Meant to write this way back in September, but this year went by so fast, I’m getting in this blog post on New Year’s Eve. At last, after years of talking about it and manifesting it, and spending my adulthood being salty about not knowing I could apply for citizenship while I was underage, I now hold dual citizenship with the USA, my birth country and where I’ve lived all my life, and Taiwan!
If you’re new here and are a fellow overseas national considering dual citizenship and want to learn more about my story, please read the previous posts:
Part 1: Getting the passport without National ID
Part 2: Collecting and authenticating documents for Temporary Permanent Resident Card
Picking up where I left off at the end of Part 2, my temporary PRC came in the mail about four weeks after the temporary PRC appointment. To my surprise, the temporary PRC is just a sheet of paper, the Exit-Entry form that you’ll need to present once you get through Immigration at the airport in Taiwan. There’s a section titled “Purpose” that will state your reason for your visit. Mine read 定居, and it translates to “Settle,” or gaining citizenship.
After my employer granted me a 3-week unpaid leave, I booked my Eva ticket for a round-trip visit to coincide with my mom’s visit to Taiwan (shoutout to my 媽媽 and 舅舅 for accompanying me with all my visits in Taiwan!). I wanted to play things safe by spending 21 days in Taiwan. SF TECO told me to book my ticket with my US passport, since my new Taiwan passport is going to be different when I fly back.
Once I got off the plane at Taoyuan Airport, a staff told me I didn’t need to fill out any forms, just head straight to the line for citizens and present both my Taiwan passport and exit-entry form/duplicate of TARPRC (定居證副本) to the immigration officer. Just as SF TECO told me, the immigration officer stamped both my passport and duplicate of TARPRC (定居證副本), confirming my entry into Taiwan.
All the places I need to go to for dual citizenship:
1. Immigration Agency (coming here to exchange my temporary permanent resident card for the real one). Address: 中華民國內政部移民署, 地址：100213臺北市中正區廣州街15號(本署各服務地址)
The day I landed, Sept 2, Monday, I headed straight to the Immigration Agency around 9:15am. The visit was much quicker than I anticipated. I was in and out of there within 10 minutes! They needed:
- My exit-entry form (which was stamped earlier that day when I went through immigration).
- My Taiwan passport (photocopied, they had photocopiers there that you could pay in cash)
- A parents’ Taiwan passport (my mom forgot hers, thank goodness I brought my dad’s!)
They gave me a receipt and told me return Wednesday morning to pick up the permanent resident card. They kept the entry-exit permit, so even if I wanted to, I could no longer use it nor my old Taiwanese passport to exit the country.
Two days later, we returned on Wednesday, Sept 4, picked up the permanent resident card, and headed off to Household Registration .
2. Household Registration (bring permanent resident card to get household registration ID and ID card)
It’s been…not boring, let’s put it that way lol.
We got the paperwork from immigration, went to household registration office, and we got told that my mom’s name is written incorrectly on the paperwork. We had to go back to immigration, get it corrected (they were thankfully efficient, could you imagine trying to get this done at an American DMV?), then headed back to household registration.
Some more few hiccups. Remember all those passport photos I brought? The first was rejected for glare on my forehead, the second rejected for hair covering my ears, and the third one was the charm and was accepted. THEN they asked me to get a copy of my uncle’s household registration. Thank goodness my uncle was just outside the office in his car with a copy of his household registration. Both my mom and uncle were such troopers. Thankfully, instead of waiting one business day, it was completed in about 2 hours. Processing fee was $110 NTD, which converts to $3.42 USD. Now I got my household registration ID card!
3. Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Bureau of Consular Affairs (get updated passport with national ID on it, need this to leave Taiwan). Address: 100219 臺北市濟南路1段2之2號3~5樓（中央聯合辦公大樓北棟）
After treating my mom and uncle to a sushi lunch (I am so ridiculously lucky to have them), on to our third stop!
Once there, the staff advised to take updated passport photos. They said they could try to use my passport photos, but it might risk being rejected and then I would have to come back and redo everything. I decided to just retake my passport photo onsite in a photobooth with agents helping. The auntie who assisted me at my booth helped me bobby-pin my hair above my ears, remarking how my ears are so small they’re barely visible. My ears are really small and lay almost flat against my head, it’s definitely annoying when it comes to taking passport photos (see blog post #1, and my ordeal of having rejected passport photos and needing to get them retaken augh).
Had to fill out a form, used glue sticks they provided at a station to cut and paste passport photos, then take the escalator to the passport application office.
It’s like the DMV here, full of crowds and long lines of people. After we took a number for a place in line, and the agent my mom and I got directed to had a total attitude. We were told it would be 10 business days, NOT CALENDAR DAYS, to process my passport. There was no option to expedite.
As far as timeline goes, this was cutting in cloooooose.
*fast-forward 2 weeks with a montage of me finishing my first draft of my new novel, spending time with family, eating my way through night markets, shopping, playing tourist, etc*
On September 19, Thursday, we returned after 12:30
Everything I expected to go wrong, from long wait time, to one of the staff possibly telling me something was wrong with my passport and I would need more documents and/or delay my flight home, didn’t happen! Phew!
I probably waited fewer than 5 minutes before my number was called. I got both my old (now inactive) passport back, along with my brand-spanking new passport, complete with my updated passport photo and National ID number!
Checked to make sure everything looked correct before leaving.
So happy that at long last, after years of manifesting this, I’m now a dual citizen of my birth country, USA, and my parents’ birth country, Taiwan!
Even with jus sanguinis, there were a lot of hoops to jump through. I’m happy to complete what I set out to accomplish with this 21-day trip in Taiwan, my longest one yet. And hooray, no hiccups at the airport! When I checked in for my flight, I had to present both my US passport (which I booked my flight with) and my Taiwan passports, since I entered the country with my old one and had that stamped. When going through security, I scanned my new Taiwan passport. Once back in the states, when I presented my US Passport at Immigration, I got no questions, just a simple, “Welcome home!”
I’m very grateful I now get to call two countries home. Despite living in California all my life, I’ve always seen Taiwan as my other home country, and wanted to make that connection official. Should my hypothetical future children want dual citizenship for themselves, then they would have that option through me. Who knows what the world looks like then?
And with that, thanks 2024 for a great year!
citizenship.
Jo Wu 