What are my chances of becoming a Taiwanese citizen?

Citizenship is for people who intend to reside in the country long term. The US government requires green card holders (people who intend to become US citizens) to reside in the US for a certain number of years before they can become citizens. Or you’ll end up with a bunch of fence straddlers who try to reap benefits from both sides. A statement like that leads people to think you’re after the benefits, such as the national health insurance or the right to cast a ballot.

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That’s fair but maybe citizenship was the wrong term to use here. I might just be looking for NWOHR and TARC.

Not really. Most of the world has citizenship through descent so that’s how it is. This thread is not about political opinion.

OP asked about his rights to claim citizenship. The concept doesn’t exist in ROC law but de facto citizenship (household registration) is actually harder than obtain than US citizenship. If I am born to two US citizens, I can automatically exercise US citizenship rights regardless of age. On the other hand Taiwan “citizenship” requires residency if the process starts age 20 or later.

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Were you born in the USA or taiwan? I’d be surprised if you didn’t have household if you were born in taiwan. But tarc might be ideal for you since it’s basically a renewable green card that also lets you get the open work permit. But honestly just get household and citizenship if and when you meet the residency requirement. It’s your birthright - ignore the naysayers (who otherwise don’t think twice about passing down American or Canadian citizenship to their taiwan born kids).

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I was born in Taiwan but I only had American passport. I don’t know if I had household registration. I also didn’t have to worry about military conscription so I just thought I was never a citizen.

22 posts were split to a new topic: .brianjones .seperatecustard

You should confirm whether you have it. It’s easy, just asking to your parents.

Just FYI, in both the United States and Taiwan, “holding a passport” is not what determines citizenship.

E.g. in the U.S., if you qualify for citizenship (e.g. by being born in the United States to parents of any nationality, or by being overseas to at least one U.S. citizen parent that has lived in the U.S. for a certain period of time), then you are a U.S. citizen. This is where the term “accidental American” comes from. Some people are U.S. citizens without even realizing it–usually the ones born overseas. Applying for a passport has nothing to do with citizenship: in the eyes of the U.S. government you are a citizen from the moment you are born, if you qualify at birth.

It’s similar in Taiwan. Anyone qualifying to be an R.O.C. national is an R.O.C. national, regardless of whether they have applied for and hold an R.O.C. passport.

In most countries, it is possible for a person to apply to the government for citizenship; such a process is usually called “naturalization.” For example, it’s possible to naturalize in both the United States and Taiwan, though of course the processes differ greatly.

In your particular case, you’re not naturalizing: you are an R.O.C. national, and you are merely applying for a passport and, potentially, the right to live in Taiwan (household registration). That last part is up to you.

So my parents say I never had hukou when I lived in Taiwan. I was under 依親居留 so I didn’t have 身份證.

Yes, I understand that many American citizens dont even own a passport. But because I never had a Taiwanese passport and also I never was listed in hukou according to my parents, I don’t think I was a Taiwanese citizen.

Is there a reason they did this? Do they have hukou? Seems weird to not get hukou for a child born to Taiwanese citizen parents who raise the kid in Taiwan for 18 years. But maybe if they lived in Taiwan themselves under ARCs then it makes sense–but if that’s the case, when you say they were Taiwanese-American you just mean ethnically I guess, no legal status?

My wife and I just had a daughter and first thing we did is get her hukou and shenfenzheng set up so that she’ll have proper citizenship for life, even though we might only live here with her for a couple years.

Not sure why.

My parents were citizens of Taiwan and America.

I know I had an ARC growing up.

Sorry there might be some confusion about citizen vs. national.

In the U.S. it’s effectively the same thing, but in Taiwan it’s different. Actually since it’s English these are not even words the TW government uses, but let’s use them anyway :slight_smile:

I am no lawyer but my understanding is typically “national” in TW refers to anyone born to a mother or father who is an R.O.C. national (e.g. your parents). So this is you.

“Citizen” is usually used to mean someone who has household registration and therefore the full benefits of “being Taiwanese” - e.g. NHI, schools, subsidies, and the right to live, work, and vote in Taiwan.

All citizens are nationals. Not all nationals are citizens. For a national who’s not a citizen, such as yourself, there’s a process to go through to become a citizen.

Hope this helps.

And this Wikipedia article explains the law and the history.

Sorry if I got anything wrong, it is confusing but just trying to help.

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See my above post - if your parents are still alive, you may want to clarify with them whether they were citizens or merely nationals at the time they lived in TW, just so you understand your situation better.

Anyway, I think it doesn’t matter too much now, since as others have stated, everything changes once you’re over 20, and you are.

there are several reasons I can guess. They might want to send their kid to TAS. They might want to avoid conscription for their kid. Establishing hukou later is not so hard for their kid if it is necessary.

What’s this about? Is TAS admission prioritized to those with only U.S. citizenship and no hukou above those with U.S. citizenship + TW hukou?

They might loosen their regulation now, but kids should have been on ARC before, iirc. If kids had hukou, they should have moved it out, and changed their status on ARC, when they enrolled to TAS. So, it could be possible that OP’s parents avoided to register him on their hukou at all

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They were citizens. I agree, I am over 20 now so I don’t think it matters what they did.

Yeah, it’s definitely more complicated in Taiwan. No worries, thank you for the info.

hi SeparateCustard, I am also working on getting a Taiwan passport. I found a lot of the terms very confusing regarding citizenship, and household registration. So I made a list of vocabulary words. Vocabulary words for getting Taiwan passport - English and Chinese to help me communicate in Chinese.