A bit of background, my girlfriend is Taiwanese and has lived in NZ for about 12 years. We are having a little girl and want her to be able to speak Taiwanese/Mandarin as well as get to know her grand parents. My great idea was that we would move to Taiwan when our girl is about 3 so she can start school in Taiwan.
The problem is, I have no idea what I can do for a living in Taiwan. I am currently a senior consultant specializing in computer networking, I also have considerable experience managing projects, teams and businesses. I do not have a degree but have many industry certifications as well as references. And to top it off I speak very little Chinese
How hard is it to get jobs in Taiwan where speaking Chinese is not a requirement ?
What are the requirements for me to be able to stay in Taiwan long term ?
Are their any restrictions on foreigner’s starting/owning a company in Taiwan ?
A bit of background, my girlfriend is Taiwanese and has lived in NZ for about 12 years. We are having a little girl and want her to be able to speak Taiwanese/Mandarin as well as get to know her grand parents. My great idea was that we would move to Taiwan when our girl is about 3 so she can start school in Taiwan.
The problem is, I have no idea what I can do for a living in Taiwan. I am currently a senior consultant specializing in computer networking, I also have considerable experience managing projects, teams and businesses. I do not have a degree but have many industry certifications as well as references. And to top it off I speak very little Chinese
How hard is it to get jobs in Taiwan where speaking Chinese is not a requirement ?
What are the requirements for me to be able to stay in Taiwan long term ?
Are their any restrictions on foreigner’s starting/owning a company in Taiwan ?[/quote]
Hi, first of all, hope you and your gf/wife a happy Chinese New Year (as we’re celebrating this holiday during this time); secondly, could you stand teaching English to children or adults? If not, then you’d probably start applying to some of the firms in Taiwan requiring very little of the spoken language (Taiwanese or Chinese) or to have you have a college degree. Maybe there are some foreign companies that wouldn’t require its employees to speak Chinese/Taiwanese. Nevertheless, you shouldn’t stop trying to apply. Good luck~
I’ll let others answer the business questions, though there are plenty of foreignes here who run and own their own businesses.
If you marry your girlfriend you will be able to apply for residency based on marriage. This will allow you to live and work at whatever you like. You will not need a company to sponsor you.
So as long as you marry you have no real issue staying here and working whether for yourself or someone else.
You’re looking at coming in 3 years so the economy will be back on track and with some kind of ECFA with China more foreign companies may set up shop here (or not ). You also have 3 years to improve your Chinese.
funky, if he marries a degree is not necessary. His ARC will be based on marriage.
Thanks for the New Year’s wishes. We are planning on getting married in the next year here in New Zealand. We have been together for 5 years so it is not just so I can get an ARC, but that is a nice and unexpected bonus.
I am sure I can pick up more Chinese in the next 3 years, I have taken Chinese classes in the past and have always been ahead of the other students, the problem is that if you dont use it you lose it… The plan is to make Chinese the language we speak around the house.
Will getting married here in New Zealand rather than in Taiwan affect my chances of getting an ARC ?
So, to even be considered for a job in Taiwan I will need a degree of some sort ?
I find it a little weird that here in New Zealand I am a wealthy and successful 29 year old with 11 years experience in my industry, but in Taiwan I may not be able to work without a degree!
Are you aware of how the school system is over here? If you want your child to speak Chinese you can just let the mom teach him/her. Children here generally do not have much of a life or space (in comparison to New Zealand) I think.
I think you will, at least at first, find it difficult to get any work that isn’t teaching related. Marrying your wife in New Zealand would be the best option, at least from the little I know. As Battery9 already pointed out, I’d be extremely careful about wanting to send my kids to the local schools. I wouldn’t wish that kind of burden on any child, they’ll be studying all day and have no life (they definitely won’t have the childhood you did while growing up). I’d try and see if you can get a job in New Zealand that has positions in Taiwan that you may be able to get posted to. This way you’ll be earning the salary you are accustomed to and will be doing work that you are probably already familiar and experienced in. Taiwan isn’t all beer and skittles. Have you ever been to and stayed in Taiwan before for any length of time? This would probably be the best way to get a feel of what you are about to jump into and give you some insight into the work you will probably be doing. You and your wife may also want to check out 104 and the other job banks here in Taiwan to see what work you may be able to do.
