Do foreigners still need to register with the local police station if there’s a change of address ? I haven’t done it in years and I have moved multiple times.
How about newborns ? Is it required to register them once they get their first ARC ?
Thanks
I am not sure to be honest. I came across this article that says something about foreigners needing to register their newborn at the local police station. Don’t know if this is outdated.
At the police station? No. I haven’t heard of anyone registering anything like that at a local police station for a long time. It used to be fun, they would try to trip you up to get you to admit you were teaching illegally.
Can’t believe they used to do that. Who goes after teachers ? That’s probably the least threatening / harmful occupation for someone to be doing illegally.
You are supposed to inform NIA - National Immigration Agency- of any change of address as they may send important information - free cancer screening, for example- to your address or, Heck, it is the law and if you don’t you will be fined…heavily. You are given a reasonable amount of time to do so.
In theory, you should get an ARC for the newborn ASAP as well, he may need medical attention or a vaccine or two and you need the ARC to register such kid for NHI - National Health Insurance. We fought hard to get newborns this right, do not take it lightly. I am assuming here the kid is produced by two foreigners and hence a foreigner, with not one parent Taiwanese. Nationality on this island is via sanguis, meaning by right of blood, not by being born here on this land, so only Taiwanese can give birth to Taiwanese.
Ah, yes, the good old days of police registration. Now they dumped The Foreigner Issue into a single new agency’s lap, the NIA. To make things even more interesting, their computers are linked with the tax office. Enjoy.
I remember after the 9-11 attacks, the French Embassy asked my friend to enlist all the French citizens in Taitung in a group for possible evacuation. He was delegated to be the group’s president, and he was asked to name a corresponding secretary. He named his four-year-old son, the only other French citizen in Taitung.
Hell, we fought hard for jus sanguis; they changed the law 22 or 23 years ago. My first-born could only registered as a Canadian, and at the time only had residence in Taiwan until the age of 20. I had screaming matches over my other two with the local Foreign Affairs Police (he was an actual mainlander, and, okay, maybe I shouldn’t have called him a ragged-ass fugitive on a refugee boat).