It has been quite a roller-coaster ride while preparing my APRC application. I even had a small hiccup after submitting it. I was born in Taiwan and have been going in and out of the country for more than two decades, and now—finally—I got my APRC.
Here are the documents I prepared:
- Certificate of Employment
- Work permits that I have used over the past 5 years
- Bank statement for the whole year 2022
- Payslips for the whole year 2022
- Income Tax statement
- Police clearance (Taiwan)
- Application form
- One 2×2 picture
- Photocopies of my ARC and both old and new passports
- NT$10,000 APRC application fee
Maybe you’re wondering why I needed to provide my bank statements and payslips. The reason is that my taxable income didn’t reach the required amount for the APRC. However, my gross and net income did meet the requirement. I asked Taipei Immigration HQ, and they confirmed that I could submit my bank statements and payslips as additional supporting documents.
Everything went smoothly at the Changhua Immigration Office when I submitted my application. The staff were friendly, and the process was straightforward. But the real test came after submission.
The next day, I checked my application status online…
Above it said “Under Review,” so all I could do was wait. After about two weeks, I received a call from the Changhua Immigration office asking me to provide documents proving that my parents do not have Taiwan citizenship since I was born in Taiwan. That gave me a bit of a headache because my father had already passed away and my parents had been separated for a long time.
Luckily, my mom still had their marriage certificate. So I prepared my parents’ marriage certificate, my own birth certificate, and my mom’s old passport—each clearly showing that their citizenship is Filipino. I went back to the Changhua Immigration Office to submit the additional documents and began another round of waiting.
Two weeks later, the immigration officer called me again. This time, they needed me to write a Guarantee Letter (切結書) stating something like:
“I, [name], hereby guarantee that my great-grandfather, father, and mother—[their names]—all hold Filipino citizenship and do not have Taiwan citizenship. If any information is found to be untrue, I am willing to take full responsibility,” and so on.
The next day, I returned to Changhua Immigration once again to hand in the guarantee letter.
One week later, I checked my application status online…
Wallah! It said “They are making the card,” which meant my APRC had been approved! I can’t even describe how happy I was when I saw it. Finally—after all the back-and-forth, the documents, the waiting, and the stress—it was approved!
A week later, I checked my application status again…
It said “Approved (waiting to claim the card)” 🥳🥳🥳🎉🎉🎉. I waited a few more days before going to pick it up, just letting the excitement sink in.
For the record, I applied on 11/20/2023 and finally claimed my APRC on 01/17/2024. It took a bit longer than expected because of the small hiccups along the way, but honestly—it was totally worth the wait.
After years of going in and out of Taiwan, countless documents, unexpected requirements, and nerve-wracking status checks, I finally have my APRC in hand. 😀