Taiwan permanent residence by investment needs at least NT$15 million

Taiwan treats a business visit, residence as an investor and permanent residence by investment as three separate permits. For the last, the Regulations (Ministry of Justice database, 26 October 2026) say the National Immigration Agency (NIA) may grant it for at least NT$15 million in a business creating jobs for five or more Taiwanese nationals, or at least NT$30 million in central-government bonds, each for at least three years.

Three permits with different tests

What the Act and the Regulations set for permanent residence

Article 25, paragraph 4 of the Immigration Act says a foreign national may apply to the NIA for investment immigration. After review, permission and carrying out the investment, the NIA consents to permanent residence. The paragraph names no amount, and the Act’s last amendment is dated 28 June 2023.

The amounts sit in article 16 of the Regulations Governing Visiting, Residency, and Permanent Residency of Aliens. The NIA may grant permanent residence to an applicant who has invested at least NT$15 million in a profit-seeking enterprise and created jobs for five or more Taiwanese nationals for at least three years, or in central-government bonds with a face value of at least NT$30 million for at least three years.

The database states that the Chinese text prevails where it differs from the English. The NIA’s English notice says exceeding NT$15 million and exceeding NT$30 million, while the Chinese text of the Regulations says at least. Article 16 was not among the articles amended on 30 December 2025 (articles 3, 10 and 19).

Under article 15, applicants under article 25, paragraphs 3 and 4 submit a certificate from the central competent authority or an authorised body. They, and family members applying with them, are exempt from submitting a resident certificate, proof of self-support and police records.

The NIA’s notice for the Alien Permanent Resident Certificate, nicknamed the Plum Blossom Card, is dated 10 April 2024. It lists approval letters from the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Department of Investment Review, three years of tax-compliance certificates and financial statements, and employee rosters showing three years of labour-insurance enrolment. The fee is NT$10,000.

The investment is made under the Act for Investment by Foreign Nationals. The investor applies to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and must have the approved capital remitted in full into Taiwan within the prescribed time. The Vietnamese rules on sending money abroad are covered in an earlier article.

Applicants in Taiwan file at an NIA service station, and those abroad file at a Taiwan overseas mission, which forwards the file. Investment immigrants are not subject to the 183-days-a-year limit when applying. Under the NIA’s guidance, updated 21 April 2026, the permit may later be revoked if residence averages under 183 days a year over the latest five years, unless the NIA agrees otherwise.

The spouse, minor children and adult children unable to care for themselves because of a disability may apply with the investor or after approval, without the age and self-support conditions. Their permits are revoked with the investor’s if it is revoked on grounds the Act lists.

Residence as an investor: a separate permit

Article 23, paragraph 1, subparagraph 5 of the Act covers an investor, or the representative of a foreign corporate investor, with an investment of a certain amount or more that the central authority has approved or recorded. The Act states no figure.

The Bureau of Consular Affairs page, updated 1 May 2024, says a minimum investment of US$200,000 is required under the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ rule on resident visas for foreign investors. The NIA’s residence notice, updated 19 January 2026, asks for the investment authority’s approval letter showing at least US$200,000, issued within the last three months. The Alien Resident Certificate is valid for up to three years.

BOCA says people who enter without a visa or on a landing visa may not apply for the resident visa on the investment ground, and nor may blue-collar workers already in Taiwan. It adds that Taiwan may refuse a visa without giving a reason.

From this residence, permanent residence runs through the ordinary route: five consecutive years of legal residence, with at least 183 days in each. For an investor, the NIA’s guidance asks for the Department of Investment Review’s approval, a company registration showing an investment of US$200,000 or more, and an average annual gross operating profit of at least NT$600,000 over the latest five years.

The fee is NT$10,000 and the stated processing time is 14 days, excluding supplementary steps. The NT$15 million route asks for no resident certificate. This indicates that the US$200,000 residence is not a first stage of it.

Entrepreneur Visa and Employment Gold Card

The Ministry of Economic Affairs reviews Entrepreneur Visa eligibility under directions that the NIA site carries, last amended on 21 October 2022. One ground for an individual is a stake of at least NT$1 million, as owner or manager, in an innovative start-up already set up in Taiwan; others include venture or angel investment, a patent or a competition prize.

First residence is two years, and each extension of up to two years turns on revenue, operating expenses, three full-time Taiwanese employees or another recognised result. The NIA states a processing time of 30 working days, which excludes passport verification and correction periods.

The Employment Gold Card, covered separately, is a talent route. The Gold Card Office, created by the National Development Council, says on its about page: “Qualification is based on an assessment of your professional skills.” The Foreign Professionals Act defines a foreign specialist professional by specific expertise the State needs.

What applies to Vietnamese passport holders

The Act, the Regulations, the NIA’s permanent-residence notices and BOCA’s investment-visa page do not mention Vietnam. The Act lets the authority set annual quotas by country or region for residence and permanent-residence applications but exempts people who reside for investment, and no quota by country appears in any text read.

Entry rules

Vietnam is not on BOCA’s visa-exempt list, updated 17 July 2026, where stays run 14, 30 or 90 days by country. Vietnamese nationals can apply online to the NIA for a Travel Authorization Certificate, valid 90 days, with 14-day stays and at most six entries a calendar year.

The applicant needs a visa or residence document from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, EU and Schengen states, New Zealand, Australia, Japan or Korea, