Moving to Taiwan

January 2021

Hello and welcome! Many people have asked why I quit my job to move to Taiwan so I thought I'd write up a brief.

I'd been considering a move to Greater China for many years. It was a passing thought in high school, but became a concrete thought early in my first year in college. The thought became a certainty early in my third year and it became a question of when and how. Being a citizen (or de facto citizen) of Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland China, or Taiwan all result in citizenship of Greater China.

Hong Kong and Macau both require 7 years of residence before applying for de facto citizenship and the terms of residence are very strict (where you can't leave without documentation/approval and must be sponsored by an employer or school for the entire duration). Mainland China doesn't even allow naturalization or dual citizenship. Taiwan's nationality laws are more complicated and vague in comparison and I hadn't realized that I (as a ROC national by birth) am able to obtain citizenship in about one and a half years.

I had originally considered moving to Hong Kong later on in my career to obtain de facto citizenship, but although it made sense in my mind, my gut feeling is that it wouldn't work out/it is too risky (as losing your job in year 6 of the 7 year residence requirement means starting all over). I still may reside in Hong Kong in the future as I have enjoyed my time there, but the restrictions of residing to obtain permanent resident status didn't sound too comforting. I don't want to be relying on my employer for 7 years to legally reside somewhere. Recent volatility in Hong Kong (and the world) has also brought to light the possibility that application processing will be slowed down or cancelled as countries such as Panama and Singapore have done for their respective foreign national naturalization programs. All these programs are legally worded such that meeting all requirements gives one the right to apply for (de facto) citizenship, not the right to obtain (de facto) citizenship. 

For some reason I had never fully considered Taiwan until late October of 2020, but after some in-depth research I realized my situation and my gut instinct told me to go all in. Now with my decision set I am moving through the steps to obtaining ROC (Taiwan) citizenship!

Be sure to follow me on my journey!