Taiwan visa for a PRC spouse

Legal Visa & Residency
1

Hi Folks,

I think it is my first post here (even if I have been member of the forum for quite a while, yes !).

I am very happy that my company has agreed to relocate me in Taiwan. I have been doing business for quite a while here and always wanted to settle in Taipei and now it comes true so I am quite excited ! So here we go with a target to move from Beijing to Taipei around September/October of this year.

First thing first and this is my primary concern (and I know it can jeopardize the whole stuff), I am married to a mainland Chinese woman (I am French) and even though we have been looking for some information over the net, we found different kind of answers on the possibility for a PRC mainland national to get a spouse visa from my employment visa and residence permit. Does anybody has experience on this ?

Also, I would be looking for a reliable agent that can do all the procedure for us as my employer doesn’t have any capacity to do it. Please let me know from your experience some possible contact of reliable and honest companies. I assume that, as I am currently leaving in China, the only possibility would be to come first to Taipei on a tourist visa and do the whole procedure in Taipei, am I right ?

Regards,
Julien

2

[quote=“Bobarctor”]Hi Folks, First thing first and this is my primary concern (and I know it can jeopardize the whole stuff), I am married to a mainland Chinese woman (I am French) and even though we have been looking for some information over the net, we found different kind of answers on the possibility for a PRC mainland national to get a spouse visa from my employment visa and residence permit. Does anybody has experience on this ?

Also, I would be looking for a reliable agent that can do all the procedure for us as my employer doesn’t have any capacity to do it. Please let me know from your experience some possible contact of reliable and honest companies. I assume that, as I am currently leaving in China, the only possibility would be to come first to Taipei on a tourist visa and do the whole procedure in Taipei, am I right ?

Regards, Julien[/quote]

Your wife will not be given a spousal visa to live in Taiwan. PRC citizens simply are not allowed to live here long term. At the moment PCR citizens can only visit on a tour group for a very limited stay they cannot even get visitor visa’s as an individual. What do you mean your employer doesnt have the capacity to process your work permit. Unless they are complete dorks they can get it done with help from the NIA here.

Your employer here can process your work permit or you could even process it yourself is the company is qualified to hire foreingers here.

3

[quote=“Satellite TV”][quote=“Bobarctor”]Hi Folks, First thing first and this is my primary concern (and I know it can jeopardize the whole stuff), I am married to a mainland Chinese woman (I am French) and even though we have been looking for some information over the net, we found different kind of answers on the possibility for a PRC mainland national to get a spouse visa from my employment visa and residence permit. Does anybody has experience on this ?

Also, I would be looking for a reliable agent that can do all the procedure for us as my employer doesn’t have any capacity to do it. Please let me know from your experience some possible contact of reliable and honest companies. I assume that, as I am currently leaving in China, the only possibility would be to come first to Taipei on a tourist visa and do the whole procedure in Taipei, am I right ?

Regards, Julien[/quote]

Your wife will not be given a spousal visa to live in Taiwan. PRC citizens simply are not allowed to live here long term. At the moment PCR citizens can only visit on a tour group for a very limited stay they cannot even get visitor visa’s as an individual. What do you mean your employer doesnt have the capacity to process your work permit. Unless they are complete dorks they can get it done with help from the NIA here.

Your employer here can process your work permit or you could even process it yourself is the company is qualified to hire foreingers here.[/quote]

Thanks for your reply !

As the law evolve a lot, I believe things might have changed. For your information your statement regarding visitor visa as individual is not true: since the first of April it is possible for certain eligible people in mainland to apply individual tourists visas for Taiwan. Things for spouse visa might be different as well…

What I mean by the sentence regarding my employer is that we don’t have the staff to do it nor the time and certainly not the knowledge of what to do, how to do and where to do. That’s why I would be looking for an agent to do all the paperwork on my behalf with my company documents.

4

[quote=“Bobarctor”][quote=“Satellite TV”][quote=“Bobarctor”]Hi Folks, First thing first and this is my primary concern (and I know it can jeopardize the whole stuff), I am married to a mainland Chinese woman (I am French) and even though we have been looking for some information over the net, we found different kind of answers on the possibility for a PRC mainland national to get a spouse visa from my employment visa and residence permit. Does anybody has experience on this ?

Also, I would be looking for a reliable agent that can do all the procedure for us as my employer doesn’t have any capacity to do it. Please let me know from your experience some possible contact of reliable and honest companies. I assume that, as I am currently leaving in China, the only possibility would be to come first to Taipei on a tourist visa and do the whole procedure in Taipei, am I right ?

