I’m 24, I have an Irish passport and ROC passport. I have entered Taiwan using ROC passport using exit & entry permit which I have just extended to May. I just got a new job teaching and they have got me a working permit.
By my understanding I got two options. TARC or ARC. I made a phone call today to the foreigner hotline and it seems that I am able to able apply for TARC and work legally and not be drafted but I have to be really carefully as I may get automatically enrolled in household and then receive an order to report which I don’t want. Does anyone know how this could happen? I’m afraid I’ll file some form and unknowingly apply for household and get drafted.
Does anyone know if TARC are eligible for National Health insurance? I read on wiki they were not however the man I was talking said I was. Can someone give clarification?
Also the tax? with TARC are you taxed like a foreigner?
I can’t answer most of your questions but are you aware that the military service is now just four months (with weekends off) unless you are drafted for alternative service, which is now just 12 days of community service?
I see, yeah I just heard that from another source too, with that being said I think I might go for the TARC then, and if the draft does come, perhaps there’s something to gain from it.
Hi, sorry I know this thread is a few months old, but can you please post (or anyone else reading this thread) sources that confirm this statement of 4 months/12 days?
From what I understand, they changed the rules for people born after 1993 or 1994, where the 4 months rule applies. However the OP is 24 (I’m 25 born 1988) and I thought the rule does not apply to us? So for me and the OP, I thought it was still standard 11 months of military or however long it is now?
Mandatory military service only applies to males between the ages of 18 and 36 who have household registration in Taiwan. As long as you don’t proactively apply for household registration, you will not be drafted.
There is no way you can “accidentally” apply for household registration as long as you never go back to the immigration department after receiving your TARC. In any case, there should be no reason for you to go back (unless, of course, you would like to extend your TARC after the three-year expiration).
If you would like to extend your TARC after it expires, just go back to the immigration department but make sure you mark on the application form “renewal” （重新換發）instead of “permanent residency certificate”（定居證）. Note that the form is only in Chinese, and I suppose that if you were clueless enough, you could mark the wrong box and receive a nice little household registration booklet and a conscription notice in the mail.
As far as I know, the two-year military conscription has already been completely phased out for people of all ages, not just those who were born after 1993/1994 (they were just the first batch to be exempted).
Mandatory military conscription is now only 4 months for everybody (although I cannot provide you with any official source). So if you think about it, it’s more like a mandatory summer camp.
Really? That doesn’t make any sense to me. Why would the military want old people to serve for a full year, but young people to only serve for 4 months? You’d think they would prefer the younger people with more energy to serve longer, and the old farts to just get it over with in 4 months.
Then again, nothing in Taiwan makes any sense to me. I feel like I’m living in Opposite Land.
Because, if people who have waited longer to do their duty can serve shorter, it is unfair for the same age people who severed longer when they were young. If they wait until the cut off age, they don’t need to serve at all, though.
Does anyone know how this could happen? I’m afraid I’ll file some form and unknowingly apply for household and get drafted.