APRC

The National Immigration Agency.

Please refer to the National Immigration Agency’s guide to the Application for Permanent Residency.

(English)

(Chinese)

In order to apply, you must meet ALL of the following requirements:

1. Held a Gold Card for at least three years, have stayed in Taiwan as a Gold Card holder for three consecutive years or more, and have resided in Taiwan for an average of 183 days or more per year.
2. Must be an adult.
3. No criminal record or history of bad behavior.
4. Have considerable assets or skills.
5. In accordance with our country’s national interest.

Please refer to the National Immigration Agency’s guide to the Application for Permanent Residency.

(English)

(Chinese)

You don’t need to be in Taiwan to complete the APRC process. However, if you are overseas, you must have a Letter of Attorney verified by a Taiwanese embassy or overseas mission. Additionally, please ensure that your agent in Taiwan prepares the required documents for permanent residency and submits them to the service center. Once your application is approved, your Employment Gold Card will be automatically canceled. Therefore, you will need to have your agent collect the APRC and send it to you abroad.

For a list of required documents, please refer to the National Immigration Agency’s website .

Foreign professionals: may apply for permanent residency if they have legally resided in Taiwan for at least 5 years, and for more than 183 days per year on average. Permanent residency can be applied for within two years of meeting the mentioned qualifications. (Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals Article 14 Paragraph 1)

Foreign specialist professionals: may apply for permanent residency if they legally resided in Taiwan for at least 3 years, and for more than 183 days per year on average. Permanent residency can be applied for within two years of meeting the mentioned qualifications. (Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals Article 16 Paragraph 1)

Please see page 6 of the following document: Instructions on Document Submission by Foreigners Applying for Permanent Residency To apply for an APRC, the applicant must prove that they, in the most recent year (either the past 12 months before application, or the calendar year before application) had an average monthly income of more than twice the minimum monthly wage set by the Ministry of Labor (see Note). Please refer to the MOL’s website The NIA requires one of the following documents:

• Alien Individual Income Tax Return

• Comprehensive Income Tax Information List

• Salary income withholding tax voucher issued by employer OR

• Proof of having chattels and real estate in Taiwan (i.e. bank account in Taiwan) with an estimated total value in excess of five million NT dollars (NT$5,000,000). For more detailed information on APRC financial asset issues with regards to your APRC application, please contact your local NIA Service Center .

  Note: If the Withholding Tax Statement or Proof of Salary Income involves cross-year calculations, the basis for calculating twice the minimum wage is determined using the most recent year’s minimum wage announced by the Ministry of Labor. For calculations based on the calendar year preceding the application date, the previous year’s minimum wage announced by the Ministry of Labor is used as the basis.

Applicants who travel abroad for periods of less than three (3) months during their lawful continuous residence for permanent residency application are exempted from submitting a satisfactory health examination certificate and a police criminal record certificate issued by their country of origin. However, applicants will still need to provide the original ROC (Taiwan) police criminal record certificate for the most recent five years (valid within three months of issue).

Please refer to NIA’s Instructions on Document Submission by Foreigners Applying for Permanent Residency ,

Note: If your situation requires a foreign criminal record certificate, the original certificate for the most recent five years issued by the applicant’s country of origin (valid within one year of the date of issue, including the Chinese translation) must be provided. Also, a foreign criminal record certificate shall be the national record of the applicant’s country of residence. For example, the police record of a U.S. citizen must be issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Should you have concerns or questions regarding your police criminal record certificate, please contact your local National Immigration Agency Service Center .

A perfect application takes 14 working days. If you are asked to provide additional supporting documents, expect 30 days.

No, you must submit an application.

For the 3-year calculation period of permanent residency, you must reside in Taiwan as a Gold Card holder. If your original ARC has met the requirements of Article 25 of the Immigration Act , it can be combined with your Gold Card status, but the total number of years required to apply for permanent residency is 5 (e.g., 3 years with a foreign professional ARC plus 2 years as a Gold Card holder).

Article 25 of the Immigration Act

Holders of Employment Gold Cards from Hong Kong and Macau are currently not eligible to apply for permanent residency.

If you have any questions about residency or settlement in Taiwan, please contact the Taiwan-Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Co-operation Council for more information.

o Phone Number：(02)2700-3199 o Fax：(02)2700-3200 o E-mail：careyou@thec.org.tw o Address：3F, No.2, Alley 17, Lane 147, Section 3, Xinyi Road, Da’an District, Taipei City, Taiwan 106 o Website

Note: According to Article 24 of the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals, matters related to entry, stay, and residence for Hong Kong or Macau residents in Taiwan are handled in accordance with the Act Governing Relations with Hong Kong and Macau and its related regulations.

