The Employment Gold Card Super-Thread

6 months for NHI starts on your arrival date.

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I was looking into applying for this and Iā€™m having a hard time understanding something. If Iā€™m applying for Science and Technology, itā€™s asking for evidence of work for the period of time as well as contributions made. I tried emailing the staff asking for clarification, because in my case I work as a software engineer in AI at a company for which I have an NDA with. Therefore, nothing published. Has anyone had any luck with submitting an employer statement or portfolio of general work (like github), and having that be accepted?

In regards to the income requirements as well, my base salary is under 160000 NTD, but I have a mandatory bonus I receive twice a year that takes me beyond 160000 NTD. Is something like this sufficient? Also, Iā€™ve noticed when creating the application it says you can apply by agent. Are there any known agents that will help with this process or that I could consult with to determine whether or not itā€™s feasible Iā€™d be eligible?

Iā€™m no expert, but I donā€™t fancy your chances with that on the basis of my experience initially applying under the same category (full story somewhere above). The science and technology requirements seem quite strict with little room for interpretation, and most/all of the subcategories require academic papers, technology licensing, international awards, etc. in the most recent 3/4 years.

You could try calling Mr. Huang at the Workforce Development Agency/Ministry of Labor on the contact list if you want to confirm that (I think thatā€™s the correct name/spelling of the guy I spoke to - he was pretty friendly and helpful, and he seems to be the one doing the initial review for this category).

You could try calling Mr. Huang at the Workforce Development Agency/Ministry of Labor on the contact list if you want to confirm that (I think thatā€™s the correct name/spelling of the guy I spoke to - he was pretty friendly and helpful, and he seems to be the one doing the initial review for this category).

Hmm I see. Thanks for the feedback, Iā€™ll try to reach out to them. I initially contacted Ms. Wang I think it was? She just basically copy and pasted the website back to me. I do have a patent for another company I consulted with coming up, perhaps I should just wait for that to be approved.

Itā€™s worth checking, but generally only pure salary counts. People using alternative income have had troubles in the past. In any case, as youā€™re applying under MOST, they need to see skills.

Are these the contacts under the Science and Technology label of ā€œQualification of Foreign Special Professionalsā€ on the official contact list? If so, they are the right people. You might have a better experience on the phone, since writing has a sense of permanence, civil servants are often reticent to reveal as much in writing.

Personally, I do think that these kinds of documents should be considered as evidence. I have heard of people submitting github links in the past and having them written off. However, with proper framing it may be possible.

One principle Iā€™ve been thinking about recently when it comes to Gold Card evidentiary requirements is that the government may like to see artefacts that are ā€œindependently verifiableā€. For example, research papers and patents can be looked up in the journal or record system. Letters from employers can be validated by calling the employer.

Thatā€™s not to say that these validation actions are actually taken. However, I think the fact that it is possible to take these actions could be providing some comfort to those signing off on the skill requirements. Do with this what you willā€¦

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I donā€™t know about Ms. Wang (I donā€™t have the contact list to hand, sorry, but you should be able to find it if you search this thread), but I believe you about emailing not being that productive - my experience was similar. Mr. Huang seemed pretty keen to help me find a solution on the phone though.

Iā€™m not sure a patent in itself would be sufficient, as most of the categories seem to require something like that in addition to papers and awards etc. Might be better to focus on the salary requirement if possible, or something else (like a PhD from a top 200 uni, if that applies).

I have applied under that category because I thought about playing by the rule, but it seems that the Economy would have been a better choice considering my salary.
I am a Pre-sales consultant/Technical sales, I applied on the 14th of May so I expect to receive a response in about a week or two from now.

Patents, publications, Masters/Phd: I got none of them.
I have applied with my salary (which is actually quite a lot higher than the required one) and with some blog posts and recordings of webinar that I did for my company and some partners.
What I do is nothing extremely technical, but quite ā€œnicheā€.

I will let you know how it goes!
If you have a patent, I think it is already much better than everything I shared.
A patent plus a nice PDF explaining technically what is it about, plus your experience, and fingers crossed.

I got my NHI immediately on the GC as it says. No waiting period.

You are employed, arenā€™t you?

Indeed, anyone with an employer will be able to enrol in NHI immediately. The waiting period is for those without a Taiwanese employer.

Yes. But how would you get a gold card without employment? Even in non-economy category youā€™d still have to show means of regular income right?

no. You can get the card by your past performance, and without future employment in Taiwan.

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Oh really? Didnā€™t know that.

Yeah. Nice, right? In my opinion one of the most attractive benefits of the card is that you can apply for it without the need for an employer sponsor.

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What I did was I provided an entire year worth of payslips (which included bonuses) and then listed this in excel with reference to each payslip number. Take the total annual salary and divide by 12 to justify that your income is above TWD 160k.

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Hi everyone,
I am trying to apply for the employment gold card but my employer told me that I cannot apply for an employment-seeking visa or resident visa right now. I came to Taiwan in mid-March under tourist e-visa (Iā€™m not from a visa-exempt country) and am qualified to apply for this Gold Card. Does anyone else have similar issue with applying for visa? The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said I need to apply from outside the country but according to the below website, it seems like people can apply from within Taiwan.
https://foreigntalentact.ndc.gov.tw/en/cp.aspx?n=AC68F9FBABA3F294&s=4D07D9F9F687B542

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Itā€™s probably useful to clarify where exactly youā€™re from - I remember there being several options for applying in country on the website, but not sure whether theyā€™d apply in your case.

I donā€™t think you need to discuss applying for the gold card with your employer - itā€™s between you and the government, none of the employerā€™s business, at least at the moment.

Edit: actually, having said that, I remember that thereā€™s the option to enter an employer during the application process, but Iā€™m not sure what they do with that info (if anything). But if I was applying based on my own qualifications, Iā€™d personally not consider it the employerā€™s business.

Also, apologies if I misunderstood, but does that mean youā€™re currently working on a tourist visa? If so, Iā€™d question the reliability of the information given to your by ā€œemployerā€ and try to find a better visa situation (like the gold card). :slightly_smiling_face:

Re: category, I do recommend you apply under Economy if you qualify by salary but are unsure of adding in other documents. I am at the passport check stage now (yay!) and I submitted under Economy after initially considering Science & Technology, because I saw the extra documents required during the submission stage for science/tech, plus experiences from previous posters. A previous year tax document e.g. 2019 W-2 for Americans usually seems to do the trick, and a short description or CV wouldnā€™t hurt.

Current stage:
Wed 2020-05-06 Submitted. ā€œUnder Reviewā€
Mon 2020-05-11 Changed to ā€œå¾…äŗŒåÆ©ā€ (3 business days)
Tue 2020-05-12 ā€œUnder Inspection by Workforce Development Committeeā€ (not sure of exact wording, could have been the same as the next one)
Fri 2020-05-15 ā€œProfessional Review by Workforce Development Agencyā€
Wed 2020-05-27 ā€œPassport Submission by Bureau of Consular Affairs or Overseas Missions of R.O.C. (Taiwan)ā€
Wed 2020-05-27 to Mon 2020-06-01 - Communicating with TECO Los Angeles to figure out how to submit the passport. (They have a notice on their website about mail-in service only due to COVID-19 shelter in place restrictions in California). After hinting at @pin2xboā€™s method from TECO Seattle about sending in the submission notice with a notarized copy of the passport and getting to the right department, was also told to do this. Will mail it tomorrow!

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Congrats! Gosh, I should have applied under Economy, I should have read betterā€¦ haha
I am gonna lose my spot at ICLP :confused: