Hey everyone, first time user here. I’m an American who arrived in Taiwan mid-March and I can stay until mid-September. I graduated from a top university with a Cognitive Science major, and worked as a product designer at several IoT tech companies. I am talking to a professor in the CS department at National Taiwan University to do research with him. I have an academic publication in electrical engineering + computer science at my alma mater, and made well over 160,000 NT. I worked two jobs the past three years. I quit my first job last March and my second job last October. Will it be fine if I include both W2s? I will also provide my W2 from 2018.
Also, does it make sense to apply under the Science + Technology category, or Economic category? Which will be faster?
Is it sufficient to provide my passport + academic publication + diploma + W2s from the last two years? Are there any other documents I should consider submitting?
Lastly, I’m not certain which option I qualify for in the image below…I am a US Citizen born in California, and I have only been to Taiwan once, two years ago, for two weeks for vacation.
where I have to upload a passport – does that mean every single page in the passport including cover and back? Or the page with my photo and passport details only?
Are they strict about the photo? Do I need to get it taken professionally or well a selfie with a white background suffice?
Jess,
If you qualify, do the Economic. It’s more straight forward.
Offer your last 2 years of W2’s and your last 1040 just to be sure.
Would not hurt to send your CV even if it’s not required.
Check the last box for how you entered. Coming from the USA, your landing visa I usually for 90 days.
Last questions:
only the picture page will be fine.
It should be a passport photo. A selfie will not do. They are strict. White background is fine.
So I chose the Finance category instead of Economic and I tried calling to change it. The Ministry of labor told me to call immigration, and immigration told me to call the ministry of labor. Both saying they cannot change it, and both saying the other can change it.
How were other people able to change it mid-application? I submitted on 06/19/2020
TECO Seattle called me today and told me they have received the card from NIA Taiwan.
Mailing it out using the self-addressed prepaid envelope I sent.
Finally…
… now application for family resident visas begins. Hoping to enter Taiwan sometime in August.
Side questions:
Has anyone recently applied for their spouse/children ARC in Taiwan from the resident visa?
Did you need authenticated marriage/birth cert needed from TECO overseas?
Can my children go to public school without ARC?
Progress! This is the longest stage out of any. In current covid times it could be 3-4 weeks. However, once you make it past this stage, things happen pretty quickly. Overall, if your documents are in order I’d say you’re just about on track for your August 3rd deadline. Once you get past the passport submission stage it’s with the NIA. They are the ones who can take into account your current visa status, since that’s also their department.
We called Mr. Huang (from the Ministry of Labor) about 12 hours ago, and he told us to just wait until it gets sent back to us in the online system. Once a reviewer adds comments to your application, you can edit it in any way, including (I think) changing categories.
Congrats.
I re-applied on the 2nd of August, I called Mr Huang who told me “I qualified, but will take some time for the team to review” and since then I am still on “Professional Review by Workforce Agency”.
If it won’t change by Friday this week, I will call again next Monday or Tuesday.
I have a similar time-line, I need to be in Taipei by the 23 of August the latest, but Ideally I would like to arrive a bit earlier and get my card approved before middle July so I can plan better
I has been waiting my gold card almost 4 months.
I applied on 08 March 2020.
I had email to Mr Huang and asking about the application. But he said still processing.
I wonder if you mean “visa-exempt”. That’s what I always did in the past. “Landing visa” is a different thing.
I’ve just started looking into the Gold Card. I looked at the Taiwan government websites and didn’t see what the criteria are for qualification. Anyone know if that’s published somewhere?
I saw several mentions about 160,000 NT income requirement (but not on the Taiwan government website). I read in some article, “You can bypass the 160,000 NT per month requirement if you meet other requirements proving you are a special professional in your field.” This is without definition of “special professional”. Is that defined somewhere?
I’m not sure whether to apply in the Education or Sci-Tech category, as I’m considering doing technical education (could be corporate training, academic, buxiban, tutoring). I previously worked in the software industry (Silicon Valley), last position was technical trainer, that was over a decade ago. I was an ordinary employee (no patents, publications, or management experience).
My main question is, if a person is retired or semi-retired (therefore not showing the above-mentioned income) and is looking to reactivate themselves in Taiwan, will getting approved for a Gold Card be likely or unlikely? Anyone here had that situation and got accepted, or declined? By the way, I was declined for a similar visa program in Hong Kong (QMAS).
Is there any published information that gives guidance on this? I didn’t see it covered on the taiwangoldcard website, so I’m wondering if I’ll be the first person to try this.
usrabbit:
I’m not an expert on qualifying for the Gold ARC in technical fields. Everything I have read suggests it’s more difficult and takes more time than qualifying via the Economic type. Your lack of demonstrating technical expertise (patents etc.) may be a hurdle. Let’s let the community jump in and see if anyone has had a similar situation and was able to qualify. Good Luck!
Thanks, tando. I see from this, I better apply in Sci-Tech, not Education. The wording “has held, or currently holds, a position with a most recent monthly salary of over NTD 160,000” seems to allow for someone whose experience is in the past.
I hope you’re not serious about the “for sure”. Some of the smartest people I worked with in Silicon Valley did not have patents or publications (especially in the more aggressive companies… they were too busy working on the success of the product).
