GC is strictly about the requirements for eligibility. If you keep satisfying them at the end of the “term”, you qualify for a new GC, regardless of what you do with it (a good thing for some, not so good for the country imho as literally allow ppl just to use as a visa free card to travel instead of coming here and live here, as it was intended, but I digress)
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Not many visas are a requirement to be in the country. I suppose the gold card is more open ended though, with no real requirements to renew in connection to actually being in the country.
Are a lot of people getting it and not living in Taiwan though?
Many. I don’t have solid figures, but way more than the NDC would like.
Gold card is too easy to renew. If you have a phd then there’s no income requirement at all other than holding the degree, same as PR but with extra tax benefits. I’m not sure how that benefits the economy.
Compared with Singapore’s tech pass where you need 270k SGD annual income to renew along with other requirements, or Hong Kong’s top talent pass which has similar high requirements for renewal. Even Malaysia MM2H has pretty high renewal requirements.
Do you find that to be problematic?
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I’m not sure whether it’s good or bad and I’m not an expert in economics, it’s just what I noticed compared to other countries.
I am also guilty of collecting a bunch of these long term residence visas with open work permits and not living there, but using it as a flexible travel visa where you don’t need to book an outgoing flight ticket or how long you stay there as long as you get your tax residency situation sorted out. SG and HK make it difficult to renew if you want to keep doing that.
It has been quite common with a long term immigrants who just relied on their partner or other people to translate everything for them.
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I’d suggest you treat your first year similar to how I’m trying to treat mine: learn the language and culture to the best of your ability. Once you’re working full time, there will be way less time to devote to language study.
There’s no specific requirements about what you do in the first or second year though. If you’re going to apply for APRC after the 3 years is up, then you can use income statements (or a NT$5 million bank balance) from just your most recent year’s tax filing and not care about the first year at all.
In some ways, it is actually easier to get the APRC than to renew the Gold Card, at least for some. Though if it’s going to be easier for you to renew the GC than to get an APRC, that’s fine too. I’m attempting to set myself up for the APRC so I don’t ever have to renew. In that regard what you do by the third year is the most important, or possibly get your second year in order depending on alignment of tax years and timing within your 6-month “work seeking” visa if you do that at the end.
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Anyone else having issues with the website? Keeps redirecting me to a student visa website. Very frustrating…
Just to add a couple of points:
Looking at interviews with entrepreneurs and successful expats in Taiwan, there are some frequently mentioned points:
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Language skills are highly correlated with success. If you can communicate in Mandarin effectively, that strongly increases your chances.
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Connections. If you have a year to travel around, improve Mandarin and meet people, use that to build some friendships and meet both expats as well as locals, especially in industries or fields that might be of interest to you. This can go a long way.
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Think about creating your own job. Taiwan’s job market can be difficult for foreigners outside of teaching English. Hence, some here try to create their own job in a certain niche or exclusively with foreign clients working remotely or sourcing products from Taiwan. That is something you might want to keep in mind.
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For Gold Card renewal: All I heard is that APRC and Gold Card renewal is not that difficult, especially if you have 5 million NTD in a bank account and you have a job in the last 1.5 years that pays 160k NTD monthly in an industry that is connected to your Gold Card it is all clear. Even a lower salary should still work out fine as long as it is a couple of time the minimum salary.
As you want to travel around, think about what you want to do and spend more time in places that might get you there.
a. Semiconductors: Hsinchu
b. International trade: Kaohsiung, Taipei and Keelung
c. Bike industry: Taichung
d. Instruments, sporting goods: Taichung, Kaohsiung, Hsinchu
e. Events, media, finance, research: Taipei
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Hi all,
New here and I am currently at the passport inspection phase. I was told I could send a notarized copy of my passport in for inspection but they are also asking for me to include a return envelope.
1st question, does anyone know if notarized copy of passport is legit
2nd question, what do they send back if all I am sending is a notarized copy?
Thanks all
I just went through this. I’ll say “it depends” or perhaps “who knows” because some things say a copy will work, some say it needs to be the original passport, but here is what happened for me.
I was able to sign up for mail-in document authentication but had to send my physical passport. I included a pre-paid postage, pre-addressed return envelope via whatever tracked mail option it’s called. TECO called me and said they no longer validate passports by mail, come pick it up.
Then I was called a day later and told that somebody told her they could validate my ID if I sent them a picture of my driver’s license too, which I did. A day later my Gold Card was approved. A week later I still haven’t heard anything from TECO and don’t have my passport.
I call and they say “Oh, we don’t return passports by mail.” So I had to get time off work and devote two days of travel to getting there in person to pick it up. When I picked up my passport, they gave me back the unused return envelope with it. Go figure.
Best bet is to do the passport inspection in person. Anything by mail is a gamble as to what will happen, as far as I can tell.
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Thanks for sharing your experience. I ended up just sending a notarized copy of my passport as that is what the lady said when I emailed my local TECO. Worst case, I’ll just change my passport verification location to Taipei and do it there.
Has anyone got passport inspection done at the TECO in New York City? I’ve been calling the numbers on their website, got either no answer or voicemail. Same thing with email, no response so far. Basically I’d like to know:
- Are they open for passport inspection 5 days a week? Or only Monday through Thursday from 09:00 to 13:00? Do I need an appointment?
- Does this office accept mailing in a notarized copy of my passport or do I need to be there in person? This seems to vary from office to office. It’d save me quite a bit of time if I could mail in a copy.
Thanks.
Just to answer my own questions. To get your passport inspected at the NYC TECO, you’ll need to make an appointment online. You need to show up in person. It doesn’t take long if the visa officer is in. They’ll give you your passport back when done. In my case I arrived a little early (9:30am) and had to wait for the visa officer to come to office. The inspection process was very quick.
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went through the process of renewing my passport and changing the passport number on the GC/ARC.
besides the slowness of the Italian gov agencies to coordinate to bloody issue a passport, the process is smooth and fast TW side. all done online and free for this change.
The issue was only due to the timing. I had to go abroad while the change was already processed and approved, but the actual new GC not yet issued. So I had to bring my old passport, new passport, old GC and the entry permit form to exit and enter the country. couldn’t use egate (even if tried to sign-up with the new passport at the airport, they put a sticker on the GC but no stamp in the passport), so had to go to the manned gates. Took 10 mins to check all the docs but let through.
When re-entering, just went directly to the manned speedy immigration control gate, gave new passport, old GC and entry permit form, they stamped “admitted” my new passport, and let me through in like 2 mins.
Today went to NIA service centre in Taipei to collect the new card, super fast and painless. Gave my new passport, old GC, entry permit form and the “payment receipt” downloaded from the GC platform and in a couple of mins I was with the new card on hand. However, when I signed up again for egate there, they put again a sticker on the GC but no stamp in my new passport. When I asked why they said that they do not stamp foreign passports for that. I showed my old passport with the egate stamp in it, then the officer just glimpsed over and put the damned stamp in my new one. So random.
Anyways, now ready to wait until next year to get the extension/renewal and then apply for the APRC. That’s going to be fun
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I didn’t get either when I signed up for egate 
EDIT: Or actually I think I first received a sticker on my GC when signing up, but once I changed my GC (address change), they didn’t give me a new sticker and told me also no need to re-register.
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I never even signed up for e-gate. I just tried it one time and it worked.
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Same!
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Same here, just went for it but for me it was tricky for the first time. An official came over and did something and then it worked.