To remain international talents, Ministry of the Interior made the “Standards for Identification of Senior Professionals of Naturalization” in March, 2017. Foreigners, except for Chinese citizen and those from Hong Kong or Macau, who are recognized as senior professionals on technology, economy, education, culture, art, sport and other fields can have ROC citizenship without abandoning original nationality after living in Taiwan for at least 183 days a year for 5 years while having no criminal records.
Fyodor is one of the first foreign professionals recognized by this standard. However, while this program seems welcoming for foreign professionals, it actually hard for them to actually apply. During his application, Fyodor even thought he could become person without nationality. What’s wrong?
Fyodor came from the Republic of Kyrgyzstan in middle Asia. He said when Kyrgyzstan was still a part of the Soviet Union they had built great education system. But the low-efficiency of local government and wide-spreading of bribing culture let them ignore the value of talented persons. So many well-learnt persons “fled “to Russia, Europe, America, Malaysia or Singapore for better jobs. He was one the “refuges” after he graduated from the University.
“I was originally going to America and Canada after graduation. Both countries gave me job offers. But they need evaluation when I finally went to American and Canadian embassies. Singaporean evaluation was simpler, just flew over and pass their trial period under travel visa. If they say yes after the trial, they will help you with working visa.”
Just after 911 in 2001, Fyodor’s company closed the Asian division. His colleagues were left in different countries. After years of working in Southeastern countries, Fyodor realized that Taiwan is very suitable for him. So he decided to stay in Taiwan in 2002. There is a five million capital requirement for Taiwanese corporations to hire foreign employees. Fyodor originally wanted to stay as entrepreneur of information security services, but he later found out that you can only establish a company if you’re a Taiwanese here. So he tried hard to find a Taiwanese partner and later on “hired” himself in his own company.
During his career in Taiwan, Fyodor had already been through many information security programs. He is famous between fellow computer engineers and hackers because his outstanding “security” skills. And thanks to his fluent Chinese, he had many friends in Taiwan. In 2007, Fyodor got the right of permanent residency. He started to wish to make Taiwan his second homeland after he had stable relationship here. But to his own surprise, even applying for marriage was a big trail.
“I had to have a Kyrgyzstani proof that I am single if I want to get married in Taiwan. But there is no diplomatic relationship between Kyrgyzstan and Taiwan. I had to apply the document in Kyrgyzstan and verified it in Moscow. The whole thing was very troublesome. When we were about to get married in 2010, the Sino-Taiwanese relationship war getting sour. China demanded Kyrgyzstan not to contact with Taiwan through Moscow. If Kyrgyzstan needs to contact with Taiwan, they have to go through Beijing first. Later we heard we can get married in Hong Kong so we finally accomplished our wish.”
After working in Taiwan for many years, Fyodor said that Taiwan has many good parts such as sufficient governmental services, cheap costs on everyday living, and the society is very open-minded and free. People are nice and value education high. It is all the good things here. He added that for foreigners who are in love with Chinese culture yet disliked communist party and hated bad environment with air pollution, Taiwan is a suitable place to go.
However, he believes that Taiwan still has many things to change if they wish to recruit international talents to come working here. Working visa alone is a bug problem. In Germany, foreign professionals can have the right of permanent residency after two years, and can be naturalized in just four years. It is more attractive for talented people coming with a whole family. As for Singapore, they too have a relatively loose policy on professionals to come. Plus, the information of evaluation on visa, residency right is clear, one can know whether one can get his residency right by just looking at one’s score. It is easier for us to make plans.
Another thing Fyodor mentioned is that Taiwanese corporation culture is still vey “Chinese”. He had a fellow countryman in Taiwan astonished when he found out he had to make tea for his boss while being evaluated on whether being late, the amount of hours working extra. And it is depend on personal relations when deciding who get the promotion. “Chinese culture” not only exists in corporations but also exists in banks and government departments. You have everything done according to regulations when applying for something, but there are always obstacles before you pull some strings to smooth it out. This makes Fyodor very frustrated. He thinks Taiwan needs to value laws and regulations more.
Moreover, Taiwan’s English ability is still behind other Asian countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. It only increases the learning curve for foreigners who can only speaks English. And there are also the health insurance problems. Fyodor said, a foreign couple who had their permanent residency can have health insurance, but their new born children must wait for six months to have it. That is just ridiculous. He was pleased to learn that Taiwan is going to make new laws about it.
We later on discussed startup businesses which Taiwanese government been valued about. Fyodor recalled that his ex-employer (Wayne Huang of Armorize) had pointed out that in America, members of startup businesses are in their 20s or 30s. However, old guys dominated the meetings of startup businesses in Taiwan. In Taiwan, every decision about startup businesses are decided by traditional industries. Their thinking is too conventional and saw nothing but capital value. So they seldom understand what is needed in Technological businesses.
Since 2012, Fyodor wished to become a Taiwanese. Part of the reason was that it is very in convenient to live in Taiwan even for a foreigner with permanent residency. He said, “If you have a green card in America then you are almost like a citizen. But in Taiwan, you cannot buy houses, have credit cards if you have no citizenship. There are many regulations when buying insurances. Banks have some services only for citizens. When Ministry of the Interior asked me why I want to be naturalized when I have permanent residency, I answered them like this. There are companies doing things according to traditions even when there are no legal regulations.”
Yet his road to naturalization was not easy. According to the Law of Nationality of Taiwan, Fyodor must first forfeit his original nationality. However, Kyrgyzstan rejected his application of forfeiting his nationality due to new relationship with China. Fyodor met his obstacles and continued to fail. In March, 2017, Fyodor finally saw hopes again when Ministry of the Interior made released the “Standards for Identification of Senior Professionals of Naturalization”.
“The law stated that I can get Taiwanese nationality first without abandoning original nationality. That is why I can get my new citizenship. But they (the officials) were so conservative. They feared that if I passed the evaluation then I would become the first of my case being approved. There would be a lot of things they don’t know how to handle…even the law states clear. They were afraid that this could become a loopholes. So they rejected me at first. I then seek help from Ministry of Science and Technology and some members of Legislative Yuan to smooth things out.”
In July, 2017, Fyodor received a document from the Ministry of the Interior, speaking that he is qualified to naturalize as Taiwanese according to the Nationality Law Art. 9.4. (2). Thinking that everything was finally over, Fyodor took his document to a local service booth of Immigration Agency and Household Registration Office to apply residency card. Yet he was told that no such document was found regarding his approval and he must become person without nationality for a year. Furthermore, he was told that he must leave Taiwan. It was like falling into hell form heaven for him.
After a long struggle, Fyodor went to other local service booth asking his case without abandoning any hope. Finally, there was someone who understand the newly released law and had found his document record. After a series of checking and evaluation of documents (although he had already passed before), Fyodor finally got his identity card at last.
We can believe that after all these chaos and torments when dealing with officials, this “New Taiwanese” must give little credits on government. In Fyodor’s story, his experience in naturalization proves what he said before, “In Taiwan, there are so many things done according to traditions even when there are no legal regulations.”
