Why is Taiwan the best country for expats?

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
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Some people get off on being offended by everything. Personally, I don’t give a shit.
I remember doing some work at the place of a forumosan. His blue blood kmt loving wife was upset horribly when her husband told her I had naturalized as was a citizen. She was visibly upset at the thought. I wound her up by saying her husband too could naturalize then resume his foreign citizenship and be like many kmt members with dual citizenship.

People want to be offended in an effort to shut the conversation down. Funny thing is I get from foreigners that I will never be accepted as a local here yet I do not get that from Taiwanese. I wrote a letter to the NCC about 5g interference affecting my business. They wrote to Changhua telecom and one of their engineers contacted me. He is from Chiayi so started speaking to me in Taiwanese. Normal for people in the south. I asked to switch to Mandarin as my Taiwanese not at the level my Chinese is. Anyway we discussed the technical details of the problems. NCC actually ordered Changhua telecom to reduce the output power on cell phone towers to reduce interference. So anyway next time we get some interference we will call the engineer and he will turn off the 5g signal for a few hours during some live events so we can see if the issue is actually 5g. We already installed 5g filters and gear but are also close to the tower.

For Fuzzy the issue is he often he needs help with forms and doesn’t have the conversational Chinese yet to deal with people in banks etc. I do.

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83

My son was born here to an ROC mother. He was legally only a foreigner at birth even though born in Taichung. So he lived here as a foreigner on a dependent ARC until he was 20. Funny thing was I was his father and single. so an ROC citizen with a foreign son. I’m a white dude he is Asian. Sometimes people would ask him if I was his English teacher lol We didn’t get offended we just laughed. My lad would troll his classmates saying he was going overseas when they would be doing military service when they referred to his bein a foreigner. He would also tell them he would take care of their girlfriends when they were at boot camp.

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84

I am sorry, but this program is a sham. Just something in a name.

We’ve looked into it for a couple of Filipino friends, and it seems almost impossible to get it.

First, you must work for 6 years on a blue-collar ARC, then apply to become an intermediate skilled worker (presumably becoming a white-collar ARC holder). Then you’ll spend another 5 years on the white-collar ARC, before you can apply for an APRC.

So, in total it takes 11 to 12 years to get an APRC, “in theory”, because I haven’t met anyone who has done it successfully.

The two women who came to us to apply for this had worked in Taiwan for over 6 years, but neither made 33000 regular income. They said no one in their factory made that. Generally, the base pay is a bit lower, and then you add overtime to get it close to 28 or 30.

Also, I talked to a caregiver here, and she didn’t make 29,000 in regular salary either, she said others were similar.

I need more data to prove this, but it seems to me that “required” salaries have been set just a hair above what they know most migrant workers actually make. This has probably been done intentionally to try and exclude as many migrant workers as possible from applying. Taiwanese will be in the streets if 200,000 migrant workers suddenly qualified for an APRC and “better rights.”

Migrant workers have no future here, unfortunately. That being said, the truth is that most Filipinos, if they had a choice, would prefer Taiwan over Korea/Japan because it’s more comfortable here in many ways, even if the laws aren’t great.

I think sooner or later, Taiwan will be forced to update/improve these laws because Korea and Japan are targeting SEA workers more aggressively now.

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85

LOL! Ever since I became a Taiwanese I’ve had an itch to go and get a Canadian passport.

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Migrant workers are not classed as skilled workers regardless of their education. So skilled professionals get residency and non skilled don’t. Same everywhere really.
I know some who have been here long enough to qualify. HK had their cases decided by the courts there that decided migrant workers could not be granted permanent residency.

You and I would both support them getting APRC’s.

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I think I posted my girlfriends (migrant factory worker’s) salary of 40,000 on an earlier thread… But! One thing I think that makes a difference to this “migrant worker”. She has a university degree…

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Why not an Australian passport? I know you lived in Germany but probably then don’t want an EU Passport lol.

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However, workers who receive a monthly salary of NT$35,000 per month or more are exempt from these additional requirements.

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Wow, that’s an impressive salary. I mean impressive in the sense that I have never heard of such a salary from any other migrant worker, and I know quite a few of them.

P.S. My wife also has a bachelor’s degree, and she was paid less than 30k.

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91

If you are an ROC citizen then why isn’t your son?

Or did you naturalize after he was born?

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I believe he (@Satellite_TV ) naturalised after he (his son) was born.

Also it was beneficial for his son considering that he didn’t have to do military service like all his Taiwanese friends and could pick up Taiwan citizenship whenever he wanted.

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I wouldn’t mind having another, but I lost all my energy on getting the Taiwanese one, so probably a few years later, IF I needed it. I am currently content with my Taiwanese one.

Interestingly, when I lived in China in 2011, I applied for Skillselect Australia along with my then Brit/Zim GF. We both did IELTS specifically for that purpose. I got a 9, she got an 8, and then she got drunk, and we had our first big argument. LOL She was pissed that I scored higher than her, because, she was a native speaker, and admittedly her English was 10 times better than mine. I was just better at exams. :slight_smile:

Eventually, I gave up on Skillselect Australia because I didn’t have enough money to send my degrees to Australia for approval/evaluation. A while later, I moved to Germany for work; my ex moved to Russia.

If I ever apply for Australian immigration again, I’ll come to you to write me a “good character” reference letter. You can give those, right?

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Yes I did not include my son in my naturalization application. So benefit for him was no military service. Also when I naturalized he still could not get Taiwan citizenship from his mother as that law changed in 2000. Yes they backdated so people born from 1980 to foreign father and ROC mother could get Taiwan citizenship in Taiwan.

But why bother? Under same law he could simply not apply as it is not automatic you still had to apply. So by not doing so in Taiwan no military service. By waiting to go to Australia and apply he got Taiwan passport with no HH or ID card so even using that to return to Taiwan, no military service.

We used Taiwan’s laws to our own advantage. A lot of people on forums were asking why my son did not have to renounce to get a Taiwan passport like I did. They ignored the fact their children have dual citizenship from being born in Taiwan to one foreign parent and one Taiwan parent. So unfair my son didn’t have to renounce lol Twats.

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Australia is a pain in the arse I heard unless you are in certain professions. Even then they ask a fortune for all the doc verification. Canada is much more open generally and they are pulling in something like 400k immigrants this year. But immigrating/emigrating as a family is always 5x more difficult. These days it’s easiest to study somewhere and then get a work visa afterwards. But family obligations. Just the way it goes. Being an EU citizen is brilliant you can live and work in 27 and more countries without a visa requirement. Compared to the rest of the world that’s pretty awesome.

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Agree that Australia is difficult. Some people get fake student visa to make it easy from inside.
New Zealand is super easy for unskilled workers, so probably for professional too.

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OK, then please feel free to ignore the revived topic:

Others may wish to compare and contrast their options around the region

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Combination of White Australia hangovers from 100 years ago combined with a Keating style of political correctness so evident in the labor left that wanted to remove all Commonwealth preferential schemes.

As a result, very bureaucratic and narrow. When China sanctions them in the future and the commodities gravy train ends, perhaps they will become a little more inviting?

100

Ya, that’s quite interesting. similar to.me.with my kid, though I am not a citizen. for now. but that kind of also lends to the point, semantics matter. people are judged on wording. I am not claiming right or wrong, but I have to say it is erroneous to deny the importance. it affects everyday life. we can choose not to care, but we cannot choose for other people. that is an important distinction. so it is worth being friendly and steering the judgment in a more positive semantics type.of way.

I see your points, and largely agree. though the difference perhaps is I am not denying the importance of reality in terms of judgment. which is very much married to semantics.