The Employment Gold Card Super-Thread

Adding to the data points, TECO Miami they held my passport for maybe 2 minutes, to make copies. My appointment took 5-10 minutes. If you’ve got a branch that is still not taking in-person appointments then that sucks.

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@boaz25 - fantastic information. Thank you!

Regarding the NHI. After re-reading their website it appears one is issued an “NHI Card” after six months. I suppose in practice once you have that card you are good to go since it should be easier to re-activate NHI rather than re-apply.

Hey wondering is someone can answer this question.

From what I understand the gold card can be converted to an APRC after three years. One of the requirements is having an average monthly income in Taiwan in the previous year that is more than twice of the Monthly Minimum Wage.

Does only income from a Taiwanese company count towards this requirement or does income from overseas also count? (income from overseas that has had Taiwanese taxes paid on it)

Thanks

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LA TECO was over a month, iirc, but that was a couple years ago.

Can someone help me out on the following questions regarding the application for permanent residency for gold cad holders.

Criminal record? But from which country - I have not been living in my passport country for over 25 years. Do I need it from my passport country or country with last residence before Taiwan? This does not apply if you have been 6 months in a row in Taiwan before?


For the salary - it needs to match the amount in the previous year? Right? What about if you get paid different salary by month? I plan to spend just below 6 months in Taiwan in 2022 - then thinking about applying for permanent residency in 2023 by staying 8 months to get the amount of days in. Now I think I ould either supply:
1.Salary income withholding tax voucher issued by employer.
– I have my own ltd employing me. So I can issue whatever I like - is it okay to have higher salary in the months not being in Taiwan vs the months I spent in Taiwan. Otherwise I will pay twice the tax because Cyprus will tax me anyhow and has no double tax treaty with Taiwan. What are the requirements on tax voucher issued by employer if it’s from a foreign country? In Cyprus there are not tax slips on paper. So I just print something and put my company logo on it? Or have my accountant print something with his logo? Does there need to be a stamp?
2. Alien Individual Income Tax Return - If I pay a even salary for the year I would need to pay all my time in Taiwan taxes twice (Taiwan and Cyprus).


Oh and can you apply before you have those 549 days together? I would stay until mid May, then leave Taiwan. Return late September until 31.12.2023 and apply upon return (when I don’t have the days together yet).


We have to enter Taiwan once every 5 years to not loose the APRC, right?

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You have provided criminal record when applying for gold card.
If you have not left Taiwan for more than three months, then a new criminal record is not required. Same applies for health check.

Details below :point_down:

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No I never provided a criminal record. Maybe that’s a new requirement? At the time I applied no need for that.

And yeah I would only be +183 days in 2023 - so not sure about this ecxlusion. But so I guess I need it if I leave for summer again - but not need it if I decide to endure the freaking Taiwan summer heat. Still wonder from which country it is then supposed to be (country of passport or last other residence). Because it is unclear to me what is home country.

I received my GC in Sep 2021, enrolled in NHI after 6months continuously in Taiwan. Returned to US in June 2021, then back to Taiwan in May 2022. Continued to pay monthly NHI fees while overseas
and after returning in May 2022 had no issues visiting Doctor in Taiwan. If the GD expires and you do not have a visa I would assume the NHI ends.

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Sorry, I assumed all visas for residency require criminal record check.

Just giving back to the thread:

11-Aug-2022: Applied (Economic, IT (I’m a software developer), resume plus last two US paystubs and last two US W-2s submitted)
11-Aug-2022: Application Payment Pending
13-Aug-2022: Successful submission, review pending (Note: for some reason it took 2 days for the payment to process on my credit card)
14-Aug-2022: Review by the National Immigration Agency
16-Aug-2022: Review by the Workforce Development Agency
23-Aug-2022: Additional Documentation required: Needed to add a proper “Foreign Employment Certificate” (was not familiar with one prior to this)
5-Sep-2022: Notice to report to a Taiwan representative office or Bureau of Consular Affairs
13-Sep-2022: Appeared at TECO Atlanta to validate passport (Took about 15 minutes while they made copies and seemed to run some checks in the back)
21-Sep-2022: Application Approved. Certificate pending.
23-Sep-2022: Completed.

