When is the best time for us to move to Taipei?

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

Between CNY (Feb 1st) and ~April 2022, is there a particular date that’s best for any reason?
In particular I’m wondering about holidays, peak travel, or something else that I might not be aware of that I’d either want to be in or avoid Taipei during. But happy to indulge any other thoughts like:

-Quarantine considerations
-Schooling
-Weather
-Vaccines
-Fortune tellers
-and so forth

If you’ve seen my posts on this site you know that over a year ago we originally were thinking to move to Taiwan this summer. Then that pushed back into to the fall, then to the end of 2021, and now it’s pushed back even further to Feb 2022. I’d like to perhaps put an end to this continued postponement by just going ahead and picking a date and buying tix. I am looking at a really great deal for airfare that I might as well lock in now and force us to work with that date. But since it’s so far from now it’s hard for me to anticipate what might make a better or worse date, week, or month to move.

Why are we waiting til Feb '22? There are two significant events occurring, one in Jan and one at the beginning of Feb, that I’d like to be in the US for. Since we had decided to wait til the end of Dec already, I now figured let’s just stay for those things. Had we been in Asia already, I wouldn’t consider flying back to the US, but since we’re already here, I think they’re worth staying for.

What do I hope for when we move? Ideally our toddlers will have been fully vaccinated, ideally we’d be able to enter Taiwan with very little quarantine restrictions (at the very least, be allowed to quarantine in my aunt’s large apartment if she is not there), have spaces at a good private kindergarten for our kids, and arrive when the gold card allows for NHI enrollment without a waiting period. Are the chances for these things significantly improved if you wait closer to April? Does it not really matter at all? Do we want to avoid post-CNY time for any reason?

Thanks for indulging me. :smiley:

2

You definitely want to come after CNY, especially if hotel quarantine is going to continue being a thing. Otherwise, if you end up in a sh**hole hotel, you may be SOL in getting into someplace less :poop: y with all the other Taiwanese who will be coming back then. Maybe the government will have changed things by then, but right now, everyone (but the olympic athletes returning from COVID-free Tokyo /sarcasm) is required to quarantine in a government-approved hotel for 14 days, regardless of your vaccination status, home-ownership status, how many negative COVID tests you’ve had, etc.

That being said, I’m not sure what kindy is going to want kids in April. They’ll have started preparing for their graduation ceremonies at that point and they will not be too happy about two foreign kids coming in who have already missed months of dance practice and probably also have parents who aren’t going to force them to practice for two hours daily. (I say this only half-sarcastically, having been to a number of kindergarten graduations that would really challenge the worst of the parents in the show “Dance Moms”.) (Having said that, don’t let that be a deciding factor.)

1 Like
3

If we are still Delta free at that time then it’s the quarantine hotel for you.

4

The first semester ends on Jan. 20, and the second semester starts on Feb. 11.
School’s CNY holidays from Jan 31 to Feb 6.

1 Like
5

Yah, that’s the hope. Honestly if the requirement is hotel quarantine then we’d rather not go yet. There’s no reason we need to be in Taiwan and for us it’s not worth it…unless I’ve already purchased airline tickets lol.

Good to know. My buddy’s kid’s kindy seemed to have room for us at many points throughout this past year, but of course past (performance) is not a guarantee of future (success). And my kids LOVE to dance. But I’m not sure their moves are what the school is looking for lol.

Ahhh this is very relevant info thanks! This could indicate that starting as close to Feb 11 as possible would be preferable. With quarantine, the 11th won’t be possible, but close to it then.