Cut a long story short: I am Irish, my wife is Chinese and our son was born in and spent most of his 15 months in China. I am in Taiwan right now and they are coming to join me in two weeks, to live here.
My son has an Irish passport and a China “travel document”. Chinese government officials refuse to put a visa in his Irish passport, on the basis that he is Chinese.
Hong Kong border guards accepted the Irish passport and I would guess Taiwanese should probably do the same. But I still wonder if there is a possibility that Taiwan immigration officials could reject his Irish passport, like in the way the PRC officials do? I guess Its unlikely right?
We will be applying for his visitor visa in the Lippo centre in Hong Kong.
[quote=“BillCollins”]Cut a long story short: I am Irish, my wife is Chinese and our son was born in and spent most of his 15 months in China. I am in Taiwan right now and they are coming to join me in two weeks, to live here.
My son has an Irish passport and a China “travel document”. Chinese government officials refuse to put a visa in his Irish passport, on the basis that he is Chinese.
Hong Kong border guards accepted the Irish passport and I would guess Taiwanese should probably do the same. But I still wonder if there is a possibility that Taiwan immigration officials could reject his Irish passport, like in the way the PRC officials do? I guess Its unlikely right?
We will be applying for his visitor visa in the Lippo centre in Hong Kong.[/quote]
Yes and no.
Your son was born in Mainland China to a Mainland mother (=ROC national), hence the Taipei representative office in Hong Kong may or may not give you trouble.
If I were you, I’d let him enter on an Entry/Exit-Permit just like his mother. This would give him a better long-term shot at getting a Taiwan passport and ROC-ID-Card together with his mother (=your wife).
Since your son will not be a foreigner if he stays on an Entry/Exit-Permit rather than an ARC, there might be advantages for kindergarten and child subsidies.
Thanks for the advice. I guess fr now we will apply for the visitor visa in Hong Kong and if they refuse it we can go for a landing visa on the Irish passport. We should always have the option to do a visa run and come back in on the exit entry permit later.
I haven’t looked into it but I thought that things should be more straight forward if he is on an ARC. I am wary of being put into some kind of unworkable bureaucratic bind if he comes in as Chinese. We have already been through some catch 22s on that front in China. But you are right, I guess I should at least consider the exit entry permit route too.
[quote=“BillCollins”]Thanks for the advice. I guess fr now we will apply for the visitor visa in Hong Kong and if they refuse it we can go for a landing visa on the Irish passport. We should always have the option to do a visa run and come back in on the exit entry permit later.
I haven’t looked into it but I thought that things should be more straight forward if he is on an ARC. I am wary of being put into some kind of unworkable bureaucratic bind if he comes in as Chinese. We have already been through some catch 22s on that front in China. But you are right, I guess I should at least consider the exit entry permit route too.[/quote]
If TECO in Hong Kong refuses your son because they deem him to be a Mainland resident with nationality rather than a foreigner, you should not take your chances to get him to Taiwan visa-exempt. NIA will refuse him anyways as status adjustment from visa-exempt to joining family is impossible. And then add the complication of him not even being deemed a foreigner.
Honestly - get the Entry/Exit permit. This saves you money in Hong Kong and opens the long-term path of a Taiwan passport to your son. Don’t put him in the same shitty situation as foreign children of APRC holders. There has been a change recently that allows them a few years of residence after they turn 20, but they have no working rights whatsoever.
I hear ya but we are going to aim for the visitor visa to ARC route first. We can still go back and do the exit -entry permit if it goes wrong and he winds up with a landing visa. Also if the ARC route works out, we still have the option to apply for Taiwan ROC nationality by naturalization in future. But right now we want to keep it simple and there are way too many hurdles with the Chinese nationality route, so we will only go down that road if we are forced to. I’ll tell you how it works out with the visitor visa in a couple of weeks.
OK, please keep us updated. Too many times people ask for things and don’t post the result.
Your son will not be eligible for naturalisation as he is a national already, he will need to establish household registration and then all the years he has spent on an ARC as a foreigner won’t count. Sucks but that’s the way it is…
[quote=“hsinhai78”]OK, please keep us updated. Too many times people ask for things and don’t post the result.
Your son will not be eligible for naturalisation as he is a national already, he will need to establish household registration and then all the years he has spent on an ARC as a foreigner won’t count. Sucks but that’s the way it is…[/quote]
Cool yea, ill will update here, no bother. I know it makes a difference to others who could be in similar situations. I only realized that it was possible for us to pull off the move from China to Taiwan by reading posts on this forum. Thanks for the tips on this and on the other thread I commented on. It is all good stuff and it helps me.