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After submitting your application

Congratulations on getting the application in.

At this point you will receive an email telling you to pay. If you didn’t get it, check your email address was correct.

You must now go through the payment steps in order for your application to be considered.

click “Online Payment” and select “Permit Payment”, then follow the steps. Fees are non-refundable, even if your application is unsuccessful. However, you will get chances to revise your application and provide additional documents if needed.

After completing the payment, you will receive an email telling you to download your receipt. You will need to print this out to collect your card, so do it now.

Still in the portal, click “Download” and select “Receipt Download”. Enter your application number and today’s date.

The next three steps in the process are: Qualification Assessment, Identity Verification and Card Collection. During these steps, you can check the status if your application by logging in to the portal.

Qualification Assessment

🕑 4-6 weeks

After a quick sanity check by the National Immigration Agency, your qualifications will be assessed. If you login to the portal to check your application status, you will see it go through the following stages:

“Under Review”
“待二審” (secondary inspection)
“Professional Review by Workforce Development Agency”
“Consulting with Ministry of […]” […] being the name of the Ministry in charge of your field ( eg: Ministry of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Science and Technology, etc…)
“Review by the Workforce Development Agency”
“Review by the National Immigration Agency”

What’s happening in the background is:

First, the Ministry of Labor will attempt to sign off on the work permit. If it can do this itself (eg you apply based on the salary criteria and provide the right documents), your application will be swift (one case took just two days).
Most likely, the Ministry of Labor will need call in the appropriate Ministry (eg “Science and Technology) to assist. That Ministry will then create a custom panel of judges who are skilled in your area of application.

This takes some time, and if you are skilled in a niche area expect the application to take longer than 30 days at this stage.

If the status in the portal hasn’t updated in a long time first try contacting the Gold Card Helpdesk. They will probably tell you that the application is with the relevant ministry for your skill set and provide contact details. You can also get a better ETA of how long could take each stage on Forumosa where applicants shared their application status. If not, try to contact the appropriate ministry yourself.

Why was my application rejected with a message about visa type?

You probably received an error message that looks like this: “申請人以免籤證入境，申請時身份類別選擇錯誤，不予許可” This translates to “You entered Taiwan ‘visa-exempt’, but when applying you selected the wrong visa/identity category, application refused.”

Unfortunately, this mistake cannot be fixed, you will have to make a new application and may not get a refund. When starting an application from inside Taiwan, you will be asked what visa you hold. A common mistake is to select “I entered R.O.C. with a visa of which the duration of stay is more than 60 days” because you have a stamp in your passport that says “90 days”. However, unless you explicitly applied for a visa to come to Taiwan, you are probably here under “visa exempt” entry, which was another item on that list.

The NIA looked up your visa status, found it incorrect, and rejected your application. What you need to do now is:

Call NIA, using the phone number on the bottom of the application portal (or the Gold Card Helpdesk) explain what happened and ask for a refund (may not be possible).
Make a new application

What do I do if I’m asked to provide additional documents?

After a few weeks of tense wait, you may receive an email from niasys@immigration.gov.tw that says “After the examination by the department and the enterprise competent authority, the relevant information shall be made up.”.

Your application will be listed under “Application cases of which data to be supplemented”, click “View”.

Up the top of the application will be a block of red text in Chinese and English. It will attempt to explain what additional documents are required. If it doesn’t make sense, call the appropriate ministry contact. They, or the helpdesk should be able to look up your application and provide more colour.

Once you know which documents to upload, prepare to upload them as with your previous application. Additionally, prepare a short statement addressing how you have rectified the “Opinion on the Application”. Select the documents for upload and paste the response in the “Reply Comments” box at the bottom of the final page.

Important: Sometimes using English in the “Reply Comments” box will cause your application to fail to be submitted with a cryptic error.

I applied under a salary provision, but am being asked for additional documents unrelated to this. Why?

Don’t stress. This is normal. You’re applying under a financial requirement, but the relevant ministry still wants to vet your skills. Under some interpretations of the regulations, they are not supposed to do this, but here we are.

Gather up some documents that demonstrate you work in the industry and you’re good at it. Maybe a letter from your boss talking about that time you created that innovative thing, a supporting statement from a professor about how they’re proud of you, a piece of easily digestible work product that has your name on it. It’ll depend on what you’ve got or can create - but get into the mindset of the reviewer and aim to make it as easy as possible to understand why you are a talent. If you feel the need, write a cover letter for your application explaining your skills.