I see, yeah that’s a different case then. Speaking of that, if your mother never cancelled her household registration, it’s completely crazy why you have been told that you couldn’t apply at all.
I’ll provide some updates on my situation. I came to better understand the complications of my case and possibly @newhere’s, but I’m also preparing to challenge the NIA’s reasoning.
Simply put, they say that because my mother renounced her citizenship, I cannot use her for any of those TARC conditions, i.e.:
- 有直系血親、配偶、兄弟姊妹或配偶之父母現在在臺灣地區設有戶籍。…
- 居住臺灣地區設有戶籍國民在國外出生之子女，年齡在二十歲以上。
For (1), she is simply not a citizen anymore so she can never fulfill “現在在臺灣地區設有戶籍”. For (2) it’s a little bit more complicated, and ultimately why I also think that the NIA’s reasoning is flawed.
First of all, the NIA says that (2) actually only applies to applicants whose parents have passed away, although this is nowhere written in the law. I went to another Immigration Agency today (where I’m not known yet), and there was one helpful guy who really listened to my case closely. He repeated that reason (2) is targeted at applicants with deceased parents, but also agreed that how the sentence is written doesn’t actually imply that. When I told him that, additionally, my mother has renounced her citizenship, he wondered whether my case could be similarly handled to those cases with deceased parents. The main similarity in both cases is that the ROC parent can only provide a 除戶謄本. A deceased person’s HHR gets “deactivated” for the lack of a better term, while the term for my mother’s HHR now seems to be “註銷”.
However, the assistant talked with the supervisors, and again they denied that my case could be accepted, arguing that with my mother being not an ROC citizen anymore, I simply would not fulfill (2); or more specific, my mother would not fulfil “居住臺灣地區設有戶籍國民”.
Now comes the part which I challenge. There are 2 main defects:
First of all, the formulation “居住臺灣地區設有戶籍國民在國外出生之子女” does not include a time component. One could argue that “現在” is implied, but why does condition (1) explicitly include this while (2) doesn’t? The question would then be: Do I have to fulfil (2) at the time of birth or at the time of application?
Let’s say the NIA is wrong, that the wording only implies being child of an ROC citizen at the time of birth. Then my mother and I undoubtly fulfill this condition.
On the other hand, let’s say for whatever reason, a 現在 is implied there. I can still challenge that this is an arbitrary decision, but there is a deeper issue nested in there anyway: If the NIA argues that at the time of application, the applicant’s parent must be a “居住臺灣地區設有戶籍國民”, then the NIA breaks their own rules.
This is because the NIA accepts application’s of applicants with deceased parents. However, a deceased ROC national does not have a HHR; he is not a “(現在)設有戶籍國民”. A deceased national cannot have a HHR; it gets “deactivated.” This is also the reason that one can only get a 除戶謄本 for those nationals—their 戶籍 has already been 除’d, so to say.
In an essence, you cannot be dead and fulfill “設有戶籍” at the sime time. Unless the 設有戶籍 would imply “曾經設有戶籍”, and in this case, it should equally be handled for my mother’s HHR.
Of course I cannot be 100% sure about this part, but I asked the guy from the NIA today, and he agreed, a dead person actually does not have a HHR.
To sum it up, if you must fulfill (2) at the time of application, there are contradictions. Thus, the only other option is that (2) only applies to the time of birth.
I also have the following arguments (this is some info that I got why I was still writing this post):
- The goverment admits that the wording of “居住臺灣地區設有戶籍國民在國外出生之子女” is unclear, and there is a plan to change it into “在國外出生，出生時其父或母為居住臺灣地區設有戶籍國民” (https://www.moi.gov.tw/files/Act_file/入出國及移民法部分條文修正草案總說明及條文對照表.pdf)
(This is on page 6, counted from the PDF) I will argue with this that the original wording already had this meaning, and the NIA implemented it incorrectly. - c.f. https://lis.ly.gov.tw/lgcgi/lgmeetimage?cfc9cfcacec7cfccc5cdd2cdcaca
When the immigration law for NWOHRs initially got created, there is this explanation (on page 42, counted from the PDF): …然十八歲以上者，倘在臺已無直系血親等親屬，將無法申請在臺居留及定居。為使居住臺灣地區設有戶籍國民在國外出生之子女有返臺居留之管道，爰增訂修正條文…
Which is something like “There is no way to apply for residence for NWOHRs who are older than 18 and who don’t have lineal relatives in Taiwan anymore. To give those […] children born overseas a method to apply for residence, the law has been revised.” (Or something like that, please correct me if I’m wrong.)
To be updated if I find more.
Thank you for reading.