I got a gold card, based on my employment as a public servant, under economy route and salary level. But all of my income is taxed.
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For clarity: Gold Card regs are interested in salary (or things that look very much like salary. 1099-NEC compared to W-2, for example), not income.
What matters is not that your income is taxed, but that your income is money the gov gives you for the work you do (i.e. a salary), rather than eg investment/dividends/royalties/a company you own.
Tax documents make it easy to prove the dollar figure and that it’s a salary. You might have to think of another way to formally prove those things, but provided you can it should work.
You will likely end up in special review, so I would allow 4 months rather than the regular 2.
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When (month and year) did you get a Gold Card this way? Economics tightened up about a year or so into the pandemic.
A couple of months ago, but i work in a business and innovation related space, and have many years of commercial and professional practice experience too.
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Great! All sounds good and should be encouraging for @ypp although every case is different.
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So here is some context, I will arrive in taipei in a few days to pick up my gold card. i don’t plan to do my long term relocation to taiwan until mid-February, as my dog is moving with me and needs to wait for the blood titer test to be older than 90 days before she can be imported. I’m currently in SE Asia for work so I thought I’d pop on over and pick it up before heading back home to prepare for the big move. I was made aware of the NIH 6 month in Taiwan requirements and the limitation of 1 trip of up to 30 days. So here’s the real question, what happens if I pick up my gold card, go home for upwards of 60-70 days to pack and plan properly, then come to Taiwan to begin this new chapter? Will my 6 month NIH counter simply begin then? Would this have any future APRC implications? (no clue why it would) I tried contacting the gold card office today but got voicemail. So many questions.
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How long do you have to pick up the card? I wonder if it’s an option to wait until you are ready to move and pick up the card when you arrive.
I believe it’s 30 days from the time you enter Taiwan after being approved. From what I have heard, you can delay that first entry indefinitely, but the duration of the card will keep ticking down from the approval date.
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I am looking with those “good “ eggs. If any gold card ex gold card here thinks has contributed, allocate time to make taiwan better , lets connect and help each others so we can have greater impact.
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Yeah, you can apply for National Health Insurance after a full 6 months of residence (having continuously stayed in Taiwan for 6 months, or having stayed in Taiwan for 6 months with a departure for less than 30 days; the actual duration of residence excludes the number of days spent abroad).
In my case I took up employment at a Taiwanese company and in that situation the NHI can be got straight away.
No. Only if you spend more than 3 months out of Taiwan on a single trip during the duration of your Gold Card then you will need to provide a police check from home country and health check for the APRC application.
When you apply for APRC you will also need to ensure the time spent in Taiwan since your Gold Card was issued averages more than 183 days per year.
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Some have moved onto APRC and some got citizenship based on having special skills…
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Okay this is good, I’ll ask the GC office to double check. Thanks a ton for the info!
Hi! I wish to renew my gold card but I have not yet moved to Taiwan. Is it possible to have it renewed without in person pick up in Taiwan?
I believe you can’t submit a new ARC application if you have a card pending pickup, but you can give it a try
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Just a quick update.
On the 11th of December, I submit my re-application under the Economics field, which is the same as I applied 3 years and a half before.
On the 12th, I was informed via email that they could not accept my proof of income (my tax return from Singapore) because it was lacking the evidence that the salary was paid by my employer, and they wanted a written employment certificate from my current job - Which I declined to provide since I am applying to the Gold Card to change jobs.
After a bit of back and forth, they allowed me to apply with a different set of documents.
(Basically a tax return from 2 years ago, plus the employer certificate related to that tax return).
On the 13th, my status showed Review by Workforce Development Agency.
No updates until the 18th, when it showed “consulting with Ministry of Economic Affairs”
On the 20th morning (Today), it changed to Review Workforce Development Agency.
After a few hours, around midday, it changed to “Passport Inspection at the Bureau of Consular Affairs or Overseas Missions of Republic of China (Taiwan)”.
The Review by Ministry of Foreign Affairs was Bypassed.
So basically 9 days to go from start to passport control, that I hope I will be able to do by Friday.
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It’s bypassed if you already have entered Taiwan due to Article 9 of the Foreign Talent Act
A foreign special professional who plans to engage in professional work in the State may apply direct to the NIA for a four-in-one Employment Gold Card that combines work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate and re-entry permit. Before the NIA approves the issuance of an Employment Gold Card, it shall conduct screening jointly with the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, a foreign special professional who applies for an Employment Gold Card when having already entered the State shall be exempted from applying for a resident visa.
In your case though the Bureau of Consular Affairs is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and they will issue a resident visa that you will use for your initial entry then collect your Gold Card.
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I actually never entered Taiwan.
Last time I did was 2 or 3 years before I even apply for the first Gold Card.
There’s a flow chart for the application review process here. There is also a list of steps in the application system that looks like this:
- Initial Review by National Immigration Agency
- Secondary Review by National Immigration Agency
- Review by Workforce Development Agency
- Review by Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Re-review by National Immigration Agency
They don’t match exactly and passport inspection (identify verification) isn’t an item in the bullet list. I’m assuming it’ll happen after all 5 steps are done?
My application is currently stuck at step 1 - waiting for me to provide some additional files. While working on that, I’d like to get a rough idea of how long each of the future steps may take for my planning purposes. Since I got feedback from step #1 pretty quickly, I’m assuming that as soon as I provide the required files I’ll be moving forward along the process. Assuming no other major issues, can those who’ve gone through the process share how long each of the review steps took for you?
Also, once the application is at the passport inspection step, is it practical to take a visa-exempt trip to Taiwan for both passport inspection and card collection? Or is it still a better idea to do passport inspection at a local office?
A side question - last time I created a new topic about GC and it got merged into the GC super thread. Is it generally recommended to post all GC related questions in the GC super thread instead of opening a new topic?
When you submit your passport for inspection that is the review by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Either is fine, you can check out the notes on the Gold Card office FAQ if you do decide to switch passport inspection location from overseas to domestic.
My Gold Card application was approved today! Right on time before my current ARC’s expiration date. Big help was calling them and be nice asking for updates. When the status of my application changed to “Review by WDA”, I called WDA (the person who is assigned for checking the requirements) and asked nicely that this application is urgent.
So, after I called WDA, the next steps were fast:
- From “Review by WDA” to “Consulting with Ministry of Economic Affairs” took only 2 days
- From “Consulting with Ministry of Economic Affairs” back to “Review by WDA” took only 2 days (amazingly fast!!)
- From “Review by WDA” to “Review by NIA” took only 1 day
- From “Review by NIA” to “IC Card in Process” took only 2 days
Lesson: If you’re stuck with your application progress, call and ask for an update nicely!
Good luck everyone!
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