Regards, Julien[/quote]

Your wife will not be given a spousal visa to live in Taiwan. PRC citizens simply are not allowed to live here long term. At the moment PCR citizens can only visit on a tour group for a very limited stay they cannot even get visitor visa’s as an individual. What do you mean your employer doesnt have the capacity to process your work permit. Unless they are complete dorks they can get it done with help from the NIA here.

Your employer here can process your work permit or you could even process it yourself is the company is qualified to hire foreingers here.[/quote]

Thanks for your reply !

As the law evolve a lot, I believe things might have changed. For your information your statement regarding visitor visa as individual is not true: since the first of April it is possible for certain eligible people in mainland to apply individual tourists visas for Taiwan. Things for spouse visa might be different as well…

What I mean by the sentence regarding my employer is that we don’t have the staff to do it nor the time and certainly not the knowledge of what to do, how to do and where to do. That’s why I would be looking for an agent to do all the paperwork on my behalf with my company documents.[/quote]

Well as long as you don’t mind coming alone thats fine. There are threads here where other people have wanted to bring a PRC Citizen spouse and it was not possible. One chap had a wife from the PRC who held British Nationality and it took a couple of years for Taiwan to consider giving her a visa because she was born in China. Yes I know about the recent law change for PRC Citizens to visit but it is very strict. First you should ascertain is the company in Taiwan able to sponsor an ARC for a foreigner and are you qualified for the ARC.

I don’t know of any agents doing ARC’s for foreigners as most people arrive here on a visitor visa first and start the processing after arrival and pretty much most companies do their own ARC processing. All the information on how to process a work permit it pretty much online so I am surprised the company could not assign somebody 30 minutes to look or make a few phone calls to the NIA.

Google NIA Taiwan.

5

[quote=“Satellite TV”][quote=“Bobarctor”][quote=“Satellite TV”][quote=“Bobarctor”]Hi Folks, First thing first and this is my primary concern (and I know it can jeopardize the whole stuff), I am married to a mainland Chinese woman (I am French) and even though we have been looking for some information over the net, we found different kind of answers on the possibility for a PRC mainland national to get a spouse visa from my employment visa and residence permit. Does anybody has experience on this ?

Also, I would be looking for a reliable agent that can do all the procedure for us as my employer doesn’t have any capacity to do it. Please let me know from your experience some possible contact of reliable and honest companies. I assume that, as I am currently leaving in China, the only possibility would be to come first to Taipei on a tourist visa and do the whole procedure in Taipei, am I right ?

Regards, Julien[/quote]

Your wife will not be given a spousal visa to live in Taiwan. PRC citizens simply are not allowed to live here long term. At the moment PCR citizens can only visit on a tour group for a very limited stay they cannot even get visitor visa’s as an individual. What do you mean your employer doesnt have the capacity to process your work permit. Unless they are complete dorks they can get it done with help from the NIA here.

Your employer here can process your work permit or you could even process it yourself is the company is qualified to hire foreingers here.[/quote]

Thanks for your reply !

As the law evolve a lot, I believe things might have changed. For your information your statement regarding visitor visa as individual is not true: since the first of April it is possible for certain eligible people in mainland to apply individual tourists visas for Taiwan. Things for spouse visa might be different as well…

What I mean by the sentence regarding my employer is that we don’t have the staff to do it nor the time and certainly not the knowledge of what to do, how to do and where to do. That’s why I would be looking for an agent to do all the paperwork on my behalf with my company documents.[/quote]

Well as long as you don’t mind coming alone thats fine. There are threads here where other people have wanted to bring a PRC Citizen spouse and it was not possible. One chap had a wife from the PRC who held British Nationality and it took a couple of years for Taiwan to consider giving her a visa because she was born in China. Yes I know about the recent law change for PRC Citizens to visit but it is very strict. First you should ascertain is the company in Taiwan able to sponsor an ARC for a foreigner and are you qualified for the ARC.

I don’t know of any agents doing ARC’s for foreigners as most people arrive here on a visitor visa first and start the processing after arrival and pretty much most companies do their own ARC processing. All the information on how to process a work permit it pretty much online so I am surprised the company could not assign somebody 30 minutes to look or make a few phone calls to the NIA.

Google NIA Taiwan.[/quote]

Is the law different for Taiwanese who marry PRC nationals and how the spouse can get a valid visa ?

Regarding the company, well, no: we have in Taiwan a branch office as I said. We employ tech guys to do maintenance and all the admin is done trough the HQ in Singapore.
That’s why I need an agent to advice if the company as a branch is eligible and if I can be as well and help to proceed with all the paper work.