No. The start date for permanent residency eligibility under the Gold Card is based on the issue date printed on the card, not the date you collect the card. As long as your Gold Card remains valid for three years, you reside in Taiwan continuously for three years with an average of at least 183 days per year, and you meet other application requirements, you can apply for permanent residency.

Yes. Foreign nationals with Foreign Specialist Professional status followed by a Gold Card status residing in Taiwan for at least 3 years can apply for permanent residency.

The timeframe for applying for permanent residency is within two years after your three-year legal residency ends, provided you have resided in Taiwan for an average of over 183 days per year during those 3 years. For more information, please refer to the Instructions on Document Submission by Foreigners Applying for Permanent Residency” (7. Note: (1))

If you fail to apply for permanent residency within the 2-year period after meeting the residency requirement for APRC, the application time will be recalculated upon extension of your Gold Card. For instance, if you have obtained a gold card in 2020 and did not apply for permanent residency between 2023 and 2025, while the validity of your extended Gold Card is from 2023 to 2026, you would become eligible to reapply during the two years following the expiration of the 2026 Gold Card (i.e., 2026 to 2028).

You can apply if you meet one of the following conditions:

1. After the Gold Card holder obtains permanent residency, starting from the date of obtaining permanent residency, their spouse, minor children, and children having reached the age of majority or above who lack self-care ability due to physical or mental disabilities, must have legally resided continuously in Taiwan for 3 years, with an average of more than 183 days of residence per year. No financial proof is required for application.
2. Foreign nationals who have legally resided continuously in Taiwan for 5 years, with more than 183 days of residence each year, and who meet the requirements of Article 25 of the Immigration Act, may apply for permanent residency (Note: Adult children are eligible under this route.) Please note: If a Gold Card holder has a Ph.D. degree from Taiwan, one year of residence requirement may be waived. However, this waiver does not apply to the Gold Card holder’s dependents. For more details, please refer to the guidelines for submitting permanent residency applications.

(English) (Chinese)

For Gold Card holders, a Doctoral Degree Certificate issued by a Taiwanese institution can count towards 1 year of your residency. In other words, a Gold Card holder with a Doctorate Degree (Ph.D.) in Taiwan can apply for permanent residency earliest after residing in Taiwan for 2 years.

These original benefits will not be affected:

• Open work permit (not bound to a certain employer or company).
• Visitor Visas for relatives.
• Spouse and children can apply for residency.
• Eligible for National Health Insurance.

New benefits:

• No need to apply for a work permit.
• Permanent residency application for dependents reduced to 3 years without need of financial proof.
• Adult children who meet certain residency requirements may apply for individual work permits.
• The New Labor Pension Act can be applied. If you are a teacher or researcher, you can choose to receive a one-time pension or monthly pension.

According to Article 19 of the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals and Article 33 of the Immigration Act , the National Immigration Agency of the Ministry of the Interior will revoke or repeal your Permanent Resident Permit and cancel your Alien Permanent Resident Certificate in the following cases:

1. Has left the State (R.O.C.) for more than five years without re-entering.
2. Has submitted false or untruthful information for his/her application.
3. Has used illegally acquired, counterfeited, or altered documents.
4. Has been sentenced to punishments of imprisonment for one (1) year or greater by a judicial authority. However, this does not apply to those who commit crimes due to negligence.
5. Has restored the nationality of the State (R.O.C.).
6. Has acquired the nationality of the State (R.O.C.).
7. Has had the nationality of the State (R.O.C.) concurrently.
8. Has been deported from the State (R.O.C.).

If you do not apply for an extension within the validity period of your Gold Card, you will not be able to apply for an extension and will have to re-apply for the Gold Card.

This means that the Date of Issue for your reapplied Gold Card will continue from the expiration date of your previous card. This means that your stay in Taiwan as a Gold Card holder will be interrupted, which may affect your eligibility to apply for permanent residency.

If you have applied for an extension of your Employment Gold Card, you may apply for an Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) under the reason of “Others (Job Seeking)” at an NIA service counter or via the Foreign Professionals Online Application Platform while waiting for approval. This ARC is valid for up to 6+6 months. Once the Gold Card extension is approved, the validity period of the new Gold Card will align with the expiration date of the original card, ensuring no interruption in the Gold Card validity period.