New legislation- TARC still needed for NWOHR?

Been doing a little digging… the best info I could find so far in English was here on the forum:

From that thread:

The required documents seem to be:

  1. Application form
  2. Photos
  3. Passport
  4. Health exam
  5. A copy of the lineal relative’s household registration (see below)
  6. Parents’ marriage relationship certificate
  7. Birth certificate
  8. Other documents depending on circumstances: e.g. if NWOHR child was born abroad, then ROC passport(s) of parent(s) must be provided; if parents are divorced, then a custody document must be provided;

For point 5, the government webpage asks for 在台戶籍謄本, but the linked forum post above seems to indicate that:

Therefore, it seems that for a deceased Taiwanese parent who left Taiwan, the required document for point 5 is not 戶籍謄本, but is instead a 除戶藤本 document. This seems to be further supported by a later post in that above thread, saying that for an AF384-based TARC, the 除戶藤本 was accepted instead of a 戶籍謄本.

A further snag is that in the above linked post, it seems that the poster’s lineal relative had left Taiwan, but was not yet deceased, In this case, in order to obtain the lineal relative’s 除戶藤本 document, it was necessary to either:

  1. Provide an old copy of the lineal relative’s 戶籍謄本 in order to ask for the 除戶藤本 document (at the HHR office).

  2. Provide a power-of-attorney statement signed by the lineal relative, in order to ask for the 除戶藤本 document (at the HHR office).

In my case, the lineal relative is deceased (ruling out option 2 to sign a power-of-attorney statement), and there is no old copy of the 戶籍謄本 document (ruling out option 1).

I hope there is some way for me, as the descendant of the lineal relative, to prove my relationship to the lineal relative and to thus request the 除戶藤本 document myself.

Another post in the above thread hints at this possibility of obtaining required documents for a deceased lineal relative without requiring a power-of-attorney statement (授權書), and instead proving that the deceased person is deceased and proving the relationship to the deceased lineal relative:

So, it might be an interesting exercise next time I am in Taiwan to try to get this 除戶藤本 for my deceased Taiwanese parent. I’m guessing I would need:

  1. Deceased parent’s ROC passport
  2. Proof of death (death certificate) and Chinese translation.
  3. Proof of relationship: Birth certificate showing my name and father’s name, and Chinese translation.

As for providing Chinese-translated documents for #2 and #3, any idea if a self-translated (not certified by TECO) document would suffice to convince the HHR office that I am indeed the descendant of my deceased lineal relative, and to have the HHR office give me the 除戶藤本 for my deceased parent?

Will you be dealing with the HHR office directly even though you’re overseas? I wonder if you should be dealing with TECO in your country instead, but maybe not.

I can only tell you that self-translated documents are okay with TECO/NIA/MOFA as long as the translation is checked over and notarized by a bilingual notary that provides this service. I have no idea what the HHR office’s requirements are.

I assumed (maybe wrongly?) that documents issued by the HHR office, like 除戶藤本, can only be obtained in-person at an HHR office in Taiwan. Do you know if that’s right?

I don’t want to start my HHR application just yet (the new law has not come into effect yet anyway), but as preparation for a future HHR application, I was thinking that if I could prepare the required 除戶藤本 document, that will save me time later. So for now my interest is just in obtaining the 除戶藤本 document, partially as practice in dealing with the relevant authorities, and partially as preparation for the future HHR application.

iiuc, the death registration needs to be done in person, can be by your agent, but maybe you can request the transcript by mail, if the registration wad already done.

https://service.gov.taipei/Case/ApplyWay/2018122400702502
郵寄申請附繳證件應以正本證件辦理,並附規費及貼足掛號郵資之回郵信封。

It has been a long time since I looked at this stuff, but keep in mind that you probably need to get the death certificate authenticated by the TECO nearest where the death certificate was issued. Ideally, the English/romanized name of the deceased would match the English/romanized name on their Taiwan passport. Please double check whether this is needed or not – it may save you a trip back and forth. As for the translation, I’m not sure about those requirements. Best to ask.

That seems right, but there might be a way to have someone do it in your behalf if they have all the required documents and maybe power of attorney.

When I called them before to ask for a document, they assumed I was overseas, and they started explaining the procedure for having someone else go in for me, before I stopped them and told them I was in town.

It is sure you need this.