Julien

6

IF your wife has French citizenship I understand she will be treated as a French subject and her PRC citizenship will have been gone anyway as the PRC demands one relinquish PRC citizenship when they take up another citizenship far as I know.

IF she isnt a French citizen, then no, it will be quite hard to get her right of abode in Taiwan.

7

[quote=“tommy525”]IF your wife has French citizenship I understand she will be treated as a French subject and her PRC citizenship will have been gone anyway as the PRC demands one relinquish PRC citizenship when they take up another citizenship far as I know.

IF she isnt a French citizen, then no, it will be quite hard to get her right of abode in Taiwan.[/quote]

Tommy Lord Lucans PRC born wife had lived in the UK for many years and had a UK Paspport. Go search his threads, still nearly impossible to get her in. It won’t matter what citizenship she holds if she was born a PRC citizen and lived in China.

8

[quote=“tommy525”]IF your wife has French citizenship I understand she will be treated as a French subject and her PRC citizenship will have been gone anyway as the PRC demands one relinquish PRC citizenship when they take up another citizenship far as I know.

IF she isnt a French citizen, then no, it will be quite hard to get her right of abode in Taiwan.[/quote]

No my wife is Chinese and has no plan to take the French citizenship :slight_smile:

9

Well if you do plan to move here I guess you will need to plan to fly back to China to visit your wife from time to time.

10

How come Taiwanese men can bring their Chinese spouses into Taiwan?

11

There is a quota and some of them have to wait a few years.
Also if a mainland spouse has foreign citizenship and has actually lived outside of China for a number of years they can come to Taiwan as I understand .

12

There is a quota and some of them have to wait a few years. Also if a mainland spouse has foreign citizenship and has actually lived outside of China for a number of years they can come to Taiwan as I understand .[/quote]

Tommy go read about Lord Lucan’s posts about trying to get his PRC born wife with a UK passport into Taiwan ok. What you understand is far from reality ok.

13

Alright mate, where is this ? So I can dig it up.

14

What I don’t understand is why would the law be different for a Taiwanese married to a PRC nationals compare with any other national married to a PRC national ? That would not make sense.

This is why in my first thread I was looking for an agent who has law experience and connected to be able to process it with our passports and all my company document.
Maybe this question may sounds strange in Taiwan but talking about mainland, I don’t know any single company which is processing their expat working permits and visa: they all use agents and eventually you have to go to the immigration office once in a while to sign some documents with the help of the agent.

Any way, I am planing a trip to Taipei soon and may go to the Immigration Agency. Is that ok to go to ask some information like this ?

15

There are two separate issues.

  1. Taiwanese citizens wishing to domicile a foreign born wife.

  2. Foreigners with Alien Resident Certificate wishing to bring along their Alien spouses.

Taiwanese bringing in a foreign spouse, be she of PRC or Indonesian or Vietnamese origin are bringing in a spouse who is likely going to be obtaining ROC citizenship. Because spouses from China comprises the biggest group of spouses there is currently a quota. Spouses are applying for a resident visa based on joining family.

Laws governing Taiwanese bringing in their Mainland origin spouses therefore are not exactly pertaining to your own situation.

Your situation is that you are an Alien (non ROC citizen) who wishes to bring your spouse with you to Taiwan for a period of likely a few years. You are applying for your wife to piggyback on your own ARC.

Your eligibility to obtain an ARC would dictate whether or not you get an ARC. And your spouse has the right to apply along with yourself. She will not be able to work while in Taiwan but may reside along with yourself due to your physical presence on the island.

Technically there should be no discrimination as to what ethnic/ nationality an ARC holder’s spouse may be. But in practice there seems to be just such discrimination. Some have spoken of the difficulties of bringing along their spouse of Philippine origin or their spouse of Mainland Chinese origin. I havent been able to google-find any laws that legalize such discrimination for a spouse of an ARC holder.

You may be able to seek the services of the French office in TAiwan (whatever name they call themselves) along with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the ROC. I believe they are the ones involved with the issuance of Resident Visa (which leads to an ARC).

16

[quote=“Bobarctor”]What I don’t understand is why would the law be different for a Taiwanese married to a PRC nationals compare with any other national married to a PRC national ? That would not make sense.

This is why in my first thread I was looking for an agent who has law experience and connected to be able to process it with our passports and all my company document.
Maybe this question may sounds strange in Taiwan but talking about mainland, I don’t know any single company which is processing their expat working permits and visa: they all use agents and eventually you have to go to the immigration office once in a while to sign some documents with the help of the agent.

