Congrats! Happy to know the PDF worked.
Time to make up my mind! Not long before having to confirm my ICLP spot!
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Congrats! I donât know if the economy route is still as fast. Submitted mine a month ago and still in professional review. But less chance of being rejected, I would guess.
This is around the time all those visa-exempt entries start expiring, there must be a huge backlog of people wanting to stay
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Hi all,
Yesterday morning I received an email saying my Gold Card application was approved, and they are making the card 
! Today morning I received another email said the card is ready, so I rushed to KH NIA to get the card. The officer couldnât find it in her drawer, and after checking the computer, the card was just made and still in Taipei, and will take until next Wed to arrive in KH for pickup 
. Next Wed I will surely call in first to check before I go!
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To people who applied in economy and submitted W-2s - how many years of W-2 did you provide?
I did 3 years but I donât recall why. Mine has not been approved yet.
Congratulations!
Just one from the past year worked for me.
Just heard back from them - at least the review comment is very detailed:
Application result: documentation was insufficient. The pay advice from [position] is not the tax withholding statements nor official tax certifications, and therefore is not recognized. Please supplement the tax statement or salary certificate showing that within three years prior to applying you hold a position with monthly salary of at least NT$160,000. (the tax statement or salary certificate refers to either one of the following: 1. Tax withholding statement or official tax certification. (In the case where the official certification is not available according to tax related regulations, the tax certification, after detailing that regulations, may be replaced by the employerâs statement.) 2. Employment contract with potential future employer in Taiwan. Documents should include the stamp, seal or signature of (the representative of) the entity by which the paper was issued. If you have any further questions regarding the documents required, please contact the Ministry of Laborâs officers for more information: Mrs. Chien [phone], Mr. Huang [phone]. Documents not made in Chinese or English, should be attached with translation. Documents issued in the Mainland area have to be attested and examined by the institutions instituted or appointed by the Executive Yuan, or non-governmental organizations entrusted by the Executive Yuan (Strait Exchange Foundation) in accordance with the rule in Article 7 of âAct Governing Relations between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland AreaâďźDocuments from the following countries/regions must be verified by an overseas ROC representative office: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bengal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cuba, Ghana, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Does that mean another 6 weeks of waiting time or potentially more after submitting the additional documents?
Or will supplying additional documents go faster?
It was faster for me, but no idea how it is at the moment.
Itâs interesting that point 2 seems to imply that you need a job offer in Taiwan to get the gold card. Is that a new thing?
I hope not:
the tax statement or salary certificate refers to either one of the following
Oh okay, itâs just a bit awkwardly written/punctuated then. I thought âeitherâ was referring to the âorâ in point 1. I also thought the salary requirement specifically referred to previous employers, rather than future ones.
That is great. Would you mind telling us when you apply so we can guess how long the process took for you? Thanks!
Hi everyone. I have been going through this forum and I got a solid understanding of the Employment gold card. Before I go ahead and apply (within Taiwan) I would like to get confirmation of my understanding of the process and get answers to a few questions I have. I hope my summary will be useful for other people reading this thread.
Iâll start by my 1) briefly describing my situation, then 2) providing a summary of my understanding of the process, and then 3) asking a few questions.
1) My situation
My wife (American) and I (French) have arrived in Taiwan in March. We are currently under a visa-exempt entry that has been extended from 90 to 180 days and is currently expiring by mid-September.
