A benefit to quarantining in a hotel is that the police don’t bother you. They only called me once on the 2nd day, and said they won’t check up since I’m in a quarantine hotel and I’m working during night hours. If you work throughout the night, getting good sleep in those 14 days is probably more important than saving some bucks and being woken up by calls at random times during the day. Also you get food delivered, so you can fully focus on work / other stuff without having to worry how to order each meal.
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This is a very good point and the exact situation I will be in. I am looking for a hotel that has a decent desk / table setup, did you have any luck with the one you booked?
I stayed at aloft with guandu plains view, about 4700 per night. They had a good sized table, wired internet, good amount of space to do equipment free exercises. The internet was a little slow at times (too many ppl in hotel using internet probably) so I used my phone hotspot which was pretty fast (Tstar mobile), you’ll have to buy a phone plan after landing anyways. It’s in Beitou so lots of Uber eats and food panda options, the staff will drop off food outside your room. It’s the same type of room as in that YouTube video up above except better view since it’s facing guandu plains (and no opposite buildings looking into yours so there’s privacy)
Had some things go differently than other people on my gold card application, and thought I would report it here for future reference.
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I entered Taiwan on a business permit, from what I have read people who enter on a visa don’t need to submit a passport to verification, but I had to anyway. I didn’t think I had to.
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Today got a message saying I needed to update my information in the application. I was thinking no way, I thought everything was fine, but turns out since I needed a bank account for a branch office submission I have in the application process now, I had to apply for a ROC Record of I.D. Number (中華民國統一證號基資表）in the middle of the gold card application. When I logged in to see what I needed to update, it had my ID number listed at the top of the page from the above mentioned “ROC Record of I.D. Number”, and it literally just said copy and paste it on that line called “ROC Uniform ID Number (Alien Resident Certificate Number)”… I’m guessing they can’t just add it themselves, we have to add it. Oh well.
Not sure what difference it makes, or what will happen, but I am supposed to pick up my passport tomorrow morning. Hope everything goes well.
I uploaded my video. I feel like the forumosa audience is scary but not as bad as reddit, so hopefully no one rips me to shreds. I launched the youtube channel one month ago so I’m still learning and definitely open to suggestions. And if I have any mistakes in my info please let me know or correct me in the comments.
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Are Youtubers now considered “foreign special professionals”? I doubt whether these nomads are the NIA’s target group.
As it is right now, probably not easy for a YouTuber to get in because of the lack of consistent salary to prove the income requirement. I certainly hope it wouldn’t qualify for the arts and culture category lol. As I said in the video, it makes the most sense for the thousands of newly remote workers in the US. Now whether they ought to be “foreign special professionals” or not is certainly up for debate.
Picked up my Gold Card today and I’m more than happy. Thank you very much everybody for the great and continuous support!
I was told the same like @qwert_zuiop, namely that a negative Covid test result will be necessary to be allowed for boarding. While it apparently is “not really” necessary, I might still get a test, just to be on the safe side. I saw that in the online form which we need to fill in prior to departure, there is the question “have negative test result - yes/no”.
Did you guys then simply indicate “no” without any consequences?
My timeline looks very similar to other applications, exactly 2 months from starting the application to card pickup:
| Date | Remark |
|---|---|
| 11th of September 2020 (Friday) | Applied under “Economic” category, without payslips, but with tax statement from 2019; requested pickup in Germany |
| 14th of September 2020 (Monday) | “Under inspection” |
| 21st of September 2020 (note that this is the period of Taiwanese national holiday and mid-autumn festival, so I think this caused a bit longer processing times) | “Professional Review by Workforce Development Agency” |
| 13th of October 2020 | Passport Submission Notice |
| 14th of October 2020 | Onsite visit at Taiwanese “embassy” to verify passport |
| 14/15th of October 2020 | “Under inspection” |
| 15th of October 2020 | “IC Card in Process” |
| 16th of October 2020 | “Completed” |
| 10th of November 2020 | Mail “Gold Card arrived” |
| 11th of November 2020 | Gold Card collected |
Without the great advice in this forum I would not have come so far. Thank you very much!
Cheers,
Fabian
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I dropped my passport off at the LA Teco. A day or two later they called me saying they were working on my case and need my passport to process next steps. I told the lady they already had my passport. She said OK but it’s been over a week and I haven’t heard anything else. Should I be concerned?
I’d call and ask but it literally took me nearly 100 calls to get through to someone the first time and then they didn’t even set an appointment just told me to walk-in (despite reading it was closed and mail-in only.) What do I do? I’m going to send them an email now but a bit concerned. I applied on 9/30 and am still in the Passport Verification stage.
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has anyone dropped off their passport at the SF TECO recently? i’m having a devil of a time getting ahold of anyone over there.
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Your best bet would be to go there 10 mins before it opens and stop Taiwanese looking people before they enter, confirm that they work at the TECO in the building and then ask them for help. Got passport verification done in 15 minutes this way. It might seem a little awkward at first, but the staff will likely help you out.
