That is correct. Some people in the past reported on setting up a company just to pay themselves a salary.
I could create a shell company, hire myself as a trader and apply under “Finance” so I can tick the right boxes, but is this really necessary? Why not use some photoshop instead? I’d never take the risk of doing this but I’m curious
You can no longer do that. However you will be emailed a pdf of a special form (your authorization form) which is all you need (visa-wise) for entering Taiwan. Then you can pickup the card from whichever branch you selected.
Any ideas on why this changed? So one must fly to Taiwan to get the residence permit (or visa)?
Someone wrote the following in this topic a while ago.
If this is how they review, then I should be fine as is. No need to create a shell company
It was a bit more complicated than I thought. I’ve been self employed for the last 5 years or so, so I could just print the documents I needed myself and that was fine for them.
They asked me for patents and other documents that proved I was skilled in my field. I sent them a printout of a Medium article I created - for those who don’t know Medium is a blog site and anyone can create an article for free - as well as some youtube videos I created and my linkedin profile. That was enough to prove I’m skilled apparently.
Everything with this process over the years has been fairly inconsistent. Some things may depend on who you get to review and what they’ve been told recently. That said, yes it was necessary for some of the people who reported back in this thread. It was also stated by some that providing a document/letter stating the income was not sufficient…so actually doing this for an entire year and then filing taxes was purportedly necessary as well. Again YMMV and you may have success without going through all this trouble
Covid and/or the cost/administrative manpower of mailing cards globally. It’s a rather insignificant change…your Visa still becomes active from the moment you are issued it, and you get a downloadable document for entering Taiwan. Literally the only difference is instead of making a trip to pick it up at the office in your country, you will pick it up at the office you select inside Taiwan (which quite often will be more convenient)
As I said YMMV so it could work out that way. But that poster you quoted appears to not have been applying through income, but rather through one of the other pathways in Science and Tech. They didn’t explicitly state this, but the mere fact that they were proving their exceptionalism seems to imply this. Anyway, yes, it seems you might be able to get around the shell company situation if you can meet some of the other qualification pathways: Field of Finance | Taiwan Gold Card
You mean a visa stamped on your passport? Do you know if its valid for a few months or for 3 years? (if you apply for 3yr option). As far as I know, there won’t be a visa on the passport
Can someone pick up the card for you from Taiwan and mail it to you?
Btw my primary goal is to have residencies, just to have options. I don’t know if/when I’ll use an option.
Have some questions about working remotely in Taiwan for a short period of time - any help appreciated.
I am a US citizen and live in the US. I work remotely (from home) for the US-based unit of a multinational publishing company. I am paid in USD on a W-2. My company has a new policy where we can “work from anywhere” in the world for up to 4 weeks per calendar year, as long as we have the “right to work” there. If possible, I’d like to take advantage of this and work remotely from Taiwan for maybe 2-4 weeks per year.
My questions would be:
a. Would the Gold Card be the best means for me to acquire official “right to work” in my situation? I can qualify with salary criteria.
b. Since I would only be working in this fashion in Taiwan for 2-4 weeks (much less than 90 days in any case), am I correct that I would not need to pay or even file taxes in Taiwan?
I did a search and looked at a couple threads similar to my situation: [1] [2] and looked over the tax info on the official [Gold Card] website. Just wanted to check and make sure I had not misread or misunderstood anything.
Some time ago the criteria changed, salary alone is not enough any more. You additionally must prove you fall into a suitable category.
Yes, I think the gold card would a possible way for you to work remote from TW. Not sure if there are any other realistic and legal ways (and we don’t discuss illegal ones here). Maybe others can comment?
The gold card, by the way, is not actually meant for such cases. It is meant to attract talents to work and stay in TW long term. But so far there seem to be no checks or requirements for this kind of motivation.
PS: just out of curiosity, and not related - how come Taiwan is interesting for you? Have you stayed here before?
I have an MD from a top 500 university (I work for an academic publishing company). I’m not sure if I could try to squeeze through the PhD qualifications though…
My parents are from Taiwan (I am Taiwanese American) and I am fluent in Mandarin. Pre-Covid I was visiting once or twice a year for leisure. Since my parents are Taiwanese (and my dad has household registration in Taiwan) I could technically obtain a Taiwanese passport also, but that didn’t seem like it was the right answer for my situation either.
Yes, less than 90 days in Taiwan and no local employer should mean that you don’t need to file or pay taxes.
Not sure if you can still get an ARC (the Gold Card is also an ARC) if you are actually Taiwanese. The passport might be the better option for you if it’s easily possible.
The English wording is unclear on the gold card website. Perhaps send them an email to ask if your MD would be acceptable…it might be, which would be the easiest and fastest way to obtain it.
Otherwise, can you show this? It is another pathway.
Documentary evidence that the person has been or is currently employed in a public or private school, college, university, or educational organization in another country or in Taiwan and for at least five years has provided services as a teacher or researcher or provided educational administration services.
There is a rep office option for a visa, but this might be too much hassle for 2-4 weeks. I do think the Gold Card is the best option for legally working from Taiwan.
Thank you for the suggestions! I will email and see if my MD is acceptable to qualify under the “doctorate from one of the top 500 universities” requirement. I was a clinical assistant professor for five years also, so the other pathway you suggested might work also!
Just noticed my quote left off the last part, which was that they want the most recent income to be over the income requirement. IIRC previous successful applicants have been able to show these things separately even if it seems the spirit of the pathway is that you earned that minimum income doing those specific work functions.
I think you’re right - I think work authorization is separate even if I have the no-residency passport. Gold Card, assuming I can qualify, still seems to be the best way to go, since it’s all-in-one including the work permit.
I still might get a passport eventually anyway, would love to retire in Taiwan eventually!
Just pay attention, a passport without national id number, i.e. for nationals without household registration, is almost worthless since it doesn’t give any residency rights to the holder. You would be treated almost as an alien as per immigration policy. Check very carefully
It would have to be separate! I guess I could just submit everything I have and hope that I qualify under at least one of the “Field of Education” requirements.
