Moving to Taiwan and working from there

Legal Legal - Work
1

Hello,
Here is my situation. I’m a Canadian currently living and working in the US and my fiancé is Taiwanese also living and working in the US. We are planning to move to Taiwan in a year or so. She would quit her current job, move back a month or so before me, get her resident status back and find a place to live. In Taiwan, I would work from home for my employer in the US as self-employed. This has been already arranged with my boss, I would basically be an employee of his company but not be on his payroll.

So here are a few questions:

  1. Would getting married give me the right to work from Taiwan legally?

  2. Should we move first to Taiwan then get married or get married then move? From reading other posts, I understand I should get to Taiwan on a visitor visa and then get married, is that right?

  3. Once I’m legal to stay in Taiwan, what steps do I need to take to be legal to work from there as a self-employed? Could I start working while going thru that process?

2

Well, I guess there are more qualified people than me to answer this, but here’s a quick stab at answering your questions.

  1. Yes, as far as I know, but remember that if you get divorced, all your rights would be revoked.

  2. I don’t think it matters as long as you have all the right paperwork with the right translations, stamps, approvals etc. I’m sure someone else has more insight to the matter.

  3. Will your money be paid to your account here or in the US or Canada? If you’re not getting paid here I don’t think you have to do anything, since you wouldn’t be filing for tax here. Legal status is a grey zone here sometimes, so in all fairness, as long as you don’t tell anyone, no-one’s going to ask what you do.

Just make sure you really want to live here, Taiwan is very different from the US and Canada and you haven’t said if you’ve even visited. Visiting here is still not the same as living here. How open/outgoing is your fiancé’s family? Just a word of warning, there are people who have posted on here that have had a great relationship with their girlfriend/fiancé, but once they get here, things go south pretty quickly because of their partners family not being as open minded as expected.

Can you live without your creature comforts from back home? Some things you can’t just get here, at least not easily. At least you sound like you’ll be pretty well off here if you can keep your current job which is likely to pay more than most jobs you can get here. Although I guess that depends what you’re doing for a living :laughing:

Also be prepared that the living standards might be different here to what you’re used to, although again, you should be able to get yourself a really nice place here on a US salary. Oh, and if you’re tall, expect to pay a premium for a large bed :smiley:

On the upside of things, this is an interesting place to live in and although I don’t like every aspect of life here, I have enjoyed my past two years here. It’s also a great starting point for traveling to the rest of Asia and it’s fairly cheap to travel to most destinations in Asia from Taiwan. You’ll be glad it is after a while, as you can get seriously fed up and then you just need to get off the island. An hour or two on a plane and you’ll be somewhere quite different. Then again, there are people on this forum that have somehow manged to stay sane here for 20 years or more :smiley:

I’m not trying to scare you off or anything, just have a good ponder about what you’re doing and about your future before you make such a big commitment. At least visit Taiwan before you move here, as you might hate the place, but then again, equally, you might fall in love with the green island.

Oh, and let me be the first to welcome you to Forumosa :slight_smile:

3

Yes I’ve been to Taiwan last summer for a couple of weeks and I realized how different it is from the standards I have here. The “living abroad in a totally different culture” part is not what scares me (actually I’m very interested about that), it’s more the transition from here to there since I don’t know about all that is involved for making that happen. Money would be transfer into a Taiwanese account.
Thanks for the tips on the bed… hehe
Hopefully things will work out smoothly…

4

It isn’t about where the money comes from or goes, it’s about where you earned it. If you were in Taiwan and working, it’s Taiwan-sourced income, and you owe tax on it in Taiwan.

On the marriage thing, it’s actually easier to get married in your home country and bring your certificate with you. Taiwan wants proof that you are married in the eyes of your home country to issue a JFRV.

Since Taiwan isn’t a recognised country in most places, its marriages aren’t necessarily recognised either, which leads to the ridiculous situation that for visa purposes, Taiwan accepts marriage certificates from anywhere except Taiwan!

Like many other couples, my wife and I actually left and went to HK to get married, to avoid this.

Once you’re married, you can apply for a JFRV directly at the TECO in your home country (if you have all the docs ready, including criminal record check and health check), or you can apply for a visitor visa and then change it in Taiwan (at least, you were able to change it last May when I did it, but TECO staff seem to like to insist that you can’t. They told me I couldn’t, and then I did. YMMV).

