The process towards Taiwanese citizenship continues when you are traveling to Taiwan to begin your residency. Keep reading to find out which documents you need to bring with you and what you need to do after you land.

Step 2: Establish Taiwan residency

To become a Taiwanese resident, you will need to first enter Taiwan using your freshly minted no-ID Taiwanese passport that you got in step 1.

Health check

As soon as you enter the country, get to any hospital that does health checks for immigration purposes. I went to Mackay Memorial Hospital and got it taken care of. They don’t take reservations for health checks: just walk in, go up to the second floor to 門診體檢, and they offer health checks for residency applications (外籍人士居留證體檢) from 08:00-10:30 and 13:00-15:30 Mondays through Fridays and 08:00-10:30 on Saturdays. Bring the following papers with you:

1. Three 2” photos (can take for NT$150 at the booth just outside of Hua Nan Bank (華南銀行) just up the street)
2. Two pieces of paper documentation with proof of Chinese name (e.g., Taiwan no-ID passport and notarized and translated birth certificate)
3. Passport (can skip stool and skin tests if using USA passport instead of Taiwan passport)
4. Paper documentation (scan or photo won’t do) of proof of measles vaccination (if not, you have to take a blood test, which increases the health check fee by NT$630 and delays the report delivery time)

I was allowed to pay the fee (base fee of NT$1,350 + NT$630 for measles vaccination blood test) by credit card, and my report was ready for me to pick up in person from the 16th floor nine days after my health check.

Translate and notarize FBI identity history summary (IHS)

You’ll also need to get your FBI IHS translated into Chinese and notarized by the district court. This is contradictory to what the Washington, D.C. TECRO location told me, so be aware of this requirement! I went to Xu Weiyu, who handles both the translation and getting the district court to notarize it (NT$700).

Apply for residency

Within three months of doing getting your health check, head to the nearest Interior Ministry Immigration Office (內政部移民署) with the following:

1. Application form
   • Affix a passport photo (must meet these requirements) to it.
2. US passport
3. Taiwan no-ID passport and Taiwan entry permit
4. Your FBI Identity History Summary (English and Chinese)
5. Health check results (且符合其訂定之)
6. TECRO-notarized English and Chinese birth certificate
7. Original copy of your parents’ household registration booklet or Taiwan national IDs (returned to you after the office makes copies)
8. NT$1,000 processing fee in cash

The date your residency begins is the day the immigration office approves your application, not the date you land in Taiwan or when you submit your application. You can opt to have your residency card mailed (takes about a week) or to return to the immigration office to pick up in person.

Look for my posts about opening a bank account and getting a personal work permit in Taiwan.