Iâve been working in Technology in California for the past 10+ years. My last role was as a project manager. (before that I was a software engineer)
We have been traveling since July 2018 (taking a long sabbatical) and my last income was made in the USA came in August 2018. (I made about 180,000 USD of gross income in 2018)
I want to apply while in Taiwan so that:
- I can extend my stay
- My wife can extend her stay as well (assuming I get my employment gold card)
- I have the option to look for work within the country (not the primary reason for the application though)
2) My understanding of the process
Applying under the âEconomyâ profession and using the Qualification: âPreviously or currently holding a position in a foreign state or the ROC with a most recent monthly salary of at least NT$160,000.â is the easiest way to go with the application as it only requires the following:
- copy of my passport (scan)
- profile picture (scan)
- my W2s as proof of income (I would submit 2017 + 2018 since I did not receive any âwageâ income after August 2018 to this date)
My income in 2018 alone was 180,000 USD so that should be enough to pass the income test. (since we need to show a total income for the past three years of 160,000*36= 5,760,000 NT / or ~192,000 USD)
Applying under the Science & Technology field is a âNO-NOâ because it requires providing further proof that we work in this field and some people have got their application delayed as they add to provide further information and they wish they would have started applying under the âEconomicâ profession. Applying under the âEconomicâ profession though doesnât provide some additional tax advantages if you plan to work in the Technology field.
Once I will submit all the documents and paid the application fee, my application will move to an âUnder reviewâ state. From there it usually takes a calendar month (30 days) for the application to be reviewed. During that time I CAN NOT make any changes to my application.
If my application is approved, the last step I will have to drop my passport at the local immigration office (Taipei for me) and pick it up within a week with my employment card.
There has been a recent increase in processing time as a lot of people seem to be applying lately due to COVID19. Not clear how big this additional delay is.
3) Questions
A) Is my understanding of the process (previous section) correct? Did I state something that isnât and needs to be called out? If so which part?
B) How long would it take for a new application to be reviewed and hopefully approved? The official website state 30 business days but people like @dtan seems to have it done in just 35 calendar days in total (from application to PDF/approval letter) - "Employment gold card" for some foreigners
C) Assuming I get approved, what is the process to follow to allow my wife to stay with me? How long does this process take? Does my wife has to leave Taiwan if this process isnât completed when her visa expires?
D) Will my parents (from France) be able to enter Taiwan under my employment card and stay while the Taiwanese borders are still closed to foreigners? Iâve heard people mentioning âascendentsâ being included with this employment card.
E) If we need to go back to San Francisco until our application is approved, can we complete the passport verification process overseas or do we have to re-apply? I would then need to work with the TECO in San Francisco to have them review my passport in person before the application can be completed. How long does this usually take for people that have done it or are currently in the queue at this office?
Thank you everyone for sharing your experience.
I am looking forward to getting some answers to my questions!
Oups, I realized I made a mistake. My 2018 W2 alone isnât meeting the 192K income requirement limit as I only made 180K that year. I need to also submit 2017.
The following up question is then: Since only the last 3 years are considered as proof of income, would my 2017 W2 be accepted as a whole? Or do I need to only submit paycheck for the month of July to Dec 2017? And would a paycheck be accepted as a document?
Actually your mistake is two-fold: The income requirement is wayyy less than what youâre saying. It is 160,000 NT per month (~$5330/month) Not sure which part you misinterpreted but maybe it seems like you removed one zero and switched the currency.
So you are way over the income requirement. 
Thatâs good to know. I thought we had to prove that over 3 years we receive that monthly income for every month. It sounds like we only need to provide that we made that income for one (and only one) single year over the last three years. In this case, I should be fine with submitting my W-2 of 2018. Yay!
How long did it take to hear back after submitting additional documents? Iâm in the technology category and submitted additional docs 1 week ago but status is still in professional review by workforce development agency.
It was about a week (IIRC) after resubmitting that I was notified to take in my passport, although there was a delay of around a month between the additional documents being requested and me resubmitting (on my side, as I was trying to get the additional documents but ending up reapplying under education).
That was back in late February/early March though, so it presumably takes longer now. Might be worth calling them to ask - I called Mr. Huang a couple of times to chase things up since my initial application had taken ages.
Correct. I believe the wording says you just need to earn that income at any point in the past three years, and evidence of that fact can come from a w-2 or from paystubs, depending on whose experience you go by.