For a brief time, I was in the category you describe above and was indeed told to wait 6 months. As it was explained to me (I think perhaps in this very thread) the changes originally proposed were to give all gold card holders immediate access to NHI but this was reigned in by the legislature. What they ultimately approved was only for gold card holders who also started a business in Taiwan. We researched starting our own company but then decided it was too much cost and effort just to skip the waiting period. (Things ended up working out because a few weeks later I was āhiredā unexpectedly by a Taiwan company that sponsored my NHI for me)
Yep
I think that was probably the most significant aspect. The company that hired me did not think Iād be able to extend coverage to my dependents. At the NHI office they gave me a document explaining this new law + instructions which they told me to send to the company, and within a day the company had taken care of everything for me.
Has anybody seen a statistic of how many Gold Card holders converted to APRC? There were about 3500 valid Gold Cards three years ago and we saw in surveys that about 25-50% of Gold Card holders would like to stay in Taiwan long-term, so potentially there might be 1000 to 2000 APRC holders via the Gold Card route as a rough estimate in February 2024. Given that three years ago, there might only have been marginal numbers of Gold Card holders that already converted to APRC.
That seems very low but perhaps those numbers will increase this year. The number of Gold Card holders doubled in 2021 and the three-year rule for permanent residence did not come into effect until late 2021. There should be quite a few special professionals becoming eligible in 2024.
The number of teachers in schools with valid work permits has increased from 2,597 at the end of 2019 to 7,585 in Nov. 2023. There are only 3,591 people left teaching in buxibans.
There are 78 adult children of foreign professional permanent residents with valid resident and work permits.
868 minor children and spouses of foreign professional permanent residents have become permanent residents themselves.
Taiwan now has just over 36,000 permanent residents.
I read it the same as you: 169 specialised professionals received their APRC, but that was in November last year. Given the three year period and that it is a relatively new program, maybe there are many more GC2APRC cases now in February.
Still, likely a lot lower than my 1000-2000 estimate based on the survey and on the valid Gold Cards three years ago. Maybe rather 200-500 by now. Possibly, survey respondents are much more likely to stay in Taiwan than those that didnāt participate in the survey and others changed their plans.
Hi everyone! I was recently approved for my Gold Card and arrived in Taiwan on Thursday (Feb. 29th) to pick it up. I am leaving Taiwan again on Tuesday and will officially relocate here at the beginning of April, as I have ~30 days remaining before I can import my pets.
However, I read that the Gold Card needs to be updated within 30 days to include an address in Taiwan. What happens if I cannot update it with an address within that timeframe? Can I update it with my new address at any point after that? Any insight would be great!
If you never stay in Taiwan for 30 days then it doesnāt matter. Since it is not possible to update your address to a foreign address, you can say that your address changed to a foreign address before the 30 days and it was not possible to update it.
It needs to be updated with 30 days of moving into a new residence, if your not here yet then it doesnāt need to be updated at the moment.
Gold card office related FAQ:
If I stay at a hotel, how can I provide proof of residence?
If you want to provide the address of the hotel as your residence address, you must ask the operator to provide the accommodation certificate for at least half a year of stay.
If you are not able to provide a permanent address, it wonāt be an issue, you can update your address on the application platform within 30 days of moving into your new residence.
To apply for an APRC, the applicant must prove that they, in the most recent year (either the past 12 months before application, or the calendar year before application) had an average monthly income more than twice the minimum monthly wage set by the Ministry of Labor. Please refer to the MOLās website
Do I understand this correctly: With a gold card you need to stay 3 consecutive years (183 days per year minimum) and ONLY have to fulfill the average monthly income requirement in the last of those 3 years? So I could not earn any penny the first 2 years while I am here with a gold card and only earn twice the minimum monthly wage the last year before applying for APRC?
The start date for calculating permanent residency is the Date of Issue indicated on your original Gold Card. As long as your Gold Card is valid for 3 years, you have resided in Taiwan for an average of more than 183 days per year then itās ok.
NIA will only request you to submit the latest tax return when applying for APRC based on that category.
For applying based on that āproof of financial assetsā category then yes itās possible. There is another category where can have assets in Taiwan that some Gold Card holders applied based on also.
Hi friends! Iām trying to figure out my timeline and was hoping yaāll could help.
My app was approved, I now need to submit my passport (in the US) to confirm that before full approval. Iām curious how long this step takes and if it gets approved, how long I have to pick up the card.
I donāt really want to make the move until September this year. Is there a way to not get the āclockā started on my gold card until I actually arrive in September? Or will it start immediately upon approval no matter what?
Another caveatāIāll be visiting in May for a vacation. If the gold card is approved by then, will I have to pick it up then/start my time then?
It will start immediately upon approval no matter what.
Soā¦
You might not have to pick it up, but your time will have started already (upon approval)
You may be able to drag out the passport submission process if you want to. Just donāt wait too long because theyāve said thereās a limit to thisā¦maybe message them to confirm.
Thanks so much! Their message did say I have 6 months to submit my passport so I guess Iāll just stall on that part until summer. Although I wonder how long the passport approval part takesā¦lol
My understanding is that if you enter Taiwan visa-exempt, itās possible to pick up the card skipping the passport inspection step. Youāll just need to change your passport inspection to Taiwan in the application system. However there seem to be some timing requirements which I donāt fully understand yet.
Oh, 99% of the time it takes a few minutes. You hand them your passport and they photocopy it and hand it back. There have been some datapoints where it took days and was mailed back, but those were during covid restrictions when most/all locations were doing unusual procedures to avoid face-to-face appointments, so itās probably no longer an issue.
As far as mailing the passport in to a local TECO, that still works, right? I live fairly far away from my nearest TECO and used their website to print a QR code form for what I was requesting.
So I mailed
Printout of the form with the QR code
Printout of the Passport Submission Notice
My actual passport
Prepaid postage envelope addressed to myself so they can mail my passport back to me
I had called the TECO twice and never got through to a real person, or at least not one that spoke English, so I gave up on trying to get my question answered by phone and did the above mailing and hoped this is right.
Anyone else do it like this in the last, say, 6 months? It is frustrating that nothing on the TECO website or phone system is about the Gold Card passport inspection, only other visas, or getting a Taiwanese nationalās passport re-issued, etc.
When I called them they didnāt know what a gold card was either. I had to send an email and they still didnāt know, so I explained it to them with a link to the website and they finally understood and let me book an appointment to take a scan of my passport.
I would report the incident about this TECO and all TECO Who have no idea to the gold card office and the MOFA. Even though the gold card programme is not managed by MOFA, they perform a critical task, and must be aware of it