I also plan to make an inquiry at my local TECO about this, but 2 questions:

  1. Expiry date: When you “authenticate” a document like a death certificate at the TECO (nearest where the death certificate was issued), does that authenticated document then have some expiration date? In other words, is it possible that the HHR office in Taiwan will say, “this authenticated document is too old, sorry, you have to get a newer version of the authenticated document”?

  2. Notarization of Chinese translation: The TECO office’s homepage says that if you provide a Chinese translation, then it’s necessary to have the translation notarized by a Northern California, Nevada, Utah Notary Public. Sigh… that would be a huge waste of resources to need to fly to the US just to get something notarized, when the rest of the procedure can be handled by mail. Any suggestions or experience about how to handle this in practice? One option (discussed here) seems to be to have TECO in the USA authenticate only the English-language document. Then, with the TECO-authenticated English-language document in hand, prepare a Chinese-language translation of the document and get that translation notarized in Taiwan. That’s still a quite annoying burden, but flying to Taiwan is more practical at the moment than flying to the USA. This post also says that you can get only the English document authenticated by TECO (TRO), then do the Chinese translation separately and get that notarized in Taiwan (not by TECO/TRO): Translation and Certification of Documents - #11 by springonion . One other option might be to try to get TECO in the USA to authenticate the Chinese-translated document, but instead of using a California in-person notary public, instead use an online California notary service – but I’m not sure if TECO would accept an online-notarized translation instead of an in-person-notarized translation. If anyone has any experience in this area about the easiest way to handle the required notarization of translated documents, I’d be happy to hear your advice.

No. Also you need to get TECO documents reauthorised at BOCA in Taiwan

Here are the easy steps I follow whenever I need something translated and notarized.

Step 1. Notarise at TECO in the home country of the document. (2 - 4 weeks plus postage - took me 10 minutes to write and post the application)

Step 2: Renotarize at BOCA (2 days + 20-40 minutes waiting in line to each submit and collect)

Step 3: Go to the major courthouse in the city. Outside of the courthouse are translation services. Request that they also do the notarization (they will get the courthouse stamp for you too) - Saving you time lining up etc… (1 day plus 5 minutes submitting and collecting)

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Not a direct answer, but here is what you need for the death registration in Chinese.

1、檢察機關、軍事檢察機關、醫療機構出具 之相驗屍體證明書、死亡證明書或法院為 死亡宣告之裁判確定後。not aplicable to your case

2、申請人之國民身分證、印章(或簽名)。

3、死亡者之國民身分證、戶口名簿,死亡者 有配偶者,另檢附配偶國民身分證及最近 2 年所攝正面符合規定之半身彩色照片 1 張或數位相片及規費 50 元辦理換證。(國 民身分證相片規格可至「內政部戶政司全 球資訊網」-主題資訊-國民身分證專區-國 民身分證相片規格 https://www.ris.gov.tw/app/portal/187 查詢,繳 交數位相片者請至內政部戶政司全球資訊 網-網路申辦服務-國民身分證-國民身分證 影像上傳 中華民國 內政部戶政司 全球資訊網 - 國民身分證影像上傳 上傳數位相片)。

4、委託他人代辦者,另附委託書及受委託人國民身分證、簽名(或印章)。

5、國外死亡者,憑其死亡地之醫院出具死亡證明,須經我駐外使館處、代表處、辦事 處或其他外交部授權機構驗證,如係外文 證明文件應翻譯成中文經駐外單位驗證或 經外交部複驗或法院、民間公證處公證。
If the supporting documents are in a foreign language, they should be translated into Chinese and verified by the overseas unit or re-inspected by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or notarized by a court or a private notary office.

6、遭遇特別災難未尋獲屍體,尚不足確定其 確已死亡,仍應先為失蹤人口之註記,俟 利害關係人或檢察官向法院聲請為死亡宣 告裁定確定後,再辦理死亡宣告登記。 not aplicable to your case

7、大陸地區死亡之證明文件須經大陸地區公 機構公證後經我海基會驗證。 not aplicable to your case

8、死亡宣告登記免經催告程序,由戶政事務 所逕行為之。not aplicable to your case

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Here, are you referring to “authentication” of the documents, as described for example on this page? https://www.roc-taiwan.org/ussfo_en/post/114.html

And, at this stage, you are providing the TECO office with only the English-language document, correct? (Because the TECO office will not handle the Chinese-language document unless it is notarized, and that notarization procedure seems to require in-person presence in the country of the responsible TECO office.)

Related question: If you provide only one original document, plus several photocopies of the original document, can TECO authorize all of the documents? I ask because it seems you may need lots and lots of authorized copies of the documents for the various offices in Taiwan, and I’m wondering if those required several authorized copies can all be generated from one original document plus photocopies of that original.

