No. They mail it to whatever address you give them when you initially go enroll at the NHI office.
Upon enrollment, they will create a plastic card for you and mail it to the address you give them. They will also give you a temporary proof of coverage which is a piece of paper, for use until you receive your card.
If you’ve moved abroad and your HHR is “inactive”, then they won’t attempt to contact you.
When you receive your first NHI bill, there are instructions to download the app and pay online. You can check what you owe in the app. Disclaimer: I still wouldn’t call this “an easy way”.
My impression is if you suspended then it is resumed but you don’t apply for a card at that time, you will get a bill for all the accumulated payment at once when you apply for your nhi card.
Another topic about “downsides of pursuing US-Taiwan dual citizenship”: national pension payments. I touched on this in an earlier post.
My current understanding is that yes, as soon as you establish HHR, you have to start paying into the national pension scheme (or some other pension scheme if you have a job):
Is that right?
Is there any way to suspend national pension scheme payments for some months/years if you move out of Taiwan for a while (with “moved-out” or inactive HHR), similar to suspending NHI payments? Then, later, do you need to pay back all of the skipped months/years of pension payment after returning to Taiwan and re-establishing HHR?
It sounds pretty easy to me. Why wouldn’t you call it an easy way? In my imagination, I guess that you could just open up the app every month and make sure that you owe zero when you are living overseas, and when you re-visit Taiwan (if away for less than 2 years after establishing HHR) then you should see immediately in the app that your HHR coverage automatically started again and that you have to start paying again. Is that how the app works, or is it more complicated?
Does this mean under the new law, a person can go from NWOHR → citizen with HHR (no residency limit requirement?), but still is not eligible to use NIH if they are sick since they must reside in Taiwan for 6 months? So in the future if that person comes back to Taiwan, they still cannot use NIH until they have lived 6 months continuosly in Taiwan?