08-Dec — Initial application under “Science & Technology” w/CV, 2019 W-2s & 1099s (U.S.) and 2019 1040 Tax Return (U.S.)
13-Jan — Received email they needed more documentation; Decided to just switch to “Economic” field and reapply.
13-Jan — Changed to “Economic” and verified with Mr. Wang & Gold Card Helpdesk; Was told to check back early Feb on status.
14-Jan — Status Change back to “Professional Review by Workforce Development Agency”
12-Feb — Chinese New Year
22-Feb — Sent emails to check on status
24-Feb — Still waiting…
15-Mar — Emailed Helpdesk on status. Told it was still under WDA Review.
03-Apr — Pretty much given up at this point, 5 days shy of 4 months.
15-Apr — Reached out to Mr. Wang to see if he’s able to get an update.
12-May — Finally received an email from Mr. Wang that he pushed my application again back on 23-Apr.
01-Jun — Received email the Ministry of Economic Affairs needed more documentation.
27-Jun — Tired of the run-around so sat on my butt for 27 days and decided to try again before the 30 days are up for me to submit more documentation. After reading more recent posts here, I decided to change my application BACK to Science & Technology, submitted the same documents but this time included an open letter, two letters of recommendations, and more “official” proof of my employment.
05-Jul — Received an email from Ms. Chien from the Ministry of Labor they wanted Employment Certificates from another two different employers I had submitted W-2s for. Reached out to each respective HR department for them to forward to her.
Guys.l, please indicate in your posts whether you have a job offer in Taiwan of NT160k/month or higher. It’ll make it easier to understand the delays.
Application changed to “Review by the National Immigration Agency”
Is that a good thing? What’s next?
Does anyone know or remember if there’s a remaining validity period requirement as part of the passport inspection process? My passport expires in January 2022 and I have about two weeks before it hits 6 months of validity left. U.S. Passport renewals are taking between 12 weeks (Expedited) to 18 weeks (Standard). I’m still going through the Gold Card application process so I’m wondering if I should go ahead and do an Expedited Passport renewal.
Cumulative number of gold card issuance
At the end of last year, about 70% of cards were of the economic category. about 45% of cards issued last month were of the category.
I believe your gold card is tied to your passport, so you’re better off renewing it first or else you’ll have a headache. Renewing a US passport in Taiwan is neither cheap nor easy. I believe you can get expedited renewal by paying $$$ and going in person (I drove 5 hrs to Atlanta to do it the last time). Once you renew you will have to get an updated gold card.
I general, you may want to have at least 3 years before passport renewal (if you applied for a 3 year gold card).
Ah. That makes sense. Thanks for the information and confirmation!
What was the status prior to this?
Review by Workforce Development Agency
Does anyone know the Company Introduction & letter of recommendation which write by company both is need to bring to TECO to VERIFY first?
In my case I only know that the Employment certificate need to Verify. But I doesn’t clearly know that both of letter of recommendation & introduction also need to verify…
Does anyone have experience/advice on applying for the education category as a remote worker for a US university (administrative/financial reporting job, not faculty and no PHD)? I emailed helpdesk, explained my job/employer and asked to confirm the correct category. They essentially told me I didn’t qualify for any of the options because I needed a PhD from a top 200 university, or 5 years of teaching at a top 500 university. On the actual qualification page for the gold card there is the fourth option under education which the helpdesk didn’t reference, and it seems to fit my role. 5+ years of service at this job, most recent monthly salary above 160,000…
I emailed helpdesk earlier with a different question about documentation requirements and didn’t really get a great answer/I don’t think they fully understood what I was asking which was reasonable considering it involved US tax code. I am hoping something was lost in translation in this recent email as well, as the website seems quite clear to me.
Should I just apply under education and expect that the people evaluating the applications will agree that it fits #4 of the qualifications? Am I reading #4 wrong? 
I think the education category means that you do educational work, not that you do administrative/financial work for an educational organization.
If your expertise is in finance, have you looked here?
Also, the purpose of the Gold Card, as I understand it, is to bring in skilled workers. So, if you’re not planning on looking for work, that’s another reason that you might not qualify…
That was my assumption as well, TT. I felt that I could make some case for economy, education, science and technology or finance based on my job duties (financial reporting and its related information systems). I emailed the helpdesk to clarify which was the best fit since nothing really stuck out to me. They essentially said in that response that your employer’s industry is what picks your qualification for the card, not your actual job skills. Based on this interpretation, you could be a portfolio manager at Goldman Sachs, leave to manage Harvard’s Endowment, and no longer qualify for any Gold Card categories…seems odd.
They gave me contact information of someone at the Ministry of Education to clarify, I sent a very precise/carefully worded email explaining my job duties…I am guessing that email might get lost in a large volume if this person handles other issues.
Wish I had known about this option earlier, when apparently they were approving based on salary alone!
Hello folks,
I’m excited to report that I received notice for passport submission today! For the curious, here is my timeline so far:
2021.05.18 - submitted
2021.05.19 - asked for revised headshot
2021.05.20 - submitted with revised headshot
2021.05.21 - Professional Review by Workforce Development Agency
2021.06.30 - Consulting with Ministry of Science and Technology
2021.07.08 - Review by the Workforce Development Agency
2021.07.12 - Passport Inspection at the Bureau of Consular Affairs or Overseas Missions of R.O.C. (Taiwan)
I gave the local TECO a call this morning with questions around dependent/spouse visas, and they told me to look on the boca website for “foreigners applying for spouse and child” for required documents. However, I can’t seem to find that? All I see is stuff for foreign spouses of ROC citizens.
So, two questions:
- Do I need to have completed the entire gold card application process to apply for spouse and child visas (e.g. should I submit my passport now)?
- Does anyone know where the list of required documents is for dependent (spouse/child) visas is?
Thanks!
First time I’ve head of them complaining about the photo. Did you not follow the requirements or something?
Haha, I guess not? They thought the background for the original photo was not white enough.
I’m still wondering if anyone has experienced my current status? 
It said Review by Workforce Agency before this.
Are you applying from within TW?