I understand there may be some difficulty with some of what is listed there from a financial and services standpoint, but here’s what I’ve been able to do on ARC/APRC with little or no headache:
Open a bank account
Obtain a credit card, unsecured
Obtain cellular service with no guarantor
Obtain a car loan with no guarantor
Politically, I wish I could participate. If I had children, their future status could be very important.
I seem to remember some debate on whether citizenship was actually permanent, some language indicating that it could be revoked for similar reasons that residence might be revoked, but that’s probably not worth discussing here. Finally, I don’t think an APRC has to be renewed, but I’m probably not following your meaning.
I wouldn’t call it a ‘mere formality’, one reason I’d didnt do it is I couldn’t predict how long it would take. It’s a difficult thing to action ‘abandoning your citizenship’, it gave me a lot of pause for thought because my citizenship and homeland is still very important to me and my family. There’s also the risk, however small, that something goes wrong in the process.
In the meantime you still have to reside in Taiwan to get the Taiwan ID. And you’ll be stuck with that NWOHR passport which is a pain in the ass.
If they gave me the ID at the same time I probably would have renounced and then claim it back again .
No, that is considered a change of information and keeps the original expiration date. You only get the next 10 years when renewing at the end of the period. It’s mainly just an extension and should be pretty straightforward, but still, you have to be here, have to go through the process, and it’s not exactly the same as being “permanent”.
Wait, what?! There’s no date on it. What’s involved for renewing? I’ve probably had mine over ten years and I’ve never renewed it. (I did get it updated for a new passport, but apparently that’s not the same.)
" There is also an Alien Permanent Resident Certificate (Chinese: 外僑永久居留證; pinyin: Wàiqiáo Yǒngjiǔ Jūliú Zhèng ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Gōa-kiâu Éng-kiú Ki-liû-chèng ), or APRC available. To obtain the APRC, residence (classed as 183 days or more in a year) must have been maintained for five years. Other conditions apply, including meeting minimum salary or assets requirements, and a criminal record check carried out in the applicant’s home country.[7] The fee for an APRC is NT$10,000, and the holder must either remain in the country for 183 days per year or else arrange an exemption with the National Immigration Agency in order to maintain permanent residency. The APRC card itself does not carry an expiration date and thus renewals are not required.[7] The law permitting permanent residency was established in 1999, and the first APRCs were issued in 2000.[8]"
However, you can still lose it under various circumstances, including being out of the country for a certain amount of time without applying for an extension, being convicted of a crime, etc.
They check you have renounced your previous citizenship when they issue you the TW ID card? or why can’t you just resume your previous citizenship at the time when they issue you the NWOHR passport?
I was under the impression your renunciation is verified pretty early in the process, and not as a last step.
You have one year to do it after you get a TARC. I needed my original passport for travelling overseas so…cest la vie. I can’t stay in Taiwan 365 days (work requires overseas travel ) in one year and don’t want to either.