Oh joy…I got a call from the Pan-Chaio foreign affairs police this morning to inform me I’ve been selected as an ARC holder to get a household check. The guy on the phone was pretty straightforward about it all, I was randomly selected as they do this each year. Anyone been through this before? They wanted to arrange a meeting at our residence, or I could together with my wife go to their office for the brief interview. Besides whether or not my marriage is legit, which it is of course, what else exactly do they want to know? I have a feeling they’ll ask about finances, but in my opinion that is personal information and I’m not going to be discussing any of that with them.
If anyone has been through this before, could you give me an idea of what to expect? Thanks.
[quote=“k.k.”]If anyone has been through this before, could you give me an idea of what to expect? Thanks.[/quote]Yep, been through it before during my naturalization process. Here is the thread on it and another one where this has been discussed. Should give you an idea of what to expect for yourself. You can also look through the threads on APRC and naturalization if you want to find more.
[quote=“Northcoast Surfer”][quote=“k.k.”]If anyone has been through this before, could you give me an idea of what to expect? Thanks.[/quote]Yep, been through it before during my naturalization process. Here is the thread on it and another one where this has been discussed. Should give you an idea of what to expect for yourself. You can also look through the threads on APRC and naturalization if you want to find more.
I’m still a bit surprised by a couple of aspects of this household check being forced upon me. One, I’ve been living in Taiwan for 15 years, and married and on the same ARC for the past 9 years, and NOW they want to check that my marriage is legit? Humorous. And two, the fact that I can go into their office with my wife to do the interview rather than have them come around to us also surprises me. I mean honestly, if they truly wanted to catch those with fake marriages, you’d think they’d demand to go to your residence to snoop around rather than be at their office for the interview. Oh well, whatever. I’ll go get it done in the coming week. Pain in the ass though.
Its really really easy. You just tell them that you are availiable at YOUR house between the hours of 7pm and 7:15pm on the date of your choice. If they say not possible, you must come to our offices on such-and-such a date, you just say "No. Deport me. If you think you can. You want to know if my marriage is legit, then check the household registration. If you STILL have questions, talk to my wife, because I’m not interested. It’s not my problem. End of conversation.
Answer the phone in Thai or whatever else you speak that they’re unlikely to. If it’s someone you want to talk to, switch to their language. If not, just keep babbling away incomprehensibly.
Once mother in law scared them away when they came unannounced in my first year.
The second time the phone was ringing and some guy said wife and me would have 15 minutes to appear at our registered address and would be forced to do so by law.
Thing is we were in Taipei at work and we live in Zhongli, so that is a 45 minutes drive. Wife told them to either provide an instant airplane or otherwise forget it as being impossible. I think she mentioned: “Did you guys think about the possibility of us being in Kenting at the moment?”
They gave up at that point.
Once I had a guy in uniform talking to me in Chinese looking like a cop. Wife was not there, so I told him “tai tai bu zai”, wife not here, and ignored him and went back inside.
Talked to him through the closed yard door. I really do not need a local with a gun in my house you know.
couple years ago a guy showed up at our place, didn’t let them in…get some id from them and don’t sign anything…make sure they have some info about you in hand… it’s random though, so you can be here for 1 year or forever…they just ask you stupid questions that’s all verifiable through their system…as a safeguard, just answer the questions using yes/no or very short answers…all in all they are gone in 20 minutes. this year is a census year so expect more people to be coming around.
Ah, right! That makes sense. I was wondering what the (seemingly) sudden surge in household checks was about.
My wife will be going up to Hualien for a contract job for her company for 6 months or more (depends on the contract). How will that effect something like this if they come around?
Just accomodate them. There is no point any of us acting like dicks to the immigration. Be nice to immigration it is their right to do this check. They are not going to ask you about sexual positions etc
Why such animosity? I can understand if there is no legitimate way to verify who a stranger at the door. It seems to me their offer to let you go to their office is a perfect way to be sure they are who they say they are.
[quote=“sandman”][quote=“pqkdzrwt”]Why such animosity?[/quote]Some people don’t like the government poking its nose into their affairs.[/quote]+1 :fume:
As it turns out, I’m going tomorrow for my ‘interview’. Ha. My wife doesn’t even have to come. What a complete farce and waste of my time. I’ll accommodate it/them though. Might as well get it out of the way.
I also told them that if I was going to take the time to come in, I’d like to talk to them about getting an APRC. They even suggested I should apply. Maybe I’ll see if I can milk a little help out of them. (where’s the evil laughter emoticon?)
The optimist will say hopefully they are just nice only doing these checks because thats their job and what they are told to do. If you are nice to them maybe the APRC will go a little smoother? On the other hand who knows they might be waiguo hating nationalists trying to kick out as many white people as they can?
I don’t know about that. We were asked about sexual positions at our immigration interview. They also wanted to know who made the first move the first time.