You can’t work on a visitor visa, no matter who it’s for. Though if you’re working for a US company and being paid outside Taiwan, no-one is gonna know.

5

Funny how my marriage certificate in Taiwan is recognized in Taiwan… Any marrige certificate issued by lawful authority here is recognized here. What a dumb ass thing to say.

Taiwan marriages are recognized world wide. How do you think Taiwanese get immigration visa’s for their spouses and children if they arent married. FFS there is some utter shite bandied around on this forum.

Taiwans UN status has nothing to do with the marriages here being recognized or not. Sheesh you guys dream up some good ones.

6

for visa purposes. Some countries recognise Taiwanese marriages, others – including England, at least when I checked – don’t. Which means that if I had only a Taiwanese marriage certificate, I’d have to also present some other piece of paper demonstrating that I was considered single in England, and we don’t have a marriage registry to issue such things, so I might have to fly back and get an affidavit and try to get it stamped by the TECO, and oh it goes on and on.

So, sure, I was exaggerating a little in the bit you bolded, but having a marriage certificate from elsewhere really does make it easier to get a JFRV.

I never said anything about the UN. I don’t know why exactly England doesn’t recognise Taiwanese marriages, but I’d guess it’s related to not having official diplomatic relations.

7

Brendon,

Taiwanese marriage certs are recognized for the UK. My wife has a spousal visa and that was obtained with a Taiwanese marriage cert.

What you can’t do is register your Taiwanese marriage in the UK registry of B, D and M. Only a bit of an issue if you want to go back and live there and get the missus a passport.

8

Stuart,

When did she get it? And did she have to provide some kind of proof of single-ness too?

I got mine in May last year, and at the time at least, the NIA were very clear that a Taiwanese cert alone wouldn’t cut it.

9

I’m not sure we’re talking abut the same thing here. How would she prove her singleness if she is married?

Got it October last year. As far as i remember she just had to take along our marriage cert, her birth cert (not sure about that one), a letter from my parents inviting her and her passport and fill in a bloody great form.

10

Maybe we’re not. I’m talking about obtaining a Taiwanese JFRV for a foreign spouse, whereas I guess you’re talking about getting a spousal visa for your Taiwanese wife in England. I’d heard that Taiwanese marriages had some problems on that end too in the past, but it may well have changed and we haven’t tried it.

Excellent question, and one that I never got a satisfactory answer to either. So far as I can tell, it’s like this:

  • You need a Certificate of Non-Impediment (CNI) to get married in Taiwan
  • But, you can get married in Taiwan by stamping a contract from 7-11 in your living room
  • So, the CNI actually comes when you try to get the foreign spouse added to the Taiwanese spouse’s household registration
  • At this point, if your marriage was in Taiwan, they want proof that you were eligible to marry at all, and this can be a real pain to obtain
  • Whereas if you got married somewhere which is recognised by your home country, then that document is all you need

The British Trade and Cultural Office in Taiwan has some more to say about this here and, like many guides I read and many friends I spoke to when I was gearing up for it, specifically suggests hopping over to HK instead to avoid the extra paper-chasing of a CNI.

Getting a CNI in England is further complicated because the British registry will not issue a piece of paper saying you are not married, since they don’t really know. They’ll only issue a piece of paper saying they have no record of your being married, and on a bad day the London TECO, or the Household Registration Office, or the NIA will decide that that isn’t good enough.

On a side note … at one point after I was married, but before I had all the paperwork to apply for a JFRV, I was applying for a Taiwan visitor visa in HK and had to argue for twenty minutes with the woman behind the counter about whether HK marriages were recognised in Britain, for heaven’s sake. In the end she went and fished out a great big binder and looked it up and conceded that they were, and said something like “it’s lucky you didn’t get married in Taiwan!”.

11

[quote=“Brendon”]for visa purposes. Some countries recognise Taiwanese marriages, [color=#0000FF]others – including England, at least when I checked – don’t.[/color] Which means that if I had only a Taiwanese marriage certificate, I’d have to also present some other piece of paper demonstrating that I was considered single in England,
[color=#0000FF]I don’t know why exactly England doesn’t recognise Taiwanese marriages, but I’d guess it’s related to not having official diplomatic rel[/color]ations.[/quote]

You are clearly confusing two separate issues. Foreigners wanting to marry in Taiwan need to show evidence that they are legally able to marry. This is done by a Stat Dec. Unlike zee Germans many foriengers like those from Australia the UK the US etc do not have ID cards or other documents that show they are single. People who have been previoulsy married need to show their divorce papers before marrying again.

