Whew, it’s been a minute! I have some good news and bad news. First, the good news: my application is approved! I’m now officially a Taiwan Gold Card Visa holder. Bad news: Baba’s application is still in limbo and there are still so many things to do before we can all officially move to Taiwan.
Our visa application process hasn’t exactly been a walk in the park. A couple of weeks after I submitted my employment certificate, I received a response that my application does not belong under the Field of Economy but rather the Field of Finance because my former employer is in the insurance brokerage industry. The problem was, I wouldn’t exactly qualify under the Field of Finance. In addition to needing to have earned NT$160,000 a month, I would need some kind of financial expertise which I don’t have.
We decided to write a letter of appeal. I argued that while the my company could be classified under the financial industry, my job responsibilities and degrees are purely in business.
Meanwhile, Baba also received a similar response. His application under the Field of Economy was denied but they offered to do a special review with the National Development Agency. We learned that this process could take 1-2 months. We were already approaching March and plan to leave on June 3rd so we didn’t have the luxury of waiting.
We felt stuck. Doubt started to seep in and I was stressed. We started googling visa requirements for Spain. Although we could qualify for their Non-Lucrative Retirement Visa, timing would be extremely tight. And do we apply for Spain while waiting to hear back from Taiwan? How much time should we give Taiwan to get back to us? Is there anything we can do now for Spain’s application that is easy and low-cost in case our Taiwan visa gets approved? Why didn’t we apply for our visa earlier?! We had many questions but no answers.
But then, on the evening of March 6, I received the fantastic news: my application got approved! The next step was to submit my passport for inspection, and go through a final review by the National Immigration Agency. On March 15, I received my temporary Taiwan Gold Card. (I will need to pick up the official Gold Card when we’re in Taiwan.)
Baba’s application is still under review. At this point, he had written a letter to the visa office with more information about his work experience and education. He requested that his application be approved under the Field of Finance since his former employer is in the finance industry and he had worked closely with finance managers.
Initially, the visa office denied Baba’s request to move his application to the Field of Finance. They told him they need to do a further review of his “unique expertise.” But just this morning, Baba received an update that he could apply under the Field of Finance. Wish they could’ve made this decision when we made the initial request – that could’ve saved us 2 weeks!!
At this point, Baba could technically apply as my spouse but he won’t be able to work in Taiwan and there is more administrative work. For one thing, he would need to get a health examination that includes a chest x-ray, syphilis test, skin exam, among other things. He would then need to get a health certificate from his doctor and get the certificate “authenticated” by the Taiwan consulate. For now, our plan is to do two things at once: Baba re-applies under the Field of Finance and goes through the health exam in case the former option doesn’t work out.
But wait, there’s more! We have kids! Before we can apply for visas for C and O, Baba and I have to prove that we’re married. (Apparently, Taiwan doesn’t recognize children born out of wedlock 😆.) But the joke is on us, because our marriage certificate is from South Africa which complicates things a bit. All documents issued outside of Taiwan must be authenticated by the Taiwan consulate from where the document originated. Well, we obviously don’t live in South Africa so we had to hire an agent to help us with the authentication process of our marriage certificate. The Taiwan consulate in SA sent us a list of agents, so I contacted one, wired him money and prayed that this isn’t some elaborate scam. Our agent told us the process can take 4-5 weeks so we continue to wait.
In addition to the marriage certificate, we have to provide and authenticate C and O’s birth certificates and vaccination records. We also had to get a health exam and certificate for C, which of course needs to be authenticated too. (Children under 6 years do not have to get a health exam so O is spared.) Thankfully, since these documents were all issued in the SF Bay Area, we can bring them to the Taiwan consulate in San Francisco ourselves. And this all needs to be done before we fill out the actual visa application for the boys!
At the very least, my application is approved so there’s a high chance the rest of the family can get their visas too. But there’s still so much do to before we get there. I’ll post another update as things move along!
Hongs Abroad 