Here, are you referring to document authentication at BOCA as described at Bureau of Consular Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China(Taiwan)-Document Authentication Services ?

And again, at this stage, you are providing only English-language documents, correct?

So in this step you are providing the English-language documents (at this stage, now authorized by both TECO in the country that issued the documents, and by the Taiwanese BOCA) to the Taiwanese translation service, and they do (1) translation and (2) notarization? Is it possible to do the translation yourself and only get the (2) notarization done by these services at the courthouse? Do you have any links to some companies that provide these services near the courthouse (in Taipei)?

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Agree with @comfy123 on this…this is the easiest way to get any foreign documents attested and notarized. As I have done in 2010 and also in 2015 {Post 1184}, the procedure basically is the same–> Get the doc attested by a TECO nearest to you, get it re-attested by MOFA/BOCA in Taiwan (They will confirm if the TECO’s stamp is authentic or not by stamping on the doc), get it translated, then take both docs and get it notarized by a notary public or a court…

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Great, I think I understand. Just one note – at least for some kinds of documents (like a death certificate, and presumably also for marriage certificates and the like), the document must be authenticated at the TECO office in the country that issued the document. So for example for a USA death certificate, you cannot (in my understanding) get just any TECO office to authenticate that document – you have to contact the TECO office in the USA (and responsible for the state/region that issued the certificate) to authenticate that document, since only that USA regional TECO office has the capability to know what a real USA regional death-certificate looks like.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention one important point—> TECO will not just authenticate/attest any document unless you get that document attested first by the local Ministry of External Affairs department of the State in which that document was issued.

For example, back in 2008, I needed to get my Single Certificate (issued in Kolkata, India) attested by TECO in Delhi, India…the steps I took were—> First I got my Single Certificate attested by the local MOEA in my State, after getting that stamp, I sent it to the TECO in Delhi and they attested and sent it back to my parents who then forwarded it to me in Taiwan where I took it to MOFA/BOCA to get it re-attested, then I translated it myself and got it notarized by a Notary Public.

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yes.

Thank you. I will work through your post in detail soon.

I’m trying to figure out what I need to do, in what order, and you raise a good point: my goal is to get the 除戶藤本 document for my deceased Taiwanese parent, but before I can even get that document, maybe I have to register the death at the Taiwanese HHR office…?

So I guess, very roughly, the sequence of steps might be:

  1. TECO in USA: authenticate death certificate, marriage certificate, my birth certificate (all to prove the death of the lineal relative, and my relationship). Process should be able to be handled by mail only, without needing to travel there physically.

  2. BOCA in Taiwan: authenticate same documents in Taiwan. Requires travel to Taiwan.

  3. Translate (by myself, with help from Google, etc.) all documents into English.

  4. Take English+Chinese documents as a set and get them all notarized in Taiwan by a notary public or a court. Requires travel to Taiwan.

  5. Register death with HHR in Taiwan (details in your post, I need to review).

  6. Show authenticated and notarized English and Chinese translation of death certificate, marriage certificate, and my birth certificate, to prove my relationship to the deceased lineal relative.

  7. Finally, request the 除戶藤本 document from the HHR office.

Whew, just preparing this one document seems like a pretty big project.

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Yes so you authenticate the English first, Reauthenticate at BOCA and THEN get it translated.

Translation agencies are well versed and those opposite the courthouses offer notarization services for an additional fee. Use it as the fee is well worth it and saves you lots of time

I’m just a little worried about the fees here…

Let’s say I have 3 original documents (birth certificate, marriage certificate, death certificate) and, for safety, I prepare 9 photocopies of each document, for a total of 10 copies of each document, or 30 documents total. I get all of those authenticated by TECO in the issuing country, and by BOCA in Taiwan, then finally ask the translation agency to translate and notarize these 30 documents (30 pages).

Any idea how much that would cost? Are they willing to provide additional copies of the translation without charging the same translation fee for each additional copy? So would it be a translation fee for 3 pages (3 original documents), plus notarization fees for the entire 60-page set (30 pages English, 30 pages translated Chinese)?

You can. But I do suggest using a licensed service to avoid complications.

the fees do add up. I’ve forgotten how much I paid I think it was 1000NTD to get my document notarized and translated.

All up 30-50K with all those if you include TECO fees, BOCA fees, Translation and Notarization

The translation agency gave a complimentary copy