’s what I’m wondering: if we have our next kid in the US, what then? Presumably my wife will still have HHR at that point as her parents are fairly young and will never leave Taiwan (I’m not sure if my wife’s HHR would get “canceled” after some period outside Taiwan?).

So for a hypothetical second kid born in the US, could we get him/her a TW passport with ID number and HHR, or would it just be the “worth less than the paper it’s printed on” version, and she’d have to go through this whole 365 day thing later in life if she/he ever wants to live in Taiwan?

FYI

Ya I think this is the main point. its cheap and relatively painless as compared to the US at least, especially given the current virus situation.

Your 2nd kid will need to go through the steps herein this thread that I and my kids born outside of taiwan need to go through. get the “worthless” passport and meet the required residency requirement.

I’d suggest checking the websites for the specific TECOs that might be closest to you, and calling to confirm a contact there who can accept a TARC application, because it seems like each office’s operation is changing on almost a daily basis due to Covid. I’m not sure if a TECO that doesn’t oversee a specific residential jurisdiction will accept it even if it’s otherwise open for in-person services. (For example, the Atlantic TECO said they offers services to Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, and Florida.)

Oh and based on casual observations, it seemed like most people visit the TECOs these days for their consular services, like getting a visa, authentication, and passports, but it seemed like the TARC application is submitted via maybe a different department that serves more like an immigration liaison with their Taiwan NIA counterparts. The slightly increased fee for submitting it via TECO (NT$1300, which TECO collected US$45 for) as compared to submitting directly it in Taiwan (NT$1000) supports this theory in my mind that TECO is acting as the mailing/front-facing intermediary and getting slightly compensated for it. Just speculations on my part though!

Yeah, that makes sense on the health check. It’s still pretty confusing honestly. According to Article 11 of the Enforcement Rules, it would seem like the Resident Visa is what the spouse should apply for:

Article 11

The term “long-term stay” as stated in Article 11 of the Statute refers to a planned period of stay exceeding 6 months.
A resident visa issued by overseas mission shall be good for single entry only and its validity shall not exceed 6 months. The visa holder shall apply for an Alien Resident Certificate(ARC) after being admitted into the ROC.
Resident visas issued by MOFA within ROC territory shall be used for applying for ARCs only and shall not be used for entry into the ROC.

But at the same time, the spousal Resident Visa seems to require as part of the application the main applicant’s original TARC. How does that work in practice? Because my impression is that TECO after consulting with NIA will be issuing an entry permit that contains a copy of the TARC and then TARC applicant has to enter Taiwan to retrieve the original TARC at the NIA. Does that mean that they want the couple to separate where the main applicant goes to Taiwan first, retrieves the original TARC, and then mails it back to the spouse in the US to apply for a Resident Visa at TECO in order to enter Taiwan? And then the person already in Taiwan has no TARC in hand for days even though I think the law requires carrying it all the time? Maybe I’m overthinking this but it just doesn’t make sense, and I’m hoping that the visa department (right hand) would just accept whatever document their own TECO’s immigration department (left hand) ends up issuing as the TARC.

On top of this, I’m still confused by how it works in practice if the spouse gets just a Visitor Visa to enter and then applies for the ARC in Taiwan, like scrubolio’s wife did. In the link I shared in my last post on this conversion process, it says:

(7) Certificate fee: NT$1,000 for alien residence certificate per case valid
for one year, however, additional NT$2,200 is required for applicant
entering the State with visitor visa.

Meaning, I think, that if the spouse enters with a Visitor Visa, then the fee would be NT3,200 to get the ARC. Does the NT$2,200 extra fee represent what tando was saying as essentially getting a Resident Visa on top of the fee for the ARC if she were to have entered on a Resident Visa? In practice, scrubolio, do you recall if your wife had to pay this extra fee and did she get issued a Resident Visa in addition to the ARC? (Like, is there anything in her passport or given at the ARC-issuing desk that might support this or is it really just doling out more money for having gone with the Visitor Visa to begin with?)

Lastly, I’m still scratching my head over the concept that the Resident Visa doesn’t actually act like a visa but it’s a one-time entry visa and the spouse is required to in addition apply for another entry/exit permit on top of it in order to enter ROC in the future after getting the ARC. Does anyone have information on this – like, is it the same entry/exit permit as the one the the NWOHR applied for (same form and fees, etc.) initially when they got the initial passport with that sticker inside one of the pages? Scrubolio, sorry for so many questions and it sounds like you guys haven’t actually left/re-entered Taiwan since, but now that your wife has an ARC, is she still planning to enter Taiwan in the future with just the Visitor Visa that the US TECO initially gave her or does she have some other permit to enter Taiwan with?

I realize many of my questions are ticky-tacky on fees but I’m just trying to understand conceptually why this process is designed the way it is and I think the fees shed some light on it. It’s possible that with Covid, we could even be looking at 3 layers of visas/permits just for the spouse-side of things: Resident Visa + Entry/Exit Permit + Covid Special Entry Permit – I fully realize that at the end of the day, we’ll end up just shelling out whatever the authorities ask for in order to get to Taiwan together but it’d just be slightly more comforting to know that at least the fees and rules aren’t being arbitrarily applied. Appreciate any insight and I’ll share mine if this all comes together. Thanks, everyone!

In the sample online marriage cert authentication shared above, the bottom says “請於驗證30日內向戶政機關辦理登記, 以免逾期受處罰鍰.” I had assumed this was some sort of requirement for Taiwanese folks who recently got married outside of Taiwan, where they might be required to then notify Taiwan and register within 30 days, but this sentence showed up on the bottom of my authentication as well. Does anyone know what this requirement refers to and whether it applies to a NWOHR not present in Taiwan?