Welcome to Part 2 of my quest for dual  citizenship.

If you’re looking for Part 1, in which I obtained my first Taiwanese passport without a national ID back in March 2022, please go to Part 1 of this blog post series.

Back where I left off in March 2022, once the alien resident card (ARC) and 365-day residency requirement was lifted as of January 1, 2024 (I suspect due to the current geopolitical climate), I decided at the end of 2023 that now was the time to finally finish my dual citizenship process. ARC has been replaced with Permanent Resident Card (PRC), and the documents required for PRC are:

1. Health check
2. FBI Report
3. Birth certificate
4. Parent’s marriage certificate
5. Parent’s/relative’s household registration

TIMELINE:

NOVEMBER 2023-APRIL 2024: COLLECTING & TRANSLATING DOCUMENTS

1. Health check:
   • December 2023: Had a check-up appointment with my physician, and reviewed the health check form from SF TECO with her. She then ordered x-rays and blood draws for measles and rubella, as per the requirements from the health check form.
   • 2/9/2024: X-ray done
   • 3/22/2024: Blood drawn for measles and rubella done
   • 4/18/2024: Appointment with my doctor to finish and stamp my health check forms, set to expire 3 months from today.
2. FBI Report:
   • 3/22/2024: Initiated online FBI check
   • 3/27/2024: Fingerprints for FBI summary check went through. I went to USPS to get my fingerprints done
   • 4/3/2024: Mailed off FBI summary, email with PIN, copies of passports, money order, and SASE to TECRO in Washington DC. Their address is Consular Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S., 4201 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20016
   • 4/13/2024: Got the stamped and authenticated FBI report in the mail
3. Birth certificate
   • November-December 2023: Had to notarize an application to request a copy of my birth certificate from the county I was born in, and emailed a PDF scan of the Notarized Authorization Statement for my birth certificate to my county. I went to UPS to notarize my application.
4. Parent’s marriage certificate
   • 12/23/2021: Ordered digital and hard copies from the county my parents married in. I needed this for my passport application, which I wrote about back in my Blog Post Part 1)
5. Parent’s/relative’s household registration
   • I got a hard original copy from my mom back in December 2023 when I visited her in Taiwan. I did not realize that SF TECO needs a copy dated within 3 months of the authorization appointment, so I had my mom get an updated copy dated April 2024 forwarded to me as a PDF. Even though SF TECO prefers original copies, they thankfully accepted this PDF copy I printed out.

After getting all 5 documents, I had to translate all of these into traditional Chinese (because f*** simplified). Household registration was already in Chinese since it came straight from the Taiwanese household registration office. The health check form was already in English/Chinese. Make sure you have a passport photo to put on the form. SF TECO emailed me a Chinese form for my birth certificate that I could just fill out with Chinese translations of all the things required (for example, I had to actually write the Chinese translation of the address of the hospital I was born in). For FBI Check and my parents’ marriage certificates, I used Google Translate and double-checked to make sure everything was accurate with my Dad. Man, Google Translate has come a looooooong way since the 2000s.

With all 5 documents obtained and translated in Chinese, it was time for SF TECO to authenticate all the documents!

MAY 1, 2024: AUTHENTICATING DOCS

No appointment was required to authenticate documents. SF TECO suggested I arrive as early as possible, so I went before 9am, and was #3 in line. I filled out an Application Form For Authentication, and these were the items required for authentication:

1. Birth Certificate
2. FBI Summary
3. Parents’ Marriage Certificate
4. Health Certificate
5. My U.S. passport
6. My Taiwanese passport
7. Both my parents’ Taiwanese passports
8. Postage stamps to get your authenticated documents mailed to you
9. SASE envelope, or just pay for the one they give you
10. $90 (bring cash, otherwise you’ll go through the hassle of Zelle or find an ATM)

Note that the household registration is not required for the authentication appointment. That will be needed for the temporary permanent resident card appointment.

Aside from figuring out Zelle, I’m glad this appointment went much more smoothly than my last appointment. One week later, I got all my authenticated documents in the mail, and was ready to schedule an appointment for my temporary permanent resident card with rep Sabrina Wu, who seems to be the main point of contact for all things PRC-related at SF TECO.

JUNE 12, 2024: APPOINTMENT FOR TEMPORARY PERMANENT RESIDENT CARD

Before my appointment, I emailed Sabrina to confirm that this was everything I needed:

1. Authenticated & translated Birth certificate
2. Authenticated & translated FBI Check
3. Authenticated & translated Health Certificate
4. Authenticated & translated parents’ marriage certificate
5. Household registration
6. My US passport
7. My Taiwan passport
8. Both of my parents’ passports
9. At least $31 cash

Although she confirmed over email everything looked perfect, my appointment at SF TECO could have gone more smoothly. Once I arrived at my 9am appointment time, I was blindsided by being told to fill out a whole new application form in Chinese, AND I needed a passport photo. I had to go to Walgreens to get some passport photos taken, AND pay extra on top of what I was instructed to pay for my appointment. At least I brought extra cash this time. And still had plenty of leftover postage stamps from my last appointment. It was annoying, but at least Sabrina was kind and great to work with, and was understanding of all the effort and time I put into this arduous process.

After everything was processed and paid, now it’s time to wait 6-8 weeks for my temporary permanent resident card to arrive in the mail and look into booking a flight to Taipei within the next 6 months. There was this display explaining the next steps, which boils down to:

1. Enter Taiwan with Taiwanese passport and temporary PRC
2. Take temporary PRC to the service station of the Immigration Agency to exchange it for the real PRC–roughly 3 business days
3. Bring new PRC to the local household registration office closest to the address listed on your family’s household registration to apply for registration and get an ID card–roughly 1 business day
4. Go to Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Bureau of Consular Affairs to apply for updated Taiwanese passport with a National ID number on it, as you’ll need this to leave Taiwan–roughly 10 business days.

Part 3 will take roughly 2-3 weeks once I’m in Taiwan.

Next mission: 6 months to fly to Taiwan and get citizenship. Wish me luck! Stay tuned for Part 3.

P.S. This whole process feels like one big video game quest broken down into smaller quests.