Updated!
Referring to the latest updates, the procedure for plum blossom APRC holders to acquire citizenship has been streamlined. However, there is no information available regarding the required duration, specifically the five-year period. Have you come across any information on this matter?
I’ve read this from a blog:
Relaxation In Time Restriction For Stay
Article 4 adds a bit of relaxation to the 5-year time restriction and allows one to apply for citizenship in 3 years if that resident had married a Taiwanese National.
However, there are some relaxations for foreign residents. They’ll be allowed to apply for citizenship after staying for three years if they are married to a Taiwanese citizen.
Also, having pursued Ph.D. from Taiwan will reduce the time frame to 3 years.
I think they recently reduced the time to two years.
It is for high level professionals such as yourself.
Archived Article
Taipei, Sept. 21 (CNA) Taiwan’s Cabinet on Thursday approved draft amendments to the Nationality Act to ease residency requirements for foreign professionals applying for naturalization and to allow social welfare government agencies to apply for naturalization on behalf of stateless children residing in Taiwan.
The Ministry of the Interior said during a media briefing that to improve professional talent retention, the required period of residence would be cut from three to two years for foreign professionals applying for naturalization.
Currently, foreign professionals need to have legally and continuously resided in Taiwan for three years – present in the country for at least 183 days a year – before being eligible to apply for naturalization.
The draft bill also stipulates foreign nationals who have made substantial contributions in the fields of medicine, social welfare, or education in Taiwan, or have significantly contributed to remote areas of the country, will be exempt from paying the NT$1,200 (US$37.33) fee for their Republic of China (Taiwan) nationality documents.
Meanwhile, to better protect children’s rights, the draft bill includes a new provision that allows social welfare authorities or institutions that act as guardians of stateless children to apply for ROC nationality on their behalf, the MOI said.
Under the existing law, only adoptive parents of stateless persons who are unmarried minors can apply for ROC naturalization on their behalf, if at least one of the adoptive parents is a ROC citizen, according to the MOI.
In addition, as Taiwan has amended its Civil Code to lower the legal age of majority – the threshold of adulthood – from 20 to 18, the draft bill also altered the “unmarried minors” wording in the existing Nationality Act to “unmarried and under the age of 18.”
Look if you’re so keen on citizenship, stop and learn how laws get passed here.
In the Tsai government, often it’s the National Development Council (NDC) that is drafting policy direction, which gets passed to the Cabinet (now headed by Premier Chen), who draft laws, which then get sent to the Legislative Yuan, which needs to pass those bills for them to become law. As written above, the story indicates it’s gone from the Cabinet on the legislature. But we’re in October 2023, with an election coming in January 2024. Will this get passed quickly, or will it—like many proposed changes to immigration law—get stalled in the legislature? Unless you have direct connections to the legislative members, you can—like the rest of us—only wait and see what happens.
legally staying for more than 183 days in total every year for more than two years, or has been legally staying in the territory of the Republic of China for more than five years.