This fact might be surprising to those who've known me for a while, considering that I first moved to Taiwan in 1999, and that aside from three years spent in the States I've lived here continuously since that year.
Long story short, it was easier just to renew my marriage visa every 1-3 years. Around the end of June or July every school year we were always in a hurry to get to the States, and it was just easier to fill out a form and renew the marriage visa as opposed to going "all in" and getting the APRC.
This "APRC," I should add, is the Alien Permanent Resident Certificate. Foreign residents can apply for one if they've lived here long enough, and have all the required paperwork. In my case it was the paperwork that always tripped me up, given that you have to submit a lot of photocopies to the Bureau of Immigration. I could have gotten that paperwork in order long ago, but I was both lazy and in a hurry to be gone.
What blew my mind about this process was looking down at my new card and not finding an expiration date. I've been operating within a one- to three-year "immigration window" for so many years, and now, suddenly, I have a card without an expiration date. It's a very odd feeling, knowing that I only need to return to the immigration office if I want to update my picture or if I renew my U.S. passport. Otherwise I'm free as a bird, able to ignore that office at will.
After picking up my newly minted APRC I thanked the office staff profusely, half afraid they'd change their minds and take it back. Afterward I stepped outside and stood in the parking lot for a while, wondering why everything around me looked different. I suppose I was feeling a sudden sense of ownership over, or perhaps a sense of belonging to, this place. Everything around me looked exactly the same, but different.
Some of those reading this entry might be able to relate. I'm not, after all, the first expat I know to get an APRC. I am in fact one of the last. Most of my longer-term expat friends got their APRCs years ago, and they were often puzzled why I waited so long to get mine. I guess I like to take things at my own pace. Besides, forms and government offices make me nervous.
Alien Permanent Resident. It has a ring to it, you know? Feels almost like a new lease on life, or an old mode of existence somehow made new. True, I'm still not a citizen, And true, I still can't vote, but I do feel more a part of Taiwan, even though I'm not a Taiwanese passport holder.
Why no passport, you ask? Why no citizenship? To many fellow expats the answer to these two questions will be obvious, but to many of my Taiwanese friends and coworkers it's not so clear. I'm often asked by Taiwanese people if I can vote, primarily because they conflate having an APRC (or even an ARC) with having a passport and being a citizen. I do my best to explain the situation, though the nuances are hard to pin down.
By way of brief explanation, in order to gain a Taiwanese passport I'd have to give up my American passport, and doing so is not a matter to be taken lightly. Giving up your American passport entails a period of statelessness while your Taiwanese passport is approved, and this period of statelessness can involve serious inconveniences if the approval process takes a long time.
There's also the matter of visiting my home country as a foreign national, which is something I'm unwilling to do at this point. Even with Trump as President I still like being an American, and I hope that I can be proud of being so again. Will I ever move back there? Probably not, but I'd rather remain an American just the same. I might be the father of two Taiwanese citizens, and I might be the husband of another, but I'd prefer to retain my American citizenship regardless. It's just part of who I am.
There's also Taiwan's own status to consider. Barring the willingness to "man the barricades" and potentially go down with the ship, I don't think I have any call to claim citizenship in this country, especially when Taiwan often questions its own status with regard to China. Taiwan's uncertainty in relation to its own identity isn't likely to be dispelled anytime soon, and in the absence of a national consensus (thanks, KMT), forsaking one's own citizenship for the sake of becoming fully Taiwanese seems a risky proposition. I can't say I haven't considered it, but at the present time I don't think it's for me.
Dual citizenship? Sure, but that's not an option right now.
All of which leaves me, the permanently resident foreigner, happy to finally have an APRC, and happy to still be living in Taiwan. I don't know how you feel about this island, but it's given me a great deal, and I can only hope that I'll have more chances to give back to it in the future.
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