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Weird, when I went for passport verification they took mine and said they’ll call me back when they’re done. They’ve had it in their hands for over a week now.
I told them I have an urgent matter (not so true) and a flight in four days (which was true). Maybe you could try something like that
I have applied yesterday - but not fully sure on some things or if it works out. I am German citizen, living in Cyprus since this year - before self employed in Austria.
Cyprus has no Taiwan Embassy or similar - usually people would use Athens then - cause same language. But I think there is no formal requirement on the country if you own country has no embassy. Not sure about this.
I applied under Economic and the NT160k monthly salary category. But as a self employed I of course had no salary - but did pay income tax. I am not sure if the German embassy however is familiar with the Austrian income sheets - or is it someone in Taiwan looking at it? They are really different from American income statements…
As self employed in Austria - you just do a incoming/expenses statement - and what is left is your profit which is taxed on income tax rules (actually different name, but same tax rate). Problematic would be that the gross salary is more than the profit - as social insurances are already fully paid. So it’s like 100% income before social insurances 72% profit (for income tax). Vs like 86% for a comparable gross salary (where the employer pays half of the social insurances). I think it won’t matter much in my case - as also my profit before taxes is over the yearly NT1.92M
Should I have filed in Austria because that’s where I lived before and where my income statement is from? Or doesn’t it matter? I mean I seriously hope they don’t expect me to file in Greece - cause it will be hard to travel there right now. I wanted to spend the next month in Germany - so that’s why I chose Germany. But of course have no residence there…
(oh yeah - when I first tried to apply ,the payment page was error 500/not loading no matter which gateway. I sent an email to 3 places and this morning they had fixed it). I do hope I can fly in 4-5 weeks to Taiwan - but after reading this thread I guess it will be 6 weeks best case…
Hi @topofan,
Welcome to Forumosa, and hope to see you in Taiwan soon.
Firstly, regarding the location fields during the application. There are two times that physical location can be used:
- for passport verification
- for collecting the card (optional, can be picked up in Taiwan instead)
Aside from that, all processing, including looking at the supporting documents, is completed by offices in Taiwan. So, I would not stress to much about this.
For your tax documents, you may be in for some more fun. This is a well-trodden path now and the authority has been quite clear that they are not looking for income overall, but salary income exclusively. In some limited cases contractors whose pay looked a lot like salaried employment were allowed ( eg from the USA: “7 Nonemployee Compensation” on a 1099-MISC from before 2020 or a 1099-NEC form after 2020).
If the numbers on your income tax statement combines other types of income, you’ll probably need to acquire other documents that separate out this income. You may also have to make a case for why your self-employment income is a salary. One thing you can investigate is whether a CPA would be willing to write you a letter (signed on letterhead, and with a copy of their CPA license attached) that explains your situation.
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Thanks for your answer,
There is no way to delete/change documents - is there? I’m a bit stupid - because instead of the detailed statement I could have simply added the simple Austrian Income tax statement. There is only a single word which differentiates the income from salaried persons to self employed persons.
For salaried persons under source of income it says - income from non self employed work (Einkommen aus nicht selbständiger Arbeit) Whereas in my case it says income from professional work (Einkommen aus Gewerbebetrieb)
CPA letter or similar - clearly impossible in Austria… This year as I moved to cyprus - I am employed by my fully owned Cyprus LTD company - however for tax reasons I only pay myself around 20.000USD per year. There are no payslips or similar in Cyprus. I do guess I could get an income statement too at the end of the year - I could still send myself 50000 USD december salary - but that would incur a lot of taxes ;-(
I kinda understand that income from trading/stocks/whatever is not considered - because you can decide each year how much you pay yourself out. I was thinking self employment would be treated just like employment.
Oh yeah - my application was “Under inspection” for about 30 hours. Now It changed to “Professional Review by Workforce Development Agency” - so they seem to work pretty quick right now. I just damn myself for not sending the simple document. I kinda guess then they wouldn’t even have noticed. I could have also chosen a nice translation - without cheating. but dunno what would have been best:
e.g. income from self employment / income from trade / business income / income from business operation.
All are formally correct…
yeah, that label might actually be ok 
I wouldn’t panic yet though. You’ll get a chance to upload new documents if they don’t approve you with what you have submitted.
If you do decide to pay yourself a different salary in December, I don’t think it would need to be 50k USD. Just more than 160k TWD, accompanied with an explanation/pay slip/other formal document as to why the monthly average is less but you do meet the salary requirement.
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okay - well let’s hope. I’m thinking of revocation - and submitting again/ paying again so they don’t even get to see the convoluted statement I sent them first (it was my full income statement - with assets, assets deduction, declaration of expenses by category, and so on).
Hi @favorith,
Just curious, did they mail the Gold Card directly to you? Or to the TECO office and you went to pick it up? Or did you fly to Taiwan and pick it up there? Thanks!