You are misleading people when you say that marriages in Taiwan are not recognized. They are. If you get married in Taiwan your marriage is recognized for immigration visa for you spouse. There is no legal requirement to go to the UK and marry there again for your marriage to be considered valid.

Your guesses are also incorrect. Dilpomcatic relations has nothing to do with ensuring that a foreigner wishing to marry in Taiwan is leaglly able to do so. There are cases where people who are married overseas to another try to marry in Taiwan to a different person here.

12

She had to look it up. Yet you still think her last comment should be trusted.

How the hell would she know anything without “looking it up”

13

[quote=“Geoffriole”] So here are a few questions:

  1. Would getting married give me the right to work from Taiwan legally?

  2. Should we move first to Taiwan then get married or get married then move? From reading other posts, I understand I should get to Taiwan on a visitor visa and then get married, is that right?

  3. Once I’m legal to stay in Taiwan, what steps do I need to take to be legal to work from there as a self-employed? Could I start working while going thru that process?[/quote]

  4. If youa re married you can apply for residency based on marriage. One you have that in hand you can legally work. Process will take a couple of months or less.

  5. Getting married first would be fine but get your marriage certificate notorized and also sent to the Taiwan rep office for futher notorization. You will need this to apply for your residency by marriage here. Or you can come to Taiwan and get married. You will need a stat dec to say you are sinbgle so you could get that before you come to Taiwan, and get it notorized.

  6. Once you have your marriage based residency you do not need any further documents to allow you to work.

I have managed to live in Taiwan for 20 years and have never had a work permit. :smiley:

14

Brendon please stop making up porky pies. It’s not nice to lead astry newbies who need correct information. If you are single and want to get married in Taiwan then the Taiwan authorities want the non ROC partner to provide evidence such as a Statutory Declaration that you are single and that there is no impediment to the marriage. Thats to prevent bigomy.

This is also standard practise in the UK. There are many people who claim to be divorced, they need to show they legally are before getting remarried.

The local ROC partner will provide the household registration and ID card in Taiwan. IF the OP marries his fiancee overseas she will need to have the marriage certificate copied, notorized and stamped by TECO and MOFA I believe in order for her to have her husbands name added to her household registration. Then he can apply for the resident visa.

15

shrug The information I’ve given here is what was told to me by officials at the NIA / HRO / TECO when I did this a year ago. If it’s wrong, so be it, but it obviously wasn’t wrong enough to stop me getting a JFRV.

16

shrug The information I’ve given here is what was told to me by officials at the NIA / HRO / TECO when I did this a year ago. If it’s wrong, so be it, but it obviously wasn’t wrong enough to stop me getting a JFRV.[/quote]

[quote]Taiwan wants proof that you are married in the eyes of your home country to issue a JFRV. .[/quote]

Since when? This is not a requirement and never has been.

HRO doesn’t ask this at all. All they do is register a marriage, and if married locally all you need is the marriage certificate to add in the spouses name.

Please show us one document where it’s states your local Taiwan marriage is not recognized in Taiwan and that you required evidence that you and your wife are legally considered married in the UK to get a JFRV. Because this is what you are claiming

17

Isn’t this a little bit off topic now?

18

On the topic of the other part of your title, working from here. How long do you think you can maintain your job while working from here but your boss is in the UK? I know it is a personal question just I don’t know any cases that have succeeded for more than a year or so although you might be in publishing/art/translation business? Unlucky that sterling has taken a tumble but still better than earning in local currency.

19

I don’t know what the OP does, but I think a bunch of people in computer work do it successfully (it’s easier than real work, for obvious reasons). I’ve been working for a US company for four years now and I’ve never even met any of them, and I know at least three or four other software people here who work exclusively for companies back home.

20

Did you even bother reading his post? He’s from the US… :unamused:
And it’s no biggie working from home depending on your job, I do and I know loads of other people here that do the same thing.