Question about applying for Overseas chinese

Hi folks,

A bit of background about me:

I was born in the United States in 2006 and lived there until I was 10, in which we had to move to China due to my dad’s work reason. My parents applied for Taiwanese citizenship when I was 14 and since then I have dual citizenship. I am currently still at China at the age of 16, and I am planning to move back to the United States after graduating. However I am a bit worried about conscription and since I lived most of my life outside of Taiwan (aside from occasionally visiting my grandparents), I am a bit confused about if and how I could apply for this status.

A couple questions

  • Since I lived most of my life outside of Taiwan, am I eligible for the overseas chinese status?

  • Is there a difference between the Overseas Compatriot Identity Certificates, Overseas Compatriot Identity Endorsement, and Overseas Compatriot Identity Certificates for Conscription Purpose?

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as far as i know, if your parents are citizens, and applied for your citizenship you cant change this status.
whether or not you have to do military service is another question which i will let more experienced people answer.

https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=E0040019

I do not know much about this. I hope somebody else will be able to help you out.

Yeah, I know that, you cannot renounce your Taiwanese citizenship before completing military service, it’s to prevent people from not serving. But yeah, I believe you don’t have to serve if you get the overseas chinese stamp as it gives you a grace period, which you cannot stay in Taiwan in accumulation of 183 days for 2 years, but to be honest, I don’t fully understand the rule.

I actually have seen this webpage before, and it seems like I fulfill the 2nd criteria of article 4, but not the 3rd statement that states I need to stay at the place of residence for 6 months cumulatively or 8 months total in the past 2 years. Is it ok if I fulfill that requirement after moving back to the United States after graduating from high school, and apply for that after staying for 6 months? But thanks for the response, It would be great for someone to help clarify this.

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Yeah, I do not know sorry. Best of luck with this.

Basically you are already Taiwanese. But to have to serve you need household registration. Just enter Taiwan on your US passport and you’ll be fine. But remember that you will have no working rights in Taiwan during that time

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I don’t think it’s a good idea to enter on Taiwan using your US passport due to conscription reasons, as it it illegal to do so, and heard that people have been fined and had to serve jail time because of that. Yes, it seems like I have household registration as there is a ID number on my passport, but I have no plans of working in Taiwan or living there long term, aside from some short visits to see my grandparents.

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If you already have household registration then yes it’s illegal

Curious why you believe you do not satisfy 1st criteria of article 4? And also, why do you not satisfy 3rd statement of 2nd criteria? Where have you lived and how long? Maybe tell us exactly how long you have stayed where.

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Ok, so I was born in the US in 2006, and stayed until I was 10. Then due to my dad’s work reasons, we had to move to China, and it is my 6th year in China. So far I lived in the US for 10 years, but lived in China 6 years already.

So for the first criteria, yes I believe I have overseas residency (US citizenship), and also the 2nd statement as I have lived overseas for 4 years (I lived in the US for 10 years).

However I haven’t lived in the US 6 months straight or 8 months total in the last 2 years, as I am currently in China. Also it states that living in China, Macau, or Hongkong does not count as living overseas, and people having a residency status there cannot apply for the endorsement.

I’m planning to move back to the US after graduating high school, but would it be too late to apply for this at 19, after living there for 6 months? I’m planning to go study university there, and also have my job there as well.

I haven’t had plans to go back and live in Taiwan long term, because of my poor chinese. Although I can speak/understand chinese and read some simplified chinese, my writing is bad. My traditional chinese skills are non-existent because I only learned simplified, not traditional chinese :sweat_smile:.

It’s not the 3rd statement of the 2nd criteria, its the 3rd statement of the first criteria, sorry if I was not clear enough.

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Alright, understood. One option seems to be to live in the US for at least two consecutive years after you graduate. There does not seem to be an age limit based on my interpretation.

Until you have at least two years residency in US u may want to avoid coming to Taiwan at all.

You may want to engage a lawyer in Taiwan or US specializing in this type of work.

Here are further links I found:
https://english.ocac.gov.tw/OCAC/Eng/FAQ/List.aspx?nodeid=456#
https://www.gov.tw/News3_Content_EN.aspx?n=18&s=393680

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