Taiwan Family Based Immigration vs Other Countries

Legal Visa & Residency
1

I was chatting to a friend and became curious about other member’s experience with immigration in Taiwan vs other countries. Particularly family based immigration.

My personal experience and views.

In Taiwan: I am an immigrant in Taiwan. To get married/apply for my ARC took a grand total of 10 days. All my documents were prepared. We got married in Taiwan, all I needed was a proof of no marriage and police certificate from Australia. We had to prove our actual address in Taiwan as we had a shift landlord who wouldn’t let my husband move bis Household Registration to where we actually lived. This involved a visit by the police however my ARC was still issued within 10 days. Total cost including legal fees and documents required of about 4000NT including preparatory documents.

In Australia: All of our documents were also prepared. We had to provide proof of our marriage, easy. We had to provide evidence of the 4 pillars of our relationship (financial, social, nature of the household , commitment to one another), difficult. Note that legal recognition by another country is not a pillar, but helps. Total cost including legal fees and documents required about $15,000AUD. Time for residency to be issued, 18 months. Permanent residency not yet issued.

I will be naturalising in Taiwan in 3 weeks and don’t foresee any issues. My husband will likely naturalise in Australia in 4 years and I also don’t foresee any issues.

But it got me thinking. Taiwan’s process, on paper, is relatively easy. However @Fuzzy_Barbecue was required to supply a proof of no marriage for his infant daughter. I know of people originally from western countries who were not required to provide this under similar circumstances. This suggests an unfair application of the law.

Whereas immigrants to Australia are required to provide the same documents regardless of their original country. Australia also provides a great opportunity to apply for an exemption of a document if you can prove it is impossible to get.

Australia PR, difficult and complex. Australian citizenship, easy.

Taiwan PR, easy. Taiwan citizenship, easy. Unofficially depending on where you’re officially from.

How have others multi national immigration progress been?

2 Likes
2

In his case, neither him nor his wife were (originally) Taiwanese. That’s usually where it get’s really tricky from what I have heard (or mostly read here)…

3

It is still an unfair application of the law. Could you imagine the same being requested of an American couple?
Other international couples from western countries were not required to provide no marriage certificates for infants accompanying naturalization.

Anericans often don’t like Australia because they expect special treatment based on their Americanness and don’t get it.

4

are they recent cases? moi changed the requirement of no marriage certificates for minors accompanying naturalization at the end of 2014. boys under 18 and girls under 16 didn’t need the documents before the change. it is not required if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirms that due to operations of the law or administrative restrictions in the applicant’s country of origin the marital status certificate cannot be obtained.

5

In our case, it took us around 3 months to get all our docs sorted out, to getting married, and finally changing my work ARC to a spouse ARC. It probably would have taken longer if we weren’t exempt from the interview. It definitely cost a bit more than we’d have liked, considering my husband had to fly back to Manila twice.

I’m Filipino, my husband is Taiwanese-American. By TW law we were required to get married in the PH first. We thought of getting married in HK instead, but when we called TECO HK to ask if this was possible, they told us that they couldn’t guarantee that they’d authenticate our papers and that we should just go back to the PH to get married. Interestingly, I know of a Ukrainian upperclassman from my grad programme who ran into a similar issue when she married her Taiwanese partner in HK.

When I brought up my husband’s dual nationality with TECO Manila, they told me I could either:
A. Marry him on his American passport, but I wouldn’t be added to his household registry.
B. Marry him on his Taiwanese passport and go through the all the hoops (marrying in the PH, doing the interview, yadda yadda), but I’d be added to his household registry

I know it sounds silly, after all, I’m marrying one dude, right? But that’s TECO Manila for you, I guess.

As for naturalising, I haven’t gone thru the naturalisation process yet. I shouldn’t think it’ll be too difficult, but I’m dreading having to deal with PH bureaucracy when I renounce my citizenship. Tbh, lowkey dreading having to apply for a US spouse visa if we ever decide to move to the States. I hear that one ain’t no walk in the park.

1 Like
6

There is often a lot of crying on here on how bad the Taiwan system is by entitled liberal-arts Westerners, yet, it certainly is cheap. If some of the complainers had multiple passports as some of us do or lived in numerous countries and continents, they would realize it is relatively cheap and quick vs. a lot of jurisdictions. Perfect. Hell no. But a lot better and cheaper than many.

3 Likes
7

It still has a long way to go but I also think they are on the right track.

8

It cost me slightly more in Taiwan to translate, legalize, authorized papers cause they asked for more documents and embassy of Taiwan issued me wrong visa. Had to do trip to Japan to Taiwan embassy. Around 1.5k € with everything. There was issue as well with my Taiwanese health care, i got it after 7 months.

Dor spouse it cost like 250 euros for Czech, in month she got resident visa, and I think around 600 euros for Germany. It took 3 months in Germany

9

And we could start on recognition of qualifications…whole different thread lol
I wanted to make Canada my home. Then I realized my degree was worthless here | CBC News

2 Likes
10

Well, spouse did nostrification, it was straightforward. She got local version of master title, issued by local university. She handed this when applying for a job. After 300 send applications she got a job which is paid like 3x netto hourly more than her previous job in Taiwan. Plus separately entitlements from welfare state. I sent over 150 in Taiwan, and got a job trough personal connection.

Not every country is the same in West. Canada is notoriously known for complicated nostrification. Does Taiwan recognise Philippines degrees ? Can someone with top degree in education of English language from Philippines teach English in Taiwan?

Foreignera are often discriminated. Life is unfair, sooner you accept it, the better. It’s unfair for locals too.

11

yes and yes.

12

Cheap, quick and easy

Although I forgot to mention that NIA sent immigration police and the normal police to my house a couple of days after applying