Any way, I am planing a trip to Taipei soon and may go to the Immigration Agency. Is that ok to go to ask some information like this ?[/quote]

In Taiwan, they have different laws for different foreigners. For example, there are regulations for foreigners like yourself -with no Chinese ancestry, then for Overseas Chinese -especially Overseas Taiwanese-, and others for what they call here Mainland Chinese. Sense you will see is understood differently, especially, as with any part of the world, with burocratic minds… Even within the ranks of foreigners, regulations apply for different jobs -example: you cannot teach English here, only citizens from a list of 7 countries can.

Actually, agents in Taiwan are not very trustworthy, dealing mostly with bulk contracts for teachers or blue collar factory workers. I would not reccommend hiring them, even if you find oine that says he can do it, as mostly can’t in terms of knowing what they have to do, not to mention not being allowed to. As said, this is very different from China. Businesses are allowed to hire foreigners as long as they have X earnings -think it was like 5 million- and other equisites, especially fiscal. They are the ones responsible for presenting documentation to teh proper authorities and hence helping you in getting a work permit. Therefore, only the company’s accountant and human resource manager would have the necessary data to present and get the green light. Even so, they are allowed only a limited number of foreigners, and this would be strictly controlled.

I would say you come here first on a toursit visa, and accopany your company’s HR manager to teh Council of labor Affairs, for starters. As said, this is most always done by the company, not an agent. Next, with him in tow, go to the National Immigration Agency and get something in writing detailing your options and those for your wife. Get it from the horse’s mouth and in person. It looks like a rocky road ahead, doable but you just have to follow the way things are done here. Sorry about that if it takes a while longer than expected.

17

Welcome to Taiwan. It makes perfect sense. Can’t have some communist spy tag along with a foreign stooge to spy on Taiwan. It’s just not right. Citizens have rights that foreingers don’t have. You obviously have a lot to learn about Taiwan PRC politics and the effects it has on things. Oh well never mind because you will learn real quick once you are here.

The laws in the PRC also treat foreigners different than PRC citizens. Here it is easy for foreigners to get permanent residency after 5 years of residence even if not married to a Taiwan National. Try that in China and well… anyway it doesnt happen.

Its easy for foreigners to become citizens of Taiwan as well, which of course then enables us to get 5 year residency booklets for China with working rights easily obtained. AH to be Taiwanese, thats should be in your dreams somewhere along the line. Then you can go back to the motherland ( China ) and not have to stand in those nasty lines full of foreigners at immigration.

Anyways we’d all love to see you when you come over to our country over here from China over there. It’s much nicer living here as you will see. It’s perfectly OK to go to the NIA and ask them about getting a work permit and how to process your documents as well. Thats what they are there for, very friendly bunch of people they are too.

18

Thanks all for your kind advices and yes, I am convinced that my life in Taiwan would be much nicer than in Beijing.

I will plan a trip soon to Taipei and pay a visit to the NIA. I need to check also if my company branch office would be eligible to hire a foreigner in Taiwan as like I said, it is a very small branch.

I was not excepting something easy anyway :slight_smile:

19

Hi Bobarctor, it will be possible to bring your wife to Taiwan but there are a lot of “depends” involved! One of the most important things are her own status ~ where her household registry is, what her and her families status is, secondly is your and your companies status in Taiwan ~ i.e. how important you and your company are to Taiwan and how much guanxi with various government departments. If your wife is registered as a city dweller in Beijing it will be easier, Shanghai, easier still, Shenzhen would be best. If she is employed as a blue collar worker it will also maske things easier. There is a direct corelation between how long you want to wait and how “legal” and long her visits. PM me if you want more details as some of the methods for her visiting, whilst not in anyway illegal, are best not discussed on an open forum.

20

Bollocks. Anything legal can be discussed on an open forum. In the OP’s case anyways NIA would not be the only department involved for his application to bring his PRC wife to Taiwan. Its the Mainland Affairs Commission. A German National with a PRC wife employed as a senior engineer on the High Speed Railways could never get permission for his PRC wife to live here, and thats with the backing of a large Japanese multinational company with billions of dollars in assets, so ow is our French friend going to have any so called “guanxi” in Taiwan. So full of it… some people are.

The OP wants to have his wife live here with him as a dependent on his ARC. I wish him well and hope it would be possible. No point trying to lead him up the garden path with the BS some people post. Just my humble opinion.