Well I heard back from them so from my understanding now, it is definitely not illegal and not particularly shady either. They’ve never encountered this particular situation (one of the contracted employees using the contract for NHI enrollment) but said they have no problem with me presenting the contract to NHI. Shouldn’t be an issue at all. However, from what I’m reading, it’s not a matter of presenting a contract to NHI but rather the employer should be enrolling me with NHI. Is that correct? So then it seems I’d be needing them to do some administrative work that they weren’t planning to do. Is an employer NHI enrollment supposed to only be for full-time employees? Or is there history of it being done for part-time contractors?
Were you able to get this issue resolved? I’ll most likely hit the same issue when I try to renew my gold card, and it’s impossible for me to enter China unless I get a work permit to enter
That’s right. The employer should do it, if they’re registering you as an employee.
I think it can be done for part-time employees, but I’m not sure if there’s a minimum definition of “part time” here. I previously asked the NHIA about that over email, but their answer was vague.
I think you’d have a hard time convincing them you’re employed, working between zero and one hours a month for possibly no money.
Without getting into the legality or otherwise of the situation, Taiwan implements a minimum wage so if you are an official employee with a legal contract, you will have to be paid that minimum amount at least and with the relevant NHI contributions by the employer. In this case you are right to assume that the 6-month waiting period would be waived.
What you described in your post is either your potential employer using you to milk some benefit from the government or (more likely ) you trying to find a loophole to avoid the 6-month waiting period. In either case it’s not going to work.
Finally got my goldcard approved and got into Taiwan! This thread is really helpful so I’d also leave my application timeline here for reference.
It took a bit more than 5 months as my application has to be switched to NDC Special Review:
mid Mar 2022 - Submitted Application under Economic (Salary)
mid Apr 2022 - been advised to switch to NDC Special Review and agreed to switch
mid Apr - mid Aug 2022 - NDC Special Review across 3 ministries, has been asked to supply more doc for 2-3 times, mainly on clarifying whether my qualification fall into 1 of the ministry (while other 2 minitries have given the green night). Goldcard Office & NDC has been very helpful and supportive following up my application and communicate with the relevant ministry.
mid-late August 2022 - Goldcard approved and admin process
I think as my application is not the most straight forward one so had to go to NDC Special Review and took a bit longer.
Sharing my timeline. Because I was living in mainland I had to provide with extra documents and verifications via SEF that took quite some time and resources like notarisations, delivering them to TW and finally reaching out to friends living in Taipei to assist with the final verification process.
2021/3/30 - Initial submission under Economic (Salary)
2021/5/26 - Need to provide more documents
[5 months discussing with my employer and mainland notary office on how to provide the documents]
2021/11/05 - Submit requested documents
2021/11/18 - Documents missing complete SEF verification + one document is not accepted
2022/5/17 - Submit requested documents
2022/5/27 - Need to provide more documents
2022/5/30 - Submit requested documents
2022/6/23 - Invitation to BOCA for passport check
[Leave China, fly to home country, and submit passport in person]
2022/7/19 - Card is ready to collect!!!
Did you hear back from them by now? I hope your GC was approved. I applied under the same category, after “Consulting with Ministry of Culture” for a week it went back to the Workforce Development Agency today.
I just realized your post is from July '21, not '22.
The gold card is an ARC valid up to 3 years with open work permit and can be applied for wuthout any job offers or connections with Taiwan.
It is an immigration programme sponsored by the National development council to attract foreign talent to Taiwan, so it is purposedly made to minimise the hurdles to settled here.
You need to check whether you would qualify depending on the industry. Everything is done online.
Once you are approved, you will need to get your passport verified at any consulate/embassy/TECO office before being issued with a resident authorisation entry permit. Once your gold card is approved, you are already considered a resident.
Well just to tie off this loose end, apparently it is working! my “employer” has registered my entire family for NHI. I wasn’t seeking out this loophole, it literally fell into my lap, although admittedly had I known something like this was possible I would have sought it out! I’m not sure if it indeed is your first scenario:
it might be, but the way it was explained to me (I did not ask more questions or dig deeper) was that it is a loophole for them to remain exclusive/selective as a business. In fact, I am their client and I am paying them, however they are only allowed to work directly with companies (not individual clients) and the loophole was for them to hire me, as employees are also allowed to pay for their services. LOL. It makes much more sense if you can figure out what type of business this is, but I won’t say anymore unless someone DMs me for the info.
I doubt it. An ARC is very different to visa free entry… I’d expect mostly digital nomads might use visa free instead - probably not too many of those, nowadays that the first (real) wave of Covid has (more or less gently) hit taiwan.
) you trying to find a loophole to avoid the 6-month waiting period. In either case it’s not going to work.
my “employer” has registered my entire family for NHI. I wasn’t seeking out this loophole, it literally fell into my lap, although admittedly had I known something like this was possible I would have sought it out! I’m not sure if it indeed is your first scenario: