The Employment Gold Card Super-Thread

Legal Visa & Residency
1575

@twobro, thanks for the tip. I did initially call the Atlanta TECO on August 20 and they took my number so that their visa specialist Joan Chen could call me back as she was working from home (I’ve called twice and that’s how it went both times). When she called me, she was asking very basic questions like “You want to go to Taiwan? You can’t travel to Taiwan right now. Oh, you want to get a work visa, what kind of work do you do? Let me check some things and then email you.”

She asked me to email the Passport Submission Notice PDF that I had because she had no idea what I was talking about. I sent it to her, along with a link to info about the Gold Card since she said she didn’t know what it was. On August 24 she wrote back “I checked some information that you should be qualified to get a resident visa. Do you have the original gold card?” What?? I’m so confused about what the disconnect is. I’ve said over and over I’m trying to apply for the Gold Card, it’s a kind of visa application, I’m already partially approved for it and I just need to verify my identity.

I wrote her back, trying to re-explain things. By the August 28 I still had not heard back from her so I sent a followup asking if she had found out anything. I suggested that she reach out to Ms. Chang to find out more information about the Gold Card if she needs information for how to proceed. I also attached my payment receipt for the application. She replied on September 1 just to say that she was forwarding my email to her supervisor and that he would assist me in the future. She didn’t offer their name or anything, but their email was CC’d.

Based on @twobro’s advice to share the automated email from the application, I replied to her supervisor on September 2, moving Joan to CC, copying the Chinese text of the automated email.

您於2020/07/25，申請『就業金卡(Employment Gold Card)』。
您可透過線上申辦系統＜下載專區＞功能，點選列印＜繳驗護照通知單＞。
請攜帶「繳驗護照通知單」及護照正本，親臨下列申請地點/館處報到，以辦理繳驗作業。
收件號：xxxxxxxxxx
申請地點/館處：駐亞特蘭大台北經濟文化辦事處

She replied on September 3 to once again tell me that she was forwarding this to her supervisor and thank you for being patient (or is that please be patient?).

I additionally emailed Ms. Chang on August 25 to ask if she could advise me about how to proceed. I found her contact info on this list, and since she is listed under MOFA I figured that she was the most relevant person. Ms. Chang wrote me back asking for my application number so she could check the status. I sent it to her but I haven’t heard from her since. I followed up with her Yesterday (September 4) but since it was late on Friday I don’t expect to hear from here at least until Monday.

I have an aversion to being pushy and keeping after people so this process is grating on me. The communication is really bad, and I have no idea what’s going on. Are they checking for more information, are they contacting someone in Taiwan to learn how to proceed, when will I hear back? The paranoid conspiracy theorist in me feels like I’m being stonewalled, but I have no idea why that would be.

1576

I did the passport verification by mail at SF TECO in June and it took one business day for them to verify it. I sent it in via USPS Priority, along with a letter I wrote explaining my request, my passport submission form, my passport, and a pre-paid USPS Priority label and envelope for them to return it. They received it on Wednesday and I had my passport back by Friday of the same week. Make it as easy as possible for them to process this for you.

1577

I interacted with TECO Atlanta and Joan as well back in May before coming out to Taiwan. The Atlanta office is understaffed and has a hard time keeping up with all of the changes/policies (e.g., COVID tests, gold card, etc…). Still haven’t heard back from my last inquiry to TECO Atlanta, but I’m here in Taiwan now.

1578

Did you end up getting your identity verified by TECO Atlanta or what? Did you get a gold card? What’s the magical incantation to explain to them what I need?

1579

Nah. They never responded. Didn’t find out about the gold card until I got here - came on a COVID special entry permit and then applied here. I’m close to the end of the process and will post my experience when it’s done.

1580

I found this thread valuable as I applied for a gold card, so I thought I’d give back by mentioning the changes I’ve seen in the process.

I originally applied under “technology” without realizing the non-salary requirements. Between March 2020 and July 2020, every update I made to the application took 4 weeks to get a reply.

In July, I switched to “Economy” reason while uploading my proof of salary and updating my phone number. When submitting these changes, it looked like the category and phone number didn’t get updated, so I called the gold card phone number. They said that’s normal, and they alerted the Economy category people. If you see something off when submitting, it might be worth a phone call to verify.

I was told my application for a gold card would take 2-3 weeks to process, and I waited 2.5 weeks. The next step is submitting my passport at another government agency, the Bureau of Consular Affairs (BoCA).

BoCA requires a “Passport submission form” that you can find in the same account you applied for a gold card visa. Look at the “Downloads” tab along the top, on the right. The last option to download was a form for submitting my passport. I printed it out in color, since that’s what BoCA staff showed me when I lacked a form. No, they do not take your passport after you wait 1.5 hours and don’t have the form. Oh well.

Previous posters said you can visit the “Authorization counter” on 2F of BoCA, and submit your passport. But when I asked last week (Sept 2020) on two separate days, both times different people told me to get a ticket for the “Visa counter”. Why does that matter? Wait time for the authorization counter is maybe 1 minute. For the visa counter, expect to wait an hour and a half. I went once around 10 am, and another time around 4 pm, and waited over an hour both times. If it gets near closing time, make sure you’re in the waiting area - they lock the entrance, but will help everyone who is still there.

When I gave my passport and passport submission form, I then had to write down my name, email and phone number. I was told to come back in 7 days, and they mean it. I tried one day early, and my passport wasn’t ready. So you show up exactly 7 days later, like the date shown on the receipt/form.

I took my passport directly to the National Immigration Agency (NIA), where I was asked for another form… and if I received email from NIA yet. No and no… So now I wait for email from NIA. But according to the NIA staff, I should wait 2 days after the email, and then my new ARC will be ready. So if I receive NIA email Thursday, I should expect to show up Monday with a receipt showing I paid for the gold card.

TL;DR - Bring a form every time you visit a government building. Overall it’s taken about 3.5 weeks from submitting my application to now, where I’m waiting for email before I pickup my gold card ARC.

3 Likes
1581

@krrk Thanks for your suggestion. I was able to use the same trick to verify my passport by visiting TECO in person and my status has changed to under inspection. I’m assuming I’ll be able to get the Resident Authorization PDF in the next seven days before my flight. Having said that, I’m not too confident about the Covid-19 form. I’m in South Bay, and test turnaround time here is anything between 1-5 days with no guarantees.

Is the requirement “time of flight must be within 72 hours after the test result is released” or does it look at the day the test is conducted? Have new gold card holders been able to fly without Covid-19 reports recently through EVA Air? I don’t have a permanent address in Taiwan…

2 Likes
1582

Doesn’t SFO do on-site rapid testing? I am not sure if it is the right kind. But you are not supposed to need testing with an ARC.

1583

@twobro Did your resident authorization mention an address? Mine is just empty since I don’t have one in Taiwan. I’m also wondering, when you were checking in for your flight to Taiwan, did they initially ask you for the Covid-19 results? My understanding is that they’re uninformed about gold card and will ask me for Covid-19 result when I show them the Gold Card resident authorization PDF, and then I’ll have to explain things to them.

I am planning to get a Covid-test anyway but I’m not sure if I’ll have the results on time and also they do not mention the date the results are received but rather only the date the test was conducted, so it might be hard to convince them that the results were received within 3 days.

1584

https://www.cdc.gov.tw/En/Category/QAPage/LnqBFJsulw6fW3nswc04Yw

Q7:How is the three-day period calculated with respect to a certificate of a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test result issued within three days prior to boarding the flight to Taiwan? Is the boarding day included?
A7:
1.Travelers should provide a certificate of a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test result issued by a medical institution within three days prior to boarding the flight, and the three-day period of such certificate means three working days. Therefore, national holidays in the country/regions where the traveler takes the COVID-19 test may be excluded.
2.The three-day period of such a certificate refers to the three days prior to the day of the flight, excluding the boarding day. For instance, if an eligible traveler takes a flight to Taiwan on July 31, the traveler should provide his/her certificate of a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test result issued on or after July 28.

