If you have APRC, then Chunghwa will let you change to ID number instead of passport. I and Andrew have done it already.
Another workaround for those who have a spouse on discounted online only deal contracts where foreigners are excluded. Spouse can sign up, later go to a branch and transfer the contract to your name.
APRC holders are also are not required to make a deposit/have a guarantor for a contract.
yes, it is so bizarre that in telecommunication regulations only APRC is mentioned, while in all other laws it is always referred to a āresidence permitā or ARC/APRC. it is so random and silly.
This can be fought over, @Marco did win on this and now TW mobile doesnāt require guarantors for foreigners. Someone should do that with CHT too, grifters.
When I just had an ARC, I found Chunghua to be very non standard with the guarantor requirement. The offices in the city demanded one, but I just went into the nearest small town location and they did it no problem. TStar was the one that hated foreigners
From my interaction with Chunghwa staff where they eventually accepted my APRC, I feel like a suitably determined ARC holder could push this and ultimately get their way (depending on the staff members there at the time of course).
Their issue with me seemed to be that I was a foreigner (still am!), rather than whether I had an ARC or an APRC. It was a couple of months ago now, but Iām not sure whether the APRC aspect even really came up during the disagreement, and it was me who had to show the staff whatever law it was I showed them - they didnāt seem very familiar with it.
That was my experience with Chunghua years ago, and I had an APRC. They wanted nothing to do with a dirty foreigner like me. I went down the street to Taiwan Mobile and was welcomed with open arms 
I meanā¦ if the Chunghwa system accepts APRC numbers for this step, and it apparently does because both I and @slawa have done it, Iād be surprised if thereās a technical reason preventing it from also accepting regular ARC numbers.
I would have thought the input forms are divided into āTaiwaneseā and āforeignersā like they often are, rather than being divided into āTaiwaneseā and āAPRC holdersā or having Taiwanese and APRC holders listed together. If only because thereās pretty much zero chance that whoever designed the system thought about the different ātypesā of foreigners when they designed it, let alone thought about including APRC holders alongside Taiwanese.
What Iām saying is that in this case I think itās probably a human thing stopping ARC holders using their ARC numbers rather than a technical thing, and if itās a human thing I think an ARC holder might be able to get past it if theyāre annoying enough!
I suggest you reading the whole charade I had with TW mobile here
Yeah I read it before man, and I thought about it again as I was writing what I wrote above.
I still think an ARC holder might be able to push it through with Chunghwa and get their way based on my experience doing it with an APRC. Itās a different company and different staff members, and you know as much as anyone how inconsistent and made-up-on-the-spot these things can be.
I didnāt guarantee it would be possible and I donāt think itād be easy, but it wasnāt exactly easy doing it with an APRC either.
One suggestion I heard was to go not at the official shops, but those multi brand shops and do the contract there. I might try that and switch to FET, but I just find TW mobile reliable and good speed.
Iām not sure those non-official shops can do the thing I did. At least the one I tried couldnāt for updating the details on my prepaid Chunghwa SIM - they told me they didnāt have access to that system and I needed to go to an official store.
I was referring more to opening a contract than making changes to a present contract.
My fight was with the now-dissolved Asia Pacific Telecom, branded as GT4G.
I heard GT and Tstar are both respectively getting swallowed up by the big 3 carriers. They werenāt foreign friendly anyway but it does mean less competition overall which sucks
GT was taken over by FET, and instead of moving GT customers over to the FET network, they are still on the old GT network which for some reason is slowly getting worse (maybe they are slowly moving over the GT network infrastructure to FET thus making the experience for users still on the GT network worse). If you go into the store and complain, they tell you to sign a new contract with FET itself, which will be an increase of $200-300 dollars if you previously had a very cheap GT plan.
Iāve encountered another one today.
I recently signed up for a ēå±± bank account + credit card, and the staff at the bank directed me to install the Wallet banking app. It works for viewing my credit card balance and adding the bank card to Apple Pay, but the digital wallet features (which includes support for PayPay in Japan) requireā¦wait for itā¦ real name verification. And only a national ID card can be used, which means that foreigners canāt use it. Even though the verification form pre-fills my ARC number, it still canāt be submitted.
I never bothered with Chunghua, but like you I found dealing with Taiwan Mobile to be a breezeāno issues whatsoever.
Guy
I managed to use esun wallet!
Have you done the real name verification?
I did, I donāt remember having issues though