Opportunities for a Vietnamese national in Taiwan

I’d stay away from Facebook groups. Most of those groups are collections of butt-hurt dwellers who prey on FOTB people and assume the most stereotypical image of the people coming into Taiwan because most of them were just that! :rofl:

As I type I saw your comment, bingo!

I’m not an expert, but I’m sure others can chime in. Good luck to you!

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If her Mandarin skills is up for it, she can get a job in the service sectors, working in restaurants, hotels, or shops. If both her English and Mandarin skills are decent, she will have more opportunities.

I suppose if her Mandarin is good to a certain level, there’s really nothing stopping her from picking whatever career she wish to go in to.

This info is not specific for Vietnamese, but requirements for foreigners to get work permit and ARC.

https://ezworktaiwan.wda.gov.tw/en/Content_List.aspx?n=3840722B002ADEAB

Basically, the requirements are university degree and 2 year experience, or 5 year experience without a degree in the field.

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Even in east Asia ? I could see this happening in Europe, but I would be surprised if westerners in east Asia thought that

Less so in Taiwan I must say. The FB groups for expats in Vietnam were full of some of the most toxic people I’ve ever encountered. It’s sad really.

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Ok

Anyway, it will be tricky for her to get a visa. Perhaps the easiest is if you got married ? Someone else can comment on how easy it would be for you to bring her with you if you were married

If you do decide go the above route, you can do it in hk quite easy and it’s not expensive, it’s like 30usd or so

Oh btw, in hk you will need some witnesses so keep that in mind, but usually you can get someone to attend if you post online and ask if someone’s got the time

If she needs/wants to work before OP and she get APRC and open work permit, a student ARC may be the only option to give her a work permit. Or, entrepreneurs visa.

Once she gets a degree in Taiwan, she can get a work permit for a job in the field. Tourism might be good to use her Vietnamese language skills.

Getting Education degree and teacher license, or any degree and credentials related to social welfare might be able to use being Vietnamese too.

While learning, she can get a work permit for student to do a part-time job.

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What’s her English language level? My advice would be for her to apply to do her undergraduate degree here in the area she is interested in. The English only degrees are generally limited to business or linguistics, but more are being opened as the universities desperately try to get more students. She will get reduced course fees.

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though I added this option, it may not give her a work permit after her graduation. If you and she get APRC, this can be an option, maybe.

I suppose the critical question is: what does she actually want to do with her life? If she doesn’t have some specific goal, she’s likely to be shunted through the path of least resistance, eg., working as a waitress in a Vietnamese restaurant.

Taiwan isn’t a great place for Vietnamese people to immigrate to, but there is a meritocracy of sorts here. At minimum she will need to become fluent in Mandarin, English, or both. Beyond that, life’s what you make it. The suggestions about doing an undergrad degree are good, but pick a course that she can actually be enthused about.

For undergrad degree, there are many scholarships too, which Vietnamese can apply. Some of them are for SEA students.

https://www.studyintaiwan.org/search/sches?degree=0&field=0&subject=0&continent=2&country=38&school_name_en=

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I’m sorry you’ve been exposed to hurtful comments. People are assholes (usually projecting their own insecurities or issues on to innocent bystanders). Stay off reddit and Facebook groups. You’ve come to the right place.

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Would it be better if I said “you’ve come to a place that is slightly less toxic than those other places”?

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There are lots of business opportunities for vietnam. Cina isnusing them because of the trade war and taiwan is using them because taiean has no FTA…so MANY companies are setting up shop in vietnam for these 2 reasons especially. There is quite easily work in that whole mess of a “field”! If she is good at accounting then it would be easy to catch up in taiwan law and go from there as a self employed person setting up a company here. Maybe ecen you can get hired on in the future for your visa. Its not as hard as it used to be.

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Prob lots of college courses they could enroll in.
Work at a bar or restaurant, or start a good VN restaurant that serves more than pho and bahn mi
tutor english
find schools with vn kids work as a counselor/teacher
tour guide for the few remaining visitors that qualify for a visa
Art gallery or music space
translation work between Chinese/TW and VN companies
import export clothing, sell VN clothes?

most of these are prob dumb but with a higher education and good English could find some interesting things to do. Inform TW locals about how great VN is somehow. Maybe a public access cable show highlighting culture, news etc. debunking the common stereotypes, featuring artists/culture/politics from there.

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If she prefers her own business, this site she may need to check.

https://startup.sme.gov.tw/taiwan-entrepreneur-visa/

And this thread may be some help.

She should try for an education in Taiwan I think. Either she can do a university degree or Chinese language study in a good university. Or both. As mentioned it may be possible to get a scholarship. Also foreign spouses can get free chinese classes but I don’t know about your case.

My honest opinion is to make things work in either in the UK or Vietnam. It’s hard being a foreigner, especially at the beginning, and one of the two will end up doing all the work (dealing with all the hassles) related to being a foreigner for both of you. I lived in Korea with my Taiwanese wife. She was a student there. We then lived in the US (my home country) and now we’re in Taiwan. I would not recommend a third country for an unmarried couple. Maybe as a married couple and with a company sending one of the two there which would take care of all the paperwork of being foreign nationals.

Edit: My wife and I lived in Korea when we were still boyfriend and girlfriend. Don’t recommend this kind of scenario.

I agree but in the case of Taiwan it seems that living here should be relatively easy for Vietnamese (similar climate and culture), cheap flights back, and she can learn Chinese which is very useful.
Living in Vietnam is not a bad option either.

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