1585

JohnTN , I arrived on a special entry permit too & I look forward to your post about Gold Card application.

1586

Long time lurker, first time poster. Just wanted to add another data point and thank everyone here for all the information.

Applied June 26 in the Economic category. Just got my notice to get my passport verified at Seattle TECO. I was just about to call them since there have been other people here that applied after me that already got the passport notice.

I’ll update here on my experience with Seattle TECO. Based on other reports I’ll call ahead before I go there.

1 Like
1587

Oops, meant July 26, not June 26 in my message above. Can’t seem to edit.

1588

Congratulations! I hear good things about Seattle TECO. Not an official FB page, but one of the admins on this one seems to work at or have insight into Seattle TECO:

1589

That was my impression too… I emailed them several months ago on whether they were accepting student visa applications, and they got back to me the same day (answer was they are not currently allowing entry via student visas).

1590

Apologies if this has been posted already…for those that went in person to a TECO office to do your passport submission, did they charge you $15 for document authentication?

I brought my passport and a notarized copy of my passport too, then was told to pay this fee, then come back in 2 days for another “pickup” (not sure what I’m picking up as they did not keep my passport). They said the actual gold card would not be ready for pickup for at least 1 month citing delays in Taiwan.

Thanks!

1591

No. I just handed it to them along with passport submission form. No additional fee. Another option was to mail in a notarized copy. Seems like these things vary from one TECO to another.

1592

@DunderMifflin, everything should be fine if you have a print-out of your Resident Authorization certificate. No test result needed. If there is any doubt, the airline can contact the Border Affairs Corps of NIA: +886 3-398-5010. But if you’re on EVA, they should know what your certificate means.

Yes. My flight at the end of August was on EVA Air; see details above.

(Any others reading this comment, see my post above for context.)

3 Likes
1593

Finally had my Gold Card approved yesterday. Writing a summary below just in addition to (and mostly confirmation of) what has already been said before.

21/7 - Applied for Gold Card under Economy.
20/8 - Received a notice to submit further documents (tax statement, see below).
9/9 - My status changed to “Passport Submission”.
21/9 - Appointment at Rome TRO for Passport Verification (to be continued).

Take-aways:

1 Attach your tax statement when you apply. Always, no exceptions. I was having difficulties retrieving my latest from IRAS and thought of speeding up the process by attaching a document from my company (with letterhead, stamp and signature) on position and salary instead. It didn’t work. If you have a special case where the tax statement would make you ineligible (i.e. taxable income less than 160,000 NTD *12), I would suggest to call Mr Huang or Ms Chien immediately rather than wait.

2 Don’t write e-mails. I hate chasing people with calls so I made the mistake of not listening to the many users here and tried this path. No reply even after spamming them. Eventually, I decided to call Mr Huang, who told me that my application was “about” to be finalised within a couple of days. My status was changed less than half an hour later.

Mr Huang – (+886) 2 23801726
Ms Chien – (+886) 2 23801724

I spoke Mandarin, so I am not sure whether they can handle English calls as well. For those like me who live in a different time zone: do call before 6:00PM (Taiwan GMT+8) because they knock off on time.

3 I read of the mess with US TECROs. I have mixed feelings about Rome so far. They were quite efficient (24 hours) in retrieving information about the Passport Verification, which apparently requires them to have access to the application platform that we and the other agencies use. It seems that BOCA has not not given it automatically to the TROs, but they have to request the credentials (or the installation of a specific software, or both, not sure about this point) when the first Gold Card applicant knocks at the door. For this reason, my appointment was delayed until 21/9 after a rescheduling that costed me a flight to Rome that I had already booked. Non-refundable, of course :laughing: I have been cursing them the whole day :crazy_face:

Will keep you updated about the rest of the process. In my case, I will wait for the card to be shipped here.

5 Likes
1594

Congrats! Where do you live in Italy?