Entrepreneur visa looks interesting, but extension criteria are really steep. Within the first year you need to either: employ 3 ROC citizens, make NT$3mm+ revenue, or spend NT$1mm+ on operational expenses. Almost 1/3 of the first year will be company setup, and extension needs to be filed 40 days before, so it’s more like NT$3mm revenue in 9 first months of business… Doesn’t sound realistic.
Anybody successfully extended their visa? Any tips? I wonder if paying yourself a ~NT$80k/month salary counts towards operational expenses? If so, it might be hard but doable.
The other option is a more traditional company formation with NT$500k paid up capital to issue a work permit for 3 years. I’ve been quoted some wildly different sums for company formation: from NT$50k to 200k. None of them include bank account opening, which seems to be one of the biggest issues for foreigner-owned companies.
Another disadvantage of a generic work permit is spouse status. As far as I understand, Entrepreneur visa allows to apply as a “team” (up to 3 ppl), whereas the work permit will not allow my wife to legally work in Taiwan.
Anything I’m missing? Any tips on how to organize this process better? Thanks!
Thanks Marco! Will reach out to Crowe. PS: One important detail I forgot to mention, my wife is a PRC citizen. It seems that getting a work permit for her complicates things a lot.
I will! Alas, she doesn’t have any other PRs. I think having a dependent visa should be okay too, if doing a work permit proves too hard.
RE: location, still locked down at home in Shanghai (day 52). We’ve long been in disagreement with PRC policies, and the recent Shanghai disaster was the last straw. Once possible, we’ll probably fly out to Thailand first to reach out to the local Taiwan Rep. Office.
Godspeed. If it was me, I’d have probably walked to the airport at the dead of night.
What nationality are you if I may ask? Perhaps your country may offer some form of PR or citizenship to your wife. Maybe then could claim overseas nationality with the ROC.
I’m from Russia originally. Left back in 2008 and lived all across SEA, finally coming to Shanghai somewhere in '14. In theory, she can apply for Russian citizenship (I would not recommend to… especially lately), but she’ll have to give up PRC citizenship, and we do have elderly parents to take care of. So it’s a bit complicated.
Eh it depends. A friend of mine took Canadian citizenship and then went back to China as a foreigner.
With the Russian, then she could become Taiwanese and then have the ability to go in and out of China as she pleases with a passport that lets her travel because the PRC continues to insist Taiwan is part of the PRC. Taiwanese get the same treatment in China as locals, but with the ability to become dual citizens. And Russia allows dual citizens.
That’s interesting, are you talking about the “Overseas Chinese Passport”? Seems like it needs 4 years, but I will dig deeper, this is something we never considered. What we did consider is going to Argentina or Peru for 2 years and change both of our citizenships, as we are both… let’s say, deeply unsatisfied with the direction our countries are taking.
That’s possible too. And Argentina disallows loss of citizenship. So… You can still be dual.
Yeah. Overseas Chinese nationality. Basically, the only way to have dual citizenship with China is to become Taiwanese at the end of the day. Once you’re done being overseas Chinese in Taiwan, you can become Taiwanese.
I don’t think it’s “automatic”, it’s still a long process to hire yourself as a C-level exec for the new company. You need to engage a CPA company to do that. I think it will take about 1-2 months at best, maybe longer. I did not do it yet, saving money and wrapping things up here in Shanghai. The visa, as they say, is typically given for 3 years, and after that you need to extend it. The minimum requirement for extension is NT$3,000,000 annual revenue for the company.
After setting up the company and having a work visa is it then automatic that you can travel to Taiwan? Or is a business visa still required for entry, based on CURRENT covid regulations?
This I don’t know. I’m escaping the nightmare that is CCP China’s Zero COVID policy (to Bangkok) and coming to Taiwan next year, mostly because of Taiwan’s rather cautious approach to Omicron. As long as there’s ANY kind of restrictions in place (beyond reasonable things like mask on the MTR) I’m personally just staying away.
If you setup a company in Taiwan and hire yourself you will have resident status (ARC). Which means you have freedom in Taiwan and can travel as a freely as a citizen. It is relatively easy I. taiwan, just need to make sure your sales receipts match the quotas set by the gov And also note your receipts are sent to the tax pubas (or your accountant) bi monthly.
You could apply the Entrepreneur visa first then open the company. This would allow more time to grow the company and meet the requirements for renewal of the director work permit if switch to that after EV, or the renew the EV itself.
The Entrepreneur Visa is being revamped and expanded from 1 year for the initial application to 2 years. The regulations have already been released and put into effect by the MOEA:
Though where it says about applying online, the portal isn’t actually ready yet as it’s the responsibility of MOI, and MOFA may have to do things on their side too so they may still only issue a 1 year visa… anyway, if wait until after Chinese New Year it maybe will be all implemented and ready to go.
Updating the EV from 1 year to 2 years I think will be of great help to entrepreneurs setting up a business here and growing it, as the actual paperwork of opening the company takes time too.
And also note your receipts are sent to the tax pubas (or your accountant) bi monthly.