Yes I was here for more than 3 years straight.
My understanding is that if you haven’t been out if the country for more than 3 months at a time the last 2 years You only need the Taiwan police record
I’m going to go this route as well. Did you apply for a renewal of 3 years of GC? 1 year makes me nervous
Yep 3 years
So, an update on my situation if it helps anyone.
- Went to NIA and unfortunately they hadn’t even heard of the gold card… (I’m in the South)
- Went home and called the gold card hotline, the woman on the phone was very helpful, said I could either renew the Gold Card under the same requirements (for me was having $160,000 NTD provable salary last year - which unfortunately isn’t my situation currently) or apply for the employment seeking visa 1 month before expiry, which gives me very little time because of my procrastinating ways.
So, it looks like I’m going for option 2, applying for a 6-month employment-seeking visa, which now presents a whole new host of problems, yay! If anyone has experience doing this previously, please let me know how it went!
I think what was meant here by you can renew under the same requirements is you fit into a field and category. The field and category does not have to be the same as your initial Gold Card. There has been a few GC holder that have gone from Economy field to the Science and Technology field and also from a salary based category to a skill/experience based category.
Oh interesting, I haven’t looked at the requirements since I first applied over 3 years ago. All I have is a master’s degree (from TW at least), will have to go take a look.
Cheers
Did you have an employment based ARC prior to the Gold Card?
The reason being if you had say:
1 year 3 months as a foreign professional
2 years 9 months as a gold card holder (foreign special professional)
Total: 4 years
You could apply for APRC as a Foreign Professional due to a master degree from Taiwan can deduct 1 year from the required 5 years.
Otherwise need to compete 3 years on the Gold Card to appy as a Foreign Special Professional.
This is very concerning, @fifieldt this needs action…
Not much that the GC office can do, sadly. Taiwan’s bureaucracy is idiotic. If those in charge of local NIA branches ignore the instructions coming from Taipei’s central office (which received them from the GC office) and don’t properly train their staff because mafan, things will never change. Welcome to Chabuduoland. That’s why I am looking forward to all GC-related paperwork from initial application to APRC being integrated within the online platform. So I don’t have to deal with NIA.
@BananaJay As a resident of the South I can’t but confirm and add that, compared with the Motor Vehicle Office or the Tax Bureau, NIA is depressingly still the best 
The clerks of the Motor Vehicle Office usually throw the Gold Card back at me and repeat NO NO NO, 我要 ARC, A-R-C, OOOOOKAAAAAYYYYYY?
Quick question for anyone who’s already applied for a second gold card ahead of their first one expiring: which option are we supposed to choose in the application portal? Does this count as a “renewal” or an “extension”?
The language seems a bit confusing, especially as the previous line was that gold cards can’t be renewed or extended, just re-applied for. 
Should probably have read the FAQs on the other gold card website first. 
Seems like the answer is the second one, “extension”:
What is the difference between reapplication and extension?
“Re-application” is the term used for 1) those who applied for a second Gold Card before 10/25/2021 or 2) those who apply for a second Gold Card after their first Gold Card expires. The start date of the second Gold Card is the approval date of the re-application.“Extension” is the term used for those who apply for a second Gold Card after (and including) 10/25/2021. In this case, the start date of the second Gold Card is linked to first Gold Card. For example, if your first card expires on 11/25, then your second card’s start date is 11/25.
Please note that the required documents for “re-application” are the same as those for an “extension,” and you must meet the qualifications before applying.
Just to clarify.
Based on @Andrew 's explanation, the two options that the GC online platform currently offers are both about “renewing” the Gold Card, as in “having a Gold Card and applying to keep having it” (caveman definition).
So @Bree what are you referring to? The “extension” offered by the platform that as @Andrew just wrote is a “renewal” or the 6-month “bridge” that @olm mentioned and that is not a Gold Card but extends residency for the sake of applying for APRC?
This terminology is driving me nuts.
Renewal=extension
I didn’t notice this before, but “renewal” (as used on the portal) isn’t even the same as “re-application” used in the FAQ. So…indeed.
To me too…but not according to whoever wrote the drop-down options on the portal. 
(I’m not sure why the given descriptions would even require a different word. They could just say “Since 11/25/2021, the start date of the second gold card will match the expiry date of the first gold card. Holders of an expired gold card will need to begin a new application on the online portal.”)
You know why. Because the guy that proofed the English was shot down because the original author didn’t want to lose face. The poor wording remained.
Basically, this is all related to the law change that went in in 2021 (also the reason for the Oct/Nov dates - since that was when parts of the law came into effect). The Chinese versions of the words are specified in the law. Law can’t be modified & mandatory to use as reference, so the English had to match. Unwieldy as it is, to fix it involves asking the legislature 
In June of 2021, the Gold Card Office conducted a survey of their applicants. Out of 317 responses, 60% agreed that Taiwan’s handling of the pandemic was one of the reasons they decided to move to Taiwan.
Between July and September of 2022, the Gold Card Office conducted another survey of Gold Card holders. Out of 1,081 responses, 58.9% of holders said they still lived in Taiwan; while 16.7% said they were no longer residing in Taiwan.
[…]
In a survey conducted by the Gold Card Office in 2022, only 30.4% of those surveyed were actually employed in Taiwan, while. 34.8% were “hired overseas but working remotely from Taiwan”.
Hey, I need to update the passport number on my gold card soon. Does anyone have experience of doing this?
I see it’s done on the online portal. Just two questions:
- How long does it take to receive the new gold card?
- Do I actually need to submit the new passport when I apply to change the number on the gold card?
- 1 week
- Need to update the passport number and provide a copy of the passport via the application portal