Today I went to apply for my second ARC (joining family one) in Ximen Taipei Police.
as I arrived to the police station and went to talk with the lady on the counter (an oba-san that surelly doesn’t have “any” at home) started complaining in Mandarin… I just answered to her I don’t speak Mandarin, if she could tell me whatever in English. Some more complain in Mandarin came… Well, it looks like the laws have changed, but the papers who say what you need didn’t. So after a bit of talking to her and asking what was wrong, I discovered that. Seems I was missing the household registration, which is now needed (only had the marriage certificate and was waiting on my wife to come (also needed)). So, she just threw me a paper and asked me all this:
- My wife (important rule, since December last year)
- 2 photos
- Passport + copy of the Passport main page and copy of the Visa page
- ARC + copy of the ARC
- Marriage Certificate + copy of the translation of the Marriage certificate, complete with the approval by the ROC Embassy, Consulate or Trade Office abroad
- A Joining Family’s transcript of Household Registration (valid within 3 months)
- A Joining Family’s Household Registration or the dependent’s ARC/APRC
- Original Rental Contract, plus copies of the front and back page of the Contract (for people renting appartment)
Ok, I must be crazy or whatever, but the Household registration is a demand to get the JFRV, so, if I have a JFRV, for sure I am registered in a household with my wife. The answer from them → your wife could have been expelled by her family. My answer → how did I get it for the JFRV? Their answer - They don’t know the papers you need for a JFRV, not their department.
So, she sent me away. As I know public workers this side of town, I called my wife and told her I would look around and ask someone else. I went to the information counter and asked where to get those papers → the girl say, if I make a request, there… meanwhile my wife arrived, and she started to talk Mandarin with the woman, filled up that request and 1 minute later my household reg appeared… nothing that the oba-san couldn’t do in 20 seconds.
After getting that paper, we went to the guy left to the oba-san, he asked all the papers (meanwhile, I made the copies I was missing) sticked a new reentry permit in my passport (canceled the old), cut the side of my old ARC, filled up the papers and told me to go there wednesday (If I need to go abroad meanwhile, he told me to tell the guys in the customs that my ARC is currently under work and, for that, I couldn’t show any).
Hope this info is good for you guys.
The funniest part came when I was discussing with the Oba-san about why the papers say something wrong, than she told me that they had a big pile of them upstairs and that they couldn’t throw them away. The main difference between the new law and the old one is some parantesis (which makes all the difference in the world).