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Welcome to forumosa as it is your first post. Condolences on your wife’s passing.
To live in Taiwan , far as I know, there are only so many ways:
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Be a student. Pros: get an ARC, do not have to leave the country on visa runs. Cons: you have to study a certain number of hours, Chinese is a difficult language.
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Work. Pros: get an ARC, do not have to leave on visa runs. Cons: To teach english you have to have a passport from an English speaking country on a list of approved countries. Other then teaching english, other white collar jobs have tons of regulations defining which companies can hire you and you need prior work experience in that field, etc. Hard to get work, even teaching english these days.
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Marry a local. Pros: Allowed to work in most fields if not all, no visa runs. Cons: not a run of the mill decision to make and you need someone suitable to marry. And if your wife should pass away, as happened to you in Japan, you will lose your right to stay in TAiwan , unless you have children who are born of at least one Taiwanese parent.
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Make visa runs. Depending on your passport you can stay X days on a Visa exempt entry or get a tourist visa allowing sixty day visa runs (I did sixty day visa runs for 15 years ! ) Pros: can stay in Taiwan without needed to work or study. Cons: No INCOME because you are not working and no health card because you are not a formal resident of Taiwan . P.s. I was able to work because TW didnt have strict policy of work in those days. … now they do apparently.
Other then those ways, I cant think of another way offhand.
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Sorry for your wife’s death, but since you are from Europe why don’t you think of going back to your own country and relax for a while?
He said he wants to chill in Taiwan for a while. While I’m sure your post is well-meant, Pioneer Kuro, the OP said he wants to chill in Taiwan for a while.
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Theres another way I forgot. Llary has a great thread on how to set up a Representative Office . YOu can set up a company in Japan and then set up a Rep Office in Taiwan pretty cheaply. And then appoint yourself as the Rep in Taiwan !1 This way you can apply for an ARC (dont have to do visa runs and get a health card). And your “company” can continue to lose money for years (most of the restaurants report a “loss” for example) or you can report a modest income. Con is that they dont care so much if your Rep office makes money as it does NOT have to (FAIK) but YOU have to report an income for yourself and that income is taxable ! So this can be considered a method to “pay to stay” in Taiwan.
Eventually they are opening up Taiwan to “retirement” for select individuals who meet a certain standard.
But since you are from Europe and didnt the EU just give Taiwanese 90 days visa free? Taiwan is supposed to reciprocate so 90 day visa free is not far off probably. And when that happens, its not bad to do a visa run every 90 days ! Not bad at all. Just make a short trip to Macau or HK as Iv done over a hundred times.
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If I were you, I would get a Tourist Visa for now. That means a visa run to HK or Macau (closest) every sixty days. Make sure you do not over stay and you are good to go !
When Schengen countries get 90 days, then you just come in on that .
USA and Europe often allow non citizens to stay up to six months at a time, but they only allow a total of six months during a calendar year FAIK. Taiwan is better in a way, they do not have total number of days limit in Taiwan in a Calendar year, just that you have to do a visa run, I think this is the lesser of two evils.
Stay a few days in HK and/or Macau during your visa runs and make that into a mini getaway. I NEVER go to HK and Macau and back in one day.
Or make a visa run back to Japan. Much more convenient now that there are direct flights from Taipei inner city airport Sungshan to Haneda.
Also from Taoyuan you can fly to and from Okinawa quite inexpensively?
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[quote=“KanPi”]I’ll need a health card for sure, I’m afraid, not in such good shape.
Looking now into the setting up a company thing, might be not so easy from the Japanese side as I am finding out, I am, after all, a foreigner, ha… Read: apparently they require a Japanese partner by law to do it.[/quote]
Maybe you can set up a company in Europe in your home country? And then a Rep Office in TAiwan?
OF course it may be harder then I imagine , i understand and it may entail a trip back west.
I did hear its quite inexpensive to set up a company domiciled in Macau? And then you can set up your rep office in Taiwan ?
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Hm, this may not of concern to the OP any more, but i wonder where the idea about a 2-month limit comes from.
Language courses are scheduled in 3-month terms (meaning, classes are usually scheduled for 12 weeks per term), and one can get a 90-day visitor visa to match that (extendable once, for a total of 180 days). In fact, that is the visa i, myself, and one of the other two Japanese students in my class have got - but, oddly enough, the third one has got a 2-month visa (we have no idea why).
On the other hand, it doesn’t really matter much whether one gets a visa for 2 or 3 months to start with: the staff at our office told us that those of us who are planning to study longer than 3 months will have to renew their visa once and then, after 4 month, apply for a resident visa…
No, and there are no freelancer visa’s either. Not that many people actually retire in their 30’s anyways and most countries that do have retirement visa’s you need over US$1 million and have to be over 55 years of age.
Since you can afford to not work and travel there are really cheap flights in and out of Taiwan on AirAsia to Philippines and other countries and they can cost less than US$100 return.
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Hi KeLun,
Did you find the best solution for your Taiwan stay? I am just interested as I intend to stay and have similar situation, of not having to work, not having an issue with visa run neither, but would love to have residence status. If you have a chance please let me know how did you resolve your stay.
@Tommy525
Hi Tommy, I actually have a small Australian business I run for myself, so maybe idea of setting office there is good solution for me. If you have more info that would help me, can you please post links or point me in the right direction.
Thanks guys, I love Taiwan and as in the next 2 years I just want to focus on working from home, sounds like being there is a great option. Cheers & Xiexie
[quote=“dean_soshi”]Hi KeLun,
Did you find the best solution for your Taiwan stay? I am just interested as I intend to stay and have similar situation, of not having to work, not having an issue with visa run neither, but would love to have residence status. If you have a chance please let me know how did you resolve your stay.
@Tommy525
Hi Tommy, I actually have a small Australian business I run for myself, so maybe idea of setting office there is good solution for me. If you have more info that would help me, can you please post links or point me in the right direction.
Thanks guys, I love Taiwan and as in the next 2 years I just want to focus on working from home, sounds like being there is a great option. Cheers & Xiexie[/quote]
llary has a thread on it somewhere, Maybe you can PM him ?
Or if you know any mandarin speakers in Taiwan they can help you hire a CPA to do it . It costs less then 1000 US dollars I think to do paperwork for a liaison office. A competent CPA should be able to help you with that pretty easily.
Iv done it once, but many years ago.
I hired a CPA and it costs something like 500 bucks back then.
Thanks Tommy, that sounds great. My wife is Chinese, so she speaks perfect Mandarin 
I’ll pm llary too if he have some tips to share. Just joined here, so thanks for pointing me int he right direction.
Actually I genuine want to open an office in Taipei, I think it could be very beneficial. I run online marketing business and Taiwan is interesting market to learn about. Plus I can practice Mandarin and enjoy great food, coffee ad company there. My wife loves idea as she’ll be closer to family in Beijing. Thought traveling over HK to get visa each time is a bit of pain. I hope soon you’ll be able to get Chinese visa in Taipei. Or at least Shanghai.