In the end it felt as if mine was a straight-forward application given I’m in the software industry and had same job for last 5 years.
The passport check in Atlanta was, like others have said, a bit of a mystery. My guess is they keep it this way since they do not want to guarantee you will be good.
They most likely want to have some flexibility to say, “we will mail it back to you” in case something looked amiss. Just my guess.

I feel this is a great program and the Taiwanese are really doing their best to shuttle you through and are very helpful and have native-like English.
If you meet the criteria: just apply, they will help you.

Thank you for this great forum and thread!

Edit: Regarding the visit to a TECO office. Just a reminder you will need to make an appointment with your nearest office by calling them or emailing (don’t just show up!)

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Where in Taipei can I pick up my physical Gold Card? I did a quick search and I can’t seem to find the address. If anyone can share that would be great!

When I pick up my GC any information I need to give them? I don’t have a physical address yet so I don’t want to give them anything.

I think you’re looking for that place:

National Immigration Agency
No. 15, Guangzhou St, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, Taiwan 100
+886 2 2388 9393
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZF5JBNHNxLbEnK8Q8?g_st=ic

The payment receipt for the application fee of the Gold Card.

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I’d like to continue the discussion on applying for PR.

For a Gold Card holder to apply for PR, one must have “[held] a Gold Card for at least three years, have stayed in Taiwan as a Gold Card holder for three consecutive years or more, and have resided in Taiwan for an average of 183 days or more per year.”

Does one “day” mean 24 whole hours?

I have to travel frequently between Taiwan and other countries, and sometimes I stay less than 24 hours. If I arrive in Taiwan in the morning and leave at night, does this count as a day?

If I recall correctly, counting starts on the day after arrival. So if you leave on the same day, that would be zero days. If you depart the day after, even if you pass immigration at 12:05 a.m., you get one day.

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Thank you!!

Is the whole Gold Card process slowing down because Taiwan is slowly opening up?
This is my current timeline so far:

4-Sep-2022: Applied (Under Economic field with 8 years of experience)
5-Sep-2022: Review by the National Immigration Agency
6-Sep-2022: Review by the Workforce Development Agency
26-Sep-2022: Wrote an email to the Gold Card support since my application is stuck on “Review by the WDA” for 3 weeks now.
27-Sep-2022: The Gold Card support replied that I need to provide different termination certificates from the previous Taiwanese companies that I have worked for.
30-Sep-2022: Sent them the documents.
3-Oct-2022: Called the Ministry of Labor for an update since it’s been a whole month now. They asked me via email for a statement considering the previous documents (termination certificates) I sent. I sent them the statement the same day.

As of today, it’s still the same status, “Review by the Workforce Development Agency”. Not sure if I’m impatient but by reading previous timelines of people here, the WDA shouldn’t take this long.

I’m located in Taiwan btw and I currently have the ARC extension which will expire by the end of December but I can get another one for 6 months until June 2023.

and boom, just like that, today my status was changed to: Consulting with Ministry of Economic Affairs! Hope it all goes well!

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I wouldn’t worry too much if processing times are around 1 month, consider there were some public holidays here and there in there last few weeks.

I would start to worry after 2 months of processing, but also note that the economy field seems to be the one attracting more applications, so there might be some backlog.

Best of luck!

So I finally went to NHI to pickup my card yesterday. Very little hassle at all, arrived around 9am. About a 20 second wait to see the first person, who checked my ID, took my picture, and got me processed in about two minutes. Gave me my receipt and said my card would be ready for pickup on the other side of the room in about 10 minutes. And it was.

Now, my dependents were not able to get registered. My “employer” did not include them and did not know it was possible. However, apparently this is a benefit of the gold card…supposedly because I am a gold card holder, they can be added under me without the 6-month wait. My presumption had been (coming from the US) that any resident sponsored by an employer would just be able to add all their dependents, but I guess this is technically a gold card perk. They gave me an info sheet that we shared with my employer, and now they’re adding them. Said it should be ready by this afternoon and then my wife will head back to NHI to add the rest of the family.

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Good to hear, waiting to finish my 6 months wait. Will finally go in mid-november.

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