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Gold Card Office navigates newcomers to Taiwan
An onboarding booklet that navigates you through daily life in Taiwan is also the work of the Gold Card Office. “For newcomers to Taiwan, simple tasks such as where to take the trash can be confusing. We compiled FAQs and completed this onboarding booklet. You can find all sorts of information here, even which online shopping websites to visit,” said Jonathan Liao, project director of the Taiwan Employment Gold Card Office.
Launched in 2018, the Taiwan Employment Gold Card is a 4-in-1 card that includes a resident visa, work permit, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC), and re-entry permit. As of 2021, skilled professionals from over 62 countries applied for the Gold Card. Taiwan has received growing popularity from expats, ranking 1st out of 59 destinations for the third year in a row in a poll by Expat Insider.
Foreigners in Taiwan encounter a myriad of difficulties, from ordering food in rusty Mandarin skills, renting an apartment, to finding a proper job. Jonathan Liao, project director of the Taiwan Employment Gold Card Office, has been lending a helping hand to foreigners.
Jonathan has considerable cross-cultural experiences, making him the perfect fit for a position at the Gold Card Office. Prior to his tenure at the Gold Card Office, Jonathan founded FutureWard, a co-working space dedicated to foreign start-ups in 2016. “During that time, I helped foreign start-up co-founders in Taiwan to take care of their visas, and also played a role in navigating new life in Taiwan. That is when I saw the importance of providing an integrated information platform,” said Jonathan.
The Employment Gold Card Office, founded by the National Development Council (NDC), serves as a single point of contact for questions about the program and its application process. The NDC got in touch with Jonathan, appointing him project director to promote the gold card scheme, which aims to bring in high-caliber foreign talent.
All aboard! Gold card as your personal guide in Taiwan
The Gold Card Office serves as a one-stop service for foreigners who want to apply for the gold card visa. Applicants can get in touch with the office, which act as a bridge between the Taiwanese government and visa applicants. The office smoothes out the application process, as culture and communication nuances tend to arise.
There is a “Gold Card Community” for all card holders to attend. Private dinners are held, as well as happy hour sessions in which participants can exchange their feelings as a newcomer in Taiwan. On a more educational level, gold card holders can attend tax workshops and Chinese lessons to help them prepare better for their brand new life in Taiwan.
An onboarding booklet that navigates you through daily life in Taiwan is also the work of the Gold Card Office. “For newcomers to Taiwan, simple tasks such as where to take the trash can be confusing. We compiled FAQs and completed this onboarding booklet. You can find all sorts of information here, even which online shopping websites to visit,” said Jonathan.
What draws them to Taiwan?
Since its launch in 2018, the Taiwanese government has issued more than 3000 Gold Card, and the majority of which are skilled professionals in fields such as science and technology, arts and culture, law, economy, finance, education, architecture and sports.
As a serial entrepreneur with his eyes set on Taiwan’s steady stream of software talents, US attorney Neil Peretz applied for an Employment Gold Card in 2020. Peretz and his family moved to Taiwan, arranging for his children to attend public schools in Taiwan.
Amid the pandemic, Catherine Chou, an assistant professor of early modern British history at Grinnell College in the United States came to Taiwan. Together with seven other Taiwanese Americans including Gold Card holders, they raised US$50,000 to help out five social welfare groups in Taiwan. Catherine now is planning to get an ID card in Taiwan.
Making the landing process even smoother
A recent survey showed that 97% of gold card holders enjoyed living in Taiwan. Though already a remarkable outcome, Jonathan and the Gold Card Office are looking for ways to improve. Among the top complaints filed by card holders are “opening bank accounts” and “language barriers”.
Newcomers are often frustrated when payments cannot be completed with their go-to online payment accounts such as Stripe. In order to solve this problem, Jonathan said they have set up a workforce to sort out the hassle. By keeping in touch with gold card holders through the Gold Card Office, suggestions are taken in to make further improvements.
“Our next step focuses on solving problems such as troubleshooting opening of bank accounts, sorting out the requirements of business registration and making more available the enrollment of card holders’ offspring at bilingual schools,” said Jonathan.
With more to come
In 2021, already over 1,300 gold cards were issued, continuing the trend from 2020. In 2019, only 358 cards were issued. The sharp increase is a result of the pandemic, in which people fled to Taiwan as it is relatively a safer place to live and work.
“In 2021, though application numbers dropped in May and June due to the COVID outbreak in Taiwan, the momentum picked up once again in August,” said Jonathan. In a nutshell, the upward trend proves that Taiwan is a place with great advantages.
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