Taiwan has a lot of quirks.
Is that (the first one) the usual tax certificate - the thing on bluish paper with a red stamp? Or something else?
Yes.
Both documents are titled “Individual Income Tax Statement of the Republic of China” (and are blue in original - the app I used to scan them conveniently converted them to a white background):
and
Only the second one shows how much „salary income“ one has - the first one isn’t sufficient for this purpose.
1 Like
Cool, thanks! I always just received the first one, didn’t know about the second. I’ll have to ask for them when I finally get around to paying my taxes. 
1 Like
I went from Gold Card to APRC and the process was easy. You just need to give an invoice to the tax office for overseas income or some kind of receipt. Then pay the tax and then get the certificate.
Painless process
1 Like
That’s good to know.
1 Like
My certificate for 2022 says pending where the list of income should be.
Does anybody know if there is a specific date when I can request a full one, or is it going to be different for each person depending on when it’s all processed?
If I submit 6 months of salary withholding certificates instead, I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets rejected because there isn’t enough information to decide yearly salary…
If you are neither self-employed nor employed in Taiwan, to qualify for NHI you will need to spend a full 6-month period in Taiwan. You are allowed to make one trip abroad, which does not exceed 30 days. During this time, your 6 months will be “paused,” and will resume upon your return to Taiwan. If you go abroad on more than one trip, or if your trip is longer than 30 days, then you will have to wait another 6 months from the time you reenter Taiwan to be eligible for an NHI card.
My travel plan:
- Arrive in Taiwan end of December 2023
- Go to 5 days Thailand holiday in January 2024
- Another holiday in early May 2024 for 2 weeks
=> I will have two stays abroad in the first 6 months, which leads to the problem, that the clock starts again after I come back in mid May, correct? Is there any way to ignore the first 2 weeks in Taiwan before going to Thailand? 
I see 2 solutions:
- Don’t go to Taiwan in December but immediately go to Thailand => difficult since flights are outrageously expensive from Germany to Thailand
- Don’t go on holiday in early May 2024 but in June => not practical, since it’s my best friends wedding I want to attend
Bonus solution: Find a job in Taiwan 
(kidding, cannot do that for many reasons)
With the caveat that I have yet to actually enroll in self-pay NHI (supposed to be doing this in mid-June), I have a similar situation to you and have spoken with the relevant department about this and they have told me I am eligible at the 6-month mark (plus 26 days pause due to 26 days out of the country). So you should be fine as well. You’ll just treat your “return” to Taiwan in January 2024 as your entry. They won’t factor in your previous trips, only essentially your most recent one.
Again…with the caveat that I haven’t done it yet. This is just what I’ve inferred based on the date they’ve told me I will be eligible.
1 Like
What’s that birthday cake mean? Is today my Forumosa anniversary??
Edit: apparently it is…I am turning three today. Thank you very much.
2 Likes
I’m not sure how it’s interpreted. The logical thing would be for the clock to start when you re-enter in January 2024 and have the two-week holiday in May counting as your first holiday in the six months starting from January, but who knows whether NHIA interprets it logically.
Maybe you could try e-mailing them. The e-mail address I have is A111007@nhi.gov.tw for someone called Wendy Hsu, who was on a previous list of gold card related contacts, but I don’t know whether that’s still the correct person to contact - I wrote in early 2020.
1 Like
Probably your best bet is to go to the tax office and person and tell then you need the statement for a specific purpose. Then, they might check your case on the spot and hopefully you can take the statement with you the same day.
1 Like
I will try to contact her, thank you!
Thanks for the response,
This is what I did, and only when I got home I realised it was incomplete 
.
I’ll go back this week and see.
1 Like
Thinking about the guy saying that the government should give gold card holders money for a car
3 Likes
Yeah. 
For the daily commutes from Taipei to Kaohsiung. I think he left the site, at least under that username.
1 Like
It seems gold card approval time varies a lot depending on field/category
My extension took 4 weeks, but 3 weeks due to science and technology council review. They didn’t ask me for supplemental docs during that stage, so they were probably just backlogged.
The extension begins at end of my current gold card expiry, so my new gold card is valid for 3 years and 3 months
2 Likes
I have an official answer from the NHI:
According to NHI Act and regulations, all foreigners holding an Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and staying in Taiwan for six months must join the NHI program. The insured meeting one of the conditions below is equivalent to the aforementioned “staying in Taiwan for six months”: 1. six months of continuous residence in Taiwan, 2. the actual period staying in Taiwan for six months included one trip abroad not exceed 30days.
We try to put on the real date on your schedule for your understanding.
－ You’re a gold card holder and arrive in Taiwan end of December 2023, e.g. 31 December 2023.
－ You go to Thailand holidays for 5 days in January 2024, e.g. 1 January~ 5 January, 2024.
－ You have another holiday in Germany early May 2024 for 2 weeks, e.g. 1 May~ 14 May, 2024.Under the way for counting your actual period staying in Taiwan for six months included one trip abroad not exceed 30days, that is from the day, 5 January, 2024, back from your Thailand holidays, then plus 6 months and 14 days, then we finger out 19 July, 2024 would be your day to be eligible to enroll in the NHI program.
You may check the case four of our Examples for your reference Examples for foreign nationals to calculate their length of stay in order to enroll in the NHI-National Health Insurance Administration Ministry of Health and Welfare-Enrollment-Examples for foreign nationals to calculate their length of stay in order to enroll in the NHI
Follow up questions I asked:
Q1. What if the 1st holiday to Thailand is from 1. January~10. January, 2024 (10 days) and the 2nd holiday to Germany from 1. May~22. May, 2024 (22 days)? Will it be calculated the same way if the total days of 2 holidays exceed 30 days?
Our answer:
Yes, it is calculated in the same way. The starting date to calculated the duration of staying in Taiwan is from 10. January, back from your Thailand holidays, plus 6 months and 22 days, ONLY ONE trip abroad and also days for trip unexceed 30 days could be included. Then 1 August, 2024 would be the eligible day of NHI program.
By the way, same case but Germany holidays exceeded 30 days, e.g. from 1. May~5.June, 2024 (36 days), it must restart from 5. June, 2024. to calculated the duration of staying in Taiwan.
Q2. What if there are three holidays, when would I be eligible to enroll in the NHI?
1st holiday to Thailand from 1. January~10. January, 2024 (10 days)
2nd holiday to Japan from 1. March~5. March, 2024 (5 days)
3rd holiday to Germany from 1. May~14. May, 2024 (14 days)
Our answer:
Calculating the duration of staying in Taiwan is starting from the date 5 March, 2024, back from Japan, then plus 6 months and 14 days, then 19 September, 2024 would be your day to be eligible to enroll in the NHI program.
2 Likes
Those are some detailed answers from the NHI office. Good English too.
2 Likes
Yeah this is exactly what they told me as well (and as I shared upthread). Makes me feel more confident as I will go to enroll in two weeks.
Instead of replying to my emails, they ended up calling me and explaining this all to me in Mandarin (which was a challenge for me)