I put my daughter through the school system here until junior high school began and then took her out. We put her in the elementary school for just a half day until fifth grade, when her English was good. She is now bilingual. The elementary schools are ok but the junior high and high schools are nightmares.
You can get a residency visa (ARC) by being married. Before you go, be sure to have the Taiwan rep office in NZ stamp a translation of your marriage documents. Ask them which translators they accept; they may accept one prepared by you two (in the US they did that no problem). You will also need a police report indicating that you are crime free for last five years, also translated and stamped, as I recall (haven’t done this in a while!).
The lack of degree will be a problem only if you wish to legally teach English. You can teach illegally in a kindy but that will soon get old. The best jobs in universities and high schools will be closed to you. For other jobs in IT it depends on many things. You can also own a company here easily – basically with a marriage ARC you can do anything a local can do except vote and serve in the military. Your wife can easily own it in her name as well.
If you have a steady job in NZ, then I recommend you put your daughter in mandarin classes there. It is not worth coming here just so she can learn Mandarin (Where are you planning to live in Taiwan?).
All good points, I have only spent 2months in Taiwan and I liked it a lot. It is very different to New Zealand, but I found people were really nice and were actually more accepting than a lot of New Zealanders.
We really want to move to Taiwan for a few years so that our daughter can spend time getting to know her Taiwanese family. She has grandparents, great grandparents, aunties and uncles in the Taichung area, but we would live in Taipei so that it is close enough to visit but far enough to have some breathing room!
From all the comments, I will start looking in to running a business in Taiwan.
No, it shouldn’t. In fact, if done correctly, you might be able to get it all done before you come over. After you get married you should go to the Taiwan Rep office in New Zealand and find out what you would need to do before you leave. You may be able to come over here on a JFRV (Joining Family residence Visa).
At the very least, you would be able to get everything you would need from NZ before you come over and the process will go much quicker and more smoothly. There are numerous threads on here that will also be very useful to you.
Send me a pm if you need any advice. I got my JFRV last year.
I also posted about it on the forum.
[quote=“MadeInNewZealand”]So, to even be considered for a job in Taiwan I will need a degree of some sort ?
I find it a little weird that here in New Zealand I am a wealthy and successful 29 year old with 11 years experience in my industry, but in Taiwan I may not be able to work without a degree![/quote]
Well, things are different here. Kind of like Taiwanese dentists who go to NZ and can’t find work.
Why don’t you look into doing a teaching diploma before you come over? That may be helpful in the teaching industry, as many schools (not buxibans) may not want to hire you even though you are on a JFRV. And teaching can be useful for the interim period until you get your business off the ground. Just my worth…
But as one of the previous posters mentioned, it may be good to see if you can’t somehow get over here while working for a NZ company. Afterall, you will probably want to return someday, and a six or more year break from your industry might not be a good thing.
Also, being up in Taipei will definitely increase your chances of getting non-teaching related work.
Another option would be to not throw away a successful and lucrative career in New Zealand just so your 3 year old can learn how to curse in Taiwanese.
bismark: To be honest, a teaching diploma would be a bit of overkill if he were only going to use it as a temporary stop gap. Doing a teaching diploma is basically about nine months of full-time study, including teaching rounds, at least in Australia (I should imagine it’s not too different in New Zealand). It would be next to impossible to work even a part time job during normal working hours whilst doing it. Also, in terms of getting work here in Taiwan, it wouldn’t be that advantageous. For sure, it opens up new areas of work (government schools) that the average English teacher can’t do, but so does having a JFRV. The work is not really that much more fulfilling and the pay is actually less than if you have a JFRV and avoid getting suckered into evil contracts at chain schools like many people and freelance instead. That said, work in government schools is generally easier/slacker than at buxibans and you do get slightly longer holidays (and they’re paid).
So, he’d be out of the workforce in New Zealand for the better part of a year, plus he’d have to pay for the diploma course, and it wouldn’t help his job prospects or earning capacity an enormous amount once he got here (and it would only be a temporary job anyway. Also, I’m not sure what the certification process is like in New Zealand exactly, but I did have a Kiwi colleague last year who said it was a pain in the arse. The main reason he left Taiwan to go back to NZ this year is because he had to spend a certain amount of time there (I think it was three years out of five and he’d been in the U.K. teaching for a while too) to maintain his registration. Getting the registration usually takes at least a year in a school too. So, I’m guessing he’d have to spend at least another year after he finished studying in order to get certified. Without being certified, his teaching diploma wouldn’t be much help over here, I think.
It all seems like a rather roundabout way of doing things when he could just try to work in public schools on a JFRV or work in buxibans in the meantime.
MadeinNZ-
How about this.
Stay in New Zealand and continue your life. Be successful and continue to increase your wealth and happiness there.
Send your children, and your wife, to visit their relations in Taiwan. Visit yourself as time allows and learn about the heritage your wife and children have.
But stay in NZ for your job and eventual familial happiness.
No matter what you read on here, You life will never reach the same level of happiness, success ad financial reward as you portray in your original, and subsequent, posts.
You owe it to your family, your wife and tourself to do what is best for them.
If you’ve got it rockin’ there in KiwiLand…Stay there and keep it going.
Taiwan is such a completely different subset that it isn’t fair to the children to force them to adapt to what passes for life here if they have the option to stay there in NZ.
Let them come here to visit, learn from their relation here, let the Wife share what she has to offer…but as for life and living…Stay in New Zealand.
Once they reach the age of maturity, what ever that is in NZ, let them decide then if they want to come and live on the island of Taiwan and face what passes for civilization here.
[quote=“TainanCowboy”]MadeinNZ-
How about this.
Stay in New Zealand and continue your life. Be successful and continue to increase your wealth and happiness there.
Send your children, and your wife, to visit their relations in Taiwan. Visit yourself as time allows and learn about the heritage your wife and children have.
But stay in NZ for your job and eventual familial happiness.
No matter what you read on here, You life will never reach the same level of happiness, success ad financial reward as you portray in your original, and subsequent, posts.
You owe it to your family, your wife and tourself to do what is best for them.
If you’ve got it rockin’ there in KiwiLand…Stay there and keep it going.
Taiwan is such a completely different subset that it isn’t fair to the children to force them to adapt to what passes for life here if they have the option to stay there in NZ.
Let them come here to visit, learn from their relation here, let the Wife share what she has to offer…but as for life and living…Stay in New Zealand.
Once they reach the age of maturity, what ever that is in NZ, let them decide then if they want to come and live on the island of Taiwan and face what passes for civilization here.[/quote]
Very blunt way of putting it, but I have to say, I agree with TC on this one.
I agree entirely. Why take a step down in terms of his own career/job and his family’s standard of living? School is horrendous for kids in this country. They’re like battery hens. Imagine being thrown into that and already being behind the eightball in terms of language (especially writing)! The kids will see all the rote learning for inane multiple choice cloze tests as pointless, yet they’ll be made to feel like complete retards for not being able to keep up in the race to the bottom. Life is different generally for kids in this country. Where is the pristine environment, the outdoor and sporting culture or just the general space for kids to move around outside the home without fear of pollution, feral dogs and insane motorists?
I have a crazy theory (aren’t all of my theories crazy, you ask) that the reason such a large percentage of the adult populace has such an obsession with everything that is “cute” is because they never really got to be kids in the first place and just grow out of it naturally, coupled with the fact that it’s easier to buy kids some cheap plastic doll and stick them in someone else’s care in the factory-farmed educational system (both public and private sector) for twelve or more hours per day than actually parent them in this country.
Anyone expecting to come and find a rich, vibrant culture here is going to find the most grotesque, spiritually bereft elements of Western commercialism and materialism writ large. I wouldn’t raise kids here if my life depended upon it.
). You also have 3 years to improve your Chinese. 
worth…