As a foreigner myself who has lived here for 15+ years, I’ve faced a fair share of unfriendly laws that do not make much sense. I’m planning to sign a petition to encourage change and would love to hear what you think. What are the most illogical/arbitrary Taiwan immigration laws in your opinion? And Why?
Taiwan’s making good progress on this at the moment. You may be a little late to the party. But lets see what other people think I guess.
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What laws have you encountered that you think are most illogical and arbitrary?
I haven’t been here for nearly as long as you but from what I have seen, I don’t think Taiwan’s laws are any more illogical or arbitrary than any other country’s.
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no status for children of APRC holders.
if you are here on APRC, once your kids stop being minors they have no status in TW, even if they lived here most of their lives.
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When Germans want to marry and live in Taiwan
When Germans want marry Taiwanese in Taiwan they must provide Ehefähigkeitszeugnis. A document that requires a lot of hassle to get. Many documents are required from future spouse, which all need to be translated and legalized. There is a lot of confusion since Taiwan simply does not have some of the documents (e.g. official birth certificate).
Then the German document also needs to be legalized and translated.
That document proves that a couple is legally allowed to marry after they verify they are not related and meet other legal requirements for marriage in Germany. Taiwanese authorities are basically offloading work to the German authorities which costs couples a lot of money.
People from other countries are just required to provide Single Status Affidavit.
Germans can not be trusted or are prone to marry multiple times? 
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Germany isn’t the only one - Filipinos have to provide a certificate of no marriage from MECO, but all I have to do is go to the AIT and sign an affidavit.
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Yes, for most foreigners just an affidavit is sufficient.
Why Germans are forced to prove to German government they are allowed to marry someone with bells and whistles, if they want to marry in Taiwan?
now, at least some of them can have a status in Taiwan.
Article 8 of Regulations Governing Visiting, Residency, and Permanent Residency of Aliens
there might be some updates you haven’t noticed yet.
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Oh man, to add to this, Filipinos (and other folks on that list of countries) still have to register their marriages back home first before getting it registered in Taiwan. It’s a massive waste of time and money.
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no, for most foreigners, single status certificate from a government authority, I guess.
And foreigners from other 17 countries too.
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Great, so another hoop to jump through when it’s already difficult enough for me to get married as I don’t have household registration and my fiance is a Filipina caregiver.
For one, I am not qualified for the new APRC law for foreign adult son/daughter because my foreign father left the family when I was very young. My mother is Taiwanese and I’ve lived and studied here since I was a kid, none of that matters to the NIA.
Another example would be that foreigners with a work ARC are required to earn double the minimum wage for five consecutive years in order to qualify for an APRC. Except that they are not allowed to work for anyone but their employer. Why set a salary threshold and then strictly limit the type of work they can do? I cannot think of a logical reason for this.
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I don’t think you’ll need to go through that extra step if you’re not Taiwanese, so that’s one less thing to worry about at least.
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I hope not - still not sure if I’ll be able to get married here on account of being on visa-exempt status and my future spouse not being Taiwanese, but a friend of mine reached out to his marital law expert friend to see what options we have. If I can get married here, I’ll ask the AIT when I go to sign my affidavit how to ensure all the paperwork is 100% before I go back to the States, which is where I’ll be filing her spousal visa paperwork.
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If your work ARC is based on your work permit to teach English at buxiban, the salary requirement is applied just on the last year.
to protect local employment
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Hope that all goes well, man!
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Thanks, I appreciate that. Really hoping we can get married here as it’s cheaper and faster to process a spousal visa than a fiance visa. Also hoping that everything is squared away 100% before I leave early next year as I’d hate to get back to the States only to find out that our marriage isn’t ‘valid’ because of a technicality.
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So, you were born before 1980 Feb?
To protect local employment, that’s what I assumed until I found out that it’s also technically illegal to freelance online for foreign clients because that also counts as work in Taiwan. Even running a monetized youtube channel is questionable. These things should be legalized, and it would be a win for the government too because they could tax it. They could also simply regulate the percentage of local employees each company must hire without making it unnecessarily hard for foreigners to choose careers.
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