Immigration Hurdles Are Becoming Barriers to Love in Taiwan

It’s been a few years since I spent a leisurely evening with Dušan, who works in the tech industry in Taiwan, and his girlfriend, Mary Grace. The pair met while both were on vacation in Europe and hit it off quickly, ultimately deciding to try a  long distance relationship. Dušan, originally from eastern Europe, took several trips to the US to spend time with her, and she’d visit him while he wasn’t quite as far away. Eventually, Mary Grace flew out to Taiwan for a longer visit to see if what was working at a distance could work in person, too. It did.

The only thing she wasn’t sure of was Taiwan; she’d never been there and it was awfully far away. Dušan loved it here and would prefer to stay. Would she have a good life here, though? Would she make friends? I was already friends with Dušan, and agreed to meet the couple at 23 Public. Over beer flights, we talked about my life in Taiwan as a Western woman married to another Westerner. My 15 years in Taiwan have been overwhelmingly positive; I wouldn’t have stayed this long if they hadn’t. Mostly, we talked about that, and what life might look like for the couple.

Then, they married. Mary Grace temporarily returned to the US for family reasons. By the time everything was in place for her to return to Taiwan, COVID hit. The borders closed not just for tourists and casual travelers, but anyone who wasn’t already a resident of Taiwan – including foreign spouses who had not previously obtained residency.

Eventually, restrictions were lifted for spouses of citizens entering Taiwan, but this change did not extend to spouses of non-citizen residents like Dušan.

Even now, Mary Grace cannot enter the country to be with her husband. After years of working to solve the distance problem, on the cusp of a life together, the couple has still not been able to reunite.

“We got married in Taipei in June 2020,” Dušan said. Then Mary Grace returned to the US to deal with the aforementioned family issues. “Once she sorted out her responsibilities, the May lockdown happened, and now we are patiently waiting.”

Dušan and Mary Grace’s situation is not an exceptional one. In October, long-term Taiwan resident Michael Turton wrote about his own struggles with the restriction for the Taipei Times. He and his girlfriend would like to marry, and both are currently in Taiwan. However, in order to switch from a work to a marriage visa, she would have to leave the country and come back on the new visa. Those new visas, however, are not being issued. If she leaves, she cannot return. If she stays, she cannot leave her job. It was heavily implied by the government workers themselves that the obstacles were greater simply because she is a Southeast Asian woman in Taiwan on a blue-collar work visa.

These actions by the Taiwanese government are quite likely violating their own laws. Some years ago, the Control Yuan issued a statement that past rejections of marriage visas was a legal issue, not a political one, and that affected parties had the right to petition the granting of a marriage visa. They stated quite clearly that under the constitution, families in Taiwan have the right to live together, and it is bad for society to forcibly separate them. Otherwise, the Control Yuan stated, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “violates basic human rights”. 

If the constitution doesn’t guarantee that the marriages of non-citizen residents enjoy the same access to human rights as those of citizens, it ought to. Regardless, the government is not only potentially in violation of its own laws, but it’s also tanking its own stated initiatives. Recently, the National Development Council announced the goal of attracting 100,000 foreign professionals by 2030, the same year as their poorly-named “bilingual nation” goal is meant to be achieved.

2030 is less than a decade away, and COVID is not likely to go away completely anytime soon. How many of those “foreign professionals” do the government think will want to come to Taiwan if they cannot bring their families? Perhaps a Gold Card or some other visa allowing them to enter Taiwan will be handed to eligible professionals, but what about their spouses and perhaps children?

As Turton pointed out in the Taipei Times, this issue runs deeper than COVID. Bureaucratic difficulties for foreign spouses is endemic to the system, and an overhaul of not just requirements and paperwork but general outlook is needed. The necessary change involves a perspective shift, thinking of foreign spouses of both citizens and residents not as outsiders, but as people who have just as much right to be here as their partners. 

Sometimes, these issues also impact citizens of Taiwan. Gary Holgate and his wife – citizens of the UK and Taiwan respectively – find themselves in one such situation. “We married in Hong Kong, Taiwan recognizes the marriage certificate. But the UK rep office can only issue the correct visa with a UK certificate which isn’t obtainable,” he said.

He pointed out that in the past, this wasn’t an issue: one could get the correct paperwork outside the country without a problem. Now, the new COVID-related entry rules require documents that for some, simply do not exist.

“It’s the new rules brought in in September to allow foreign spouses to enter,” Gary continued. “It seems like whoever made the current rules didn’t think it through. Pre-COVID you could do it at any Taipei office outside of Taiwan…Taiwan also recognizes [our marriage] as it’s registered here in Taiwan and I’m in the household registration as a spouse. Just the Taipei office in London can’t use it under the current BOCA rules to issue the correct visa.”

Dušan and Mary Grace are facing a similar hurdle. “Taiwan requires that both countries recognize the marriage, which is easy with Hungary [where he grew up] as they have a central marriage registry, but with the US it’s much more complicated. Apparently a court petition is needed to establish the fact of marriage, then some application to the health department,” he explained.

These cases show a lack of thought for people who should be legally able to enter Taiwan as the spouse of either a citizen or resident, and impact Taiwanese as well as foreigners who call Taiwan home. These foreign spouses are treated as outsiders despite their family status, stuck in a Kafkaesque paperwork spiral not due to intentional cruelty but simply carelessness – a lack of consideration by the Taiwanese government. They have to push for inclusion, when inclusion should be a right by dint of marriage. Once again, this can’t entirely be blamed on COVID. This is a problem of perspective, an “us vs. them” leveled against people who care about this country and want to make it their home, with their family members who already call it home.

The result is not only discriminatory treatment against non-citizen residents in Taiwan, it also prevents citizens from exercising their full human rights to marry who they please, without being separated from their family due to inane laws and regulations which harm individuals and make no logistical sense.

Until this perspective shift happens, Dušan and Mary Grace, Gary and his wife, Michael and his girlfriend and countless others float in purgatory. Perhaps the end of COVID will solve some of their problems, but the perspective issue will remain until the government actively changes it. Human rights should be for all, but to BOCA and other agencies, they appear only to apply to some.