I made no reference to myself in the OP and subsequent posts.
This kind of stuff, immigration methods and surrounding topics, is really fascinating to me. It’s a hobby of mine to find out more about it. And the information dug up could really be of help to people in the future.
Actually, he’s got an important point. Anyone with enough money who wants to move to Taiwan simply CAN’T currently under current regulations.
Think of this as the dilemma for retirement. In the ol country, if you want to settle as a retired resident, there is a simple, straightforward, legal way to do it. Taiwan simply lacks this legal procedure/figure.
With a rapidly aging population, and a myriad of mosquito halls in desperate need of buyers, retirees would make easy pidgeons, pardon my French. Offer a “discount” -compared to their own countries of origin, but let’s say, double the local’s rate for the same income,- and our NHI problems would be solved. Entice them with safety, medical access, and most importantly, respect for the elderly, and BINGO, Bob’s your uncle -or rather, I’d get you Uncle Bob and his silly money wasting ways here in a jiffy. I’d throw in Auntie Dina, current in Filipinas with her Overseas Chinese hubby.
These retirees have to live here, say 183 days a year, so, unlike the Great Landowners who gloat on having 80 rentals or at least like our legislators with 20 plus empty houses,- this people have to eat and buy stuff those 183 days of the year. Fix the house. Buy a felpudo. It is good for the economy. Because they are forced to consume locally, unlike those remote landowners or retired generals who do not live on this island, but prefer Shanghai or Hangzhou, with alternate choice in the Hamptoms or Manhattan.
But no. Their first thought is we’ll suck off dry the NHI… like those “Overseas” Taiwanese who live in the US, Canada, UK and other developed nations but come to Taiwan for anything from a chipped tooth to open heart surgery, because it is practically free for them -especially if they haven’t paid their taxes or NHI in a while, or are paying just the minimum. But they are citizens, you know, and born here, I mean, CHINESE!..Cough, sorry for the lack of PC, I mean, Hua Ren, non atoga. Even though we pay double what they do and still are seen as chupopteros/leeches of the system.
I do recall there being a retirement visa arrangement in Taiwan for elderly Japanese a while back…only Japanese, mind you, because they’re, like, clean and polite and all that. There were plans for an upscale retirement community for them somewhere in Nantou, but I think it got scrapped due to lack of interest. The Japanese retirees, apparently, didn’t find the locals clean and polite enough. 
Yeah, they were all like
You bastards!! We left this place clean, organized, beautiful, and self sufficient! We go away for 60 frigging years, and frigging LOOK at the place!!! Screw this!!
And they left in a Nipponese huff.
It was set to failure from the beginning. High requirements very restrictive even for Japanese. Then the “bad” experience in Nantou and “bad” -ungrateful they called it- reaction from Japanese “complaining” -they did not last 3 months, the two test subjects. As if you could draw a conclusion from that pool.
Yet you have all the elderly priests and nuns and you would have a lot more or retired folk here if so allowed. I mean, even 4th wortld countries can manage and benefit, not to say profit, from it. So the problem here in Taiwan is systemic.
Yeah, it all boils down to arrogance…and thin skin. Extremely high standards for outsiders, combined with low local standards…not exactly a formula for success.
I mean, they do it halfway because they do not want to do it but don’t want to lose face saying they did not want to do it or did not do it all… and find a way to shift the blame to those “ungrateful” furriners…
Somedays, it is very difficult to be the last peg in the rig…
You can’t get a retirement visa, true, but if money’s no issue, there’s some room for creativity.
You can be a perpetual tourist, assuming they’re satisfied with your steady stream of overseas income (pension or whatever) and don’t accuse you of secretly working (even online) in Taiwan.
If you want an ARC there are still options. If you get a student ARC (which won’t lead to an APRC), can you get away with being a bad and chronically absent student as long as you pay your tuition and don’t use your student status as an excuse to work?
If you fall in love there’s the spousal ARC option, which will lead to an APRC.
And I seem to recall there’s also some kind of foreign investor program.
Would that lead to be able to become a white Asian though? (Taiwanese passport)
Time on a student residence permit does not count towards the time of residency required for applying for naturalization.
$30 million invested in Taiwanese government bonds and they simply give you a Plum Blossom APRC. https://www.immigration.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=1090225&ctNode=30085&mp=2
That’s a lot more than the money I was thinking of. I was thinking more in terms of about NT$6 million in savings to live here for 5 years. Again I would like to empathize that this does not describe me!
Risky. Plenty of horror stories of marriages that went south, often due to the Taiwanese spouse being a nut. No problem once you have your APRC, but you need to hold your JFRV for 5 years and you can’t keep it if your spouse divorces you.
Exactly. But you don’t need to be a citizen or a PR just to stay in Taiwan, if you don’t need to work.
But that’s not the question/the point of this thread, which is can you get citizenship. Bordering on being off-topic.
Just staying in Taiwan is easy. Getting 5 years residency to get an APRC or Citizenship without working and just living on savings, that’s the possibility I’m curious about.
It appears that it’s possible with a bit of creativity. If @Toe_Save can help folks stay in the country legally and work on their art, he could probably help someone with money in the bank/a foreign pension. But are the people he is helping able to apply for an APRC/Citizenship after 5 years?
Ostensibly, yes.
Can you expand upon that?
Sure. I vet you. If I think you are worthy, I will sponsor you. Stay worthy of my sponsorship for 5 years and collect your APRC.
Hey Toe_Save, I got something I’m wondering about.
Say someone got a performers’ work permit through you. Could they undertake a degree course at a university in Taiwan?
Anyone else chime in on this… Are people in Taiwan on work ARCs able to study full time at university if they’ve got enough time outside of work commitments to do so?
Hey, suit yourself if you want to be a bum doing nothing for half a decade. But that’d drive me nuts. You don’t feel empty and restless not doing anything for that long? If you’re going to be a waste of space for five long years, you should at the very least be like the nihilists in ‘The Big Lebowski’ getting drunk and falling asleep in a pool every day, instead of just playing CoD (or whatever videogame is popular in 2022).
But no, I don’t know the answer to your question. (I see someone else has. Sorry, I know I’m being snarky. I guess I’m a bit jealous of the financial security one has to have in order to just stop working for five years. Also I’ve had a couple drinks. Nothing personal)
You forgot about the requirement to put on a giant pink monkey suit and shout Aye karumba at Foxconn weiya every year.
Chairman Guo always gets a good laugh out of that one.
Some countries have immigration policies. We have pink monkey suits.
Meanwhile in Canada…
And a bill pending in the Senate would restore a rule that counts half of students’ time spent studying in Canada toward the period of residency required for citizenship.
[…] immigrants already make up 75 percent of the annual net growth in the country’s work force and are expected to account for 100 percent within 10 years.
A thought struck me. What about the conceivable situation where somebody has held an ARC for 5 years but doesn’t meet the minimum income requirement to apply for an APRC? Citizenship would be their only option if they wanted to upgrade their residency status.
Dual US/ROC citizen here still working in the US. If I’m living off of a US pension and US Social Security, what’s the best way for the US citizen wife to get NHI and stay on the rock? Neither of us are going to work anymore, so it’s sort of like living in Taiwan playing video games. If I pass away first, I’d like my better half to be able to stay on the rock with NHI if she chooses to. JFRV doesn’t seem to be the best long term option. The ridiculous cost of US healthcare is a major driver in moving to the rock, especially prior to eligibility for Medicare.