Taiwan Citizenship for baby?

Can a baby born to two foreign parents become Taiwanese if one of the parents receives Taiwan citizenship after their birth? My wife won’t receive her local citizenship for another 2 years, but our first baby is on the way. All the info we’ve received has been contradictory (no surprise here).

If anyone has any personal stories that would be appreciated.

What is your wife’s immigration status in Taiwan and what is her current nationality. Depending on these variables, the answer could be yes or no.

She is Malaysian. She has been on a working permit ARC for 3 years.

Is it wrong that I read Article 4 of Nationality Act says a minor child of an ROC national can apply for naturalization? Article 7 seems to say the baby may apply for accompanying naturalization. Does Mothers nationality affect on it?

“Foreign nationals or stateless persons who are unmarried minors, whose (adoptive) father or (adoptive) mother is an ROC national, who have legally resided in the territory of the ROC for less than three years, and who do not meet the conditions prescribed in Subparagraph 2, 4, and 5 of Paragraph 1 of Article 3, may apply for naturalization.”

Article 7
Unmarried minor children of a naturalized person may apply for accompanying naturalization


OP, if you mean a dual nationality, the answer is no. Your baby need to give up the original nationality.

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She’s Malaysian with an ARC. How is she going to get Citizenship? Are you confusing that with APRC? It’s not the same thing.

2 posts were split to a new topic: Novel blood groups

If they are intending to immigrate in Taiwan and expecting the baby will be grown up here, it is not a surprise they want a Taiwanese citizenship for the baby.

I wouldnt get another nationality just for convenience, but if I decide to live in a country for the rest of my life and want to be a national of the country, Id give up my current nationality. I just cannot understand how a person can be citizens of two or more different countries, unless the multiple citizenship are obtained at birth through paretns as like your case.

@keoni An APRC is no prerequisite for naturalization. Please refrain from confusing OP.

@tando yes you are correct

@zhendebaichi you may get away with your daughter only needing to give up one citizenship. Make sure she applies for residence on her Malaysian passport, not your passport. I assume you are not Malaysian.

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@hsinhai78 I was unaware that it has now become so easy to get citizenship by naturalization for someone who has no blood relations to a Taiwanese citizen. For some reason, I remember the rules for naturalization being more strict. I was not intentionally try to confuse the OP. I was asking questions to understand the situation. Please refrain from making judgments without understanding my intentions.

It has been like this since February 2001 when the Enforcement Rules of the Nationality Act were enacted and superseded the previous regulations to reflect the overhaul of the ROC Nationality Law in 2000. You can refer to the legislative history of the law and check 內政部(90)內戶字第 9068204號令 for the full text of the 2001 version. You really seem to have an interesting definition of “now”. 18 years is hardly within the scope of “now” or even “recently.” 18 years is quite a long time considering all the amendments made to laws and regulations pertaining ROC nationality during that period!

Alright, let’s have a look at your initial post:

You were quite assertive in your insinuation that OP’s wife being a) a citizen of Malaysia b) in Taiwan on an ARC might somehow be an impediment to her naturalizing as a ROC national. You even decided to claim that other posters are confusing ARCs and APRCs! And in your follow-up for some reason you decide to make this an issue of blood relations with Taiwanese people. You are not only generally uninformed, you also continue to spread confusing and false information.

@hsinhai78

You were quite assertive in your insinuation that OP’s wife being a) a citizen of Malaysia b) in Taiwan on an ARC might somehow be an impediment to her naturalizing as a ROC national. You even decided to claim that other posters are confusing ARCs and APRCs! And in your follow-up for some reason you decide to make this an issue of blood relations with Taiwanese people. You are not only generally uninformed, you also continue to spread confusing and false information.

  1. Again, I did not insinuate anything. I was asking questions. Because…
  2. Yes, you are right, I am uninformed. But being uninformed about the laws of naturalization is not a crime! I learned something new today.
  3. I was not intentionally trying to spread false information. This place is a forum. And as far as I know, forums are for discussing things. If someone comes from a place of ignorance, fine. But that person can learn from others as I am now.

You sound like you are trying to say that I had evil intent by trying to mislead someone with incorrect information! Is that your intention? Because if that is what you are really thinking, you are 100% wrong about me! I was only stating that an APRC and Citzenship are 2 different things because I didn’t know that it was possible to apply for citizenship after 5 years on an ARC. I only knew that it was possible to apply for an APRC after 5 years on an ARC.

Thank you for sharing what you know about the naturalization law. I never knew that it was already like this since 2001. Ignorant me? Yes. Evil me? No.

Really? Living in Taiwan?

What if China invaded or global warming floods Taipei?

Backups are nice. You never know what could happen.

My situation is similar to @ZhendeBaichi but with a slightly different problem.

My wife and I are both foreigners (different nationalities), and our baby was born in Taiwan while we were still foreigners. I applied for naturalization successfully along with my daughter as per Article 7 (mentioned by @tando above)

I have documented everything here

The only problem now is that while I can renounce my citizenship, my daughter can’t. I talked to Philippine’s embassy here and all they’ll say is “minors cannot renounce their citizenship”.

At this rate, I would gain Taiwanese citizenship by next year, but my daughter needs to wait 18 years to get hers.

Not sure what are my options now.

Can’t a minor become Taiwanese (without renunciation) if one of the parents become a Taiwanese citizen?

Get the letter saying she can’t. Try using that?

They give exceptions to people who can’t.

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Get it in writing from the embassy. Then present it in Taiwan as proof that citizenship can not be renounced.


If all fails explore this after getting Taiwanese citizenship:
Relative Adoption Adoption Procedures:Adoption In Taiwan::Child and Juvenile Adoption Information Center

Can you and wife adopt your own child? The child should get your citizenship. This is ridiculous :man_shrugging:, but might be a loophole

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similar case though a bit old (in Mandarin)

本案未成年人張○○已於 99 年 10 月 19 日取得我國國籍,但須在其年滿18歲時,補送合法喪失印尼國籍證明文件,送內政部核備;如其於辦理台灣地區定居時,仍未檢附上揭喪失印尼國籍文件,內政部將依行政程序法第123條第2款規定廢止其歸化我國國籍之許可。

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So far what I have learnt is that Taiwan will make an exceptions for countries that don’t let your renounce. Taiwan is already aware of such countries and may ask you to provide a letter etc to let you go ahead with citizenship without renunciation.

However, for cases where renunciation IS allowed but only on reaching certain age, all they can offer is an extension for you to renounce once you reach the legal age.

I don’t know how to convince the HHRO here that I don’t want my daughter to wait until 18. I can’t spend 18 years living in Taiwan as a citizen while my daughter lives on a TARC not having the same rights as children of other citizens.

This would only work if adopted children aren’t required to renounce their original nationality to gain citizenship, otherwise nothing changes really.

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Doesn’t this make it impossible to adopt a child from Philippines in Taiwan? :astonished: