Taiwan’s National Development Council (NDC) is reportedly proposing a new fast track residency card, which it has named a “Global Elite” card.
The salary bar mentioned in the report is NT$6,000,000. My first thought: nice work if you can get it. 
A number of goodies and benefits would apparently be attached. We’ll see if the KMT / TPP dominated legislature likes it.
Guy
6 million feels like a logical price point.
I surmise you’re doing better at this income game than I am.
Guy
I have no idea about that.
My point is if they are trying to attract high earners then 6 million annual income seems logical. Higher end expat packages. Income tax will more than cover the benefits they get.
Those with the cards will be eligible for permanent residency in Taiwan after one year and be entitled to social benefits, such as long-term care and disability services, comparable to those available to Taiwanese nationals, she said.
In addition, spouses of “global elite” cardholders will be allowed to work in Taiwan and their parents and grandparents will be permitted “unlimited stay in Taiwan,” she said.
Permanent residency after just 1 year seems a little bit too short tbh. Kind of a kick in the face for everyone the government makes it much more difficult for.
APRC after 1 year too, but don’t the gold card holders lose some benefits when they turn APRC?
The 6m NTD salary requirement almost matches Singapore’s ONE pass (~8.9m TWD) / Tech pass (~6.7m TWD), and HK’s top talent pass (~10.2m TWD). Perhaps they looked at those programs and wanted to introduce something similar?
Except foreigners will quickly realize the benefits of APRC don’t match even regular non-permanent residency programs of those other two places. For example the three programs I mentioned allow you to sponsor your dependent for an open work visa and to sponsor your parents for a dependent visa that is not time limited. Also ability to do almost anything locals can do such as open bank accounts online.
What’s the point in giving “long-term care and disability services” especially to those foreigners earning > 6 million a year? 
(And I wouldn’t be surprised if the “long-term” care is only available for the time the income is actually that high, meaning that once one retires or loses their well-paid job, they will lose this particular benefit…)
These are some of the points that have been recent bones of contention, especially with that British man who recently passed away.
The NDC this time seems to have missed the part that the complaints were not to provide such benefits to NT$6,000,000 salary and up earners only!
Guy
this programme is quite moronic imho since basically these folks can already apply for an investment plum blossom card directly (yes, more labourious process, but immediate APRC, and at that point you have money to pay ppl to do it for u).
Another ARC class… another attempt to attract top (and here very top) talent without addressing the current issues. Getting ARC is not difficult for these folks through GC or plum blossom investment, but the system once they arrive… we all know, it’s not ready.
They keep adding to see what sticks but never clean the floor with the shit which fell
Your take on this proposal is not far from what went through my mind when I read that report.
Guy
If any real ‘Global Elites’ wanted to stay in Taiwan long term, the gophers in government would roll out the red carpets for them.
There are at least a dozen countries - most of them unknown places, but still - offering this sort of package to high earners now. I reckon Taiwan’s gov’t can see the writing on the wall: the West as we know it is in cultural and economic freefall, and they want to get a piece of the action as high earners flee their native countries. Earning doesn’t necessarily correlate with talent, but OTOH gov’ts are usually interested mostly in cash, not talent.
Yeah, I’m sure the actual elite - the people plugged into the global system of privileges and professionally-laundered cash - don’t need to worry about stuff like visas and permits.
What’s happening with the NDC? They have gone absolute nuts!
For starters all APRC holders should be eligible for disability benefits. Not just those who have been here 10 years on an aprc AND their country does it for Taiwanese… oh and somehow the elite people on this card who would never stay here anyway if they became disabled.
Honestly I thought both the gold card and heathens forbid plum blossom cards were too generous.
But this just takes the cake.
So many classes of APRCs I can no longer keep track of all these cards!
Oh well… as a Taiwanese I can say:
One card to rule them all
I think they’d keep it while they have the resulting APRC
Please leave god out of this. 
Guy
They actually seem to talk about „National-like treatment“ for Global Elite Card holders. So they seem to recognize that foreigners coming to Taiwan have a strong interest in not being treated differently from nationals.
However, instead of addressing the actual issue(s), they rather come up with a new A(P)RC type…
Well, that would make sense. But then again, I wouldn’t be surprised if that part is purely „for the show“ (i.e. effectively useless)…
Exactly. They should just treat all APRC holders the same. No special treatment among different classes of foreigner. Also APRC should be all treated the same as citizens, no differently except for matters like national security.
So essentially once you have an APRC you should be different from the “Global Elite” who switched to it.
It is really getting out of hand.
Glad I stopped being a foreigner. But I really have to say it. The NDC is really doing a shit job at the moment.
And… hey @qwert_zuiop haven’t you warmed up since finding out you don’t have to lose your German citizenship 
Next we will be hanging out at @Satellite_TV house in Alishan lol
I lost a bit track about all the requirements, but I think I still need another year to be eligible after staying for five years (as a regular foreign special professional (?) or whatever the right term for „Gold Card Holder“ is 
). Then I would still need to see about the situation with Germany and if they would still deny renunciation if one only holds the NWOHR status (I guess that could also be a topic with other countries). But I am well aware that things could change and the current situation is everything else than settled. And there’s the thing about the language proficiency test (or whatever is required there how). And the military service thing (still too young to just skip).
Anyway - I am not really in a rush right now as I haven’t really been staying for that long. I think once people stay here for 10 years+, start a family, coming closer to retirement etc. (all doesn’t apply to me), the wish/need for citizenship will increase.
So I still hope that things will get easier in the future for everyone. And then maybe once (or if - still not certain if I will stay in Taiwan forever) it’s time for me at some point in the future, I hopefully won’t have to go through all the hoops that are required today. And if things don’t change - well, I‘ll need to see my options when it‘s time I guess. But that‘s how life works, I guess
Well, the view there seems to be great and the weather not too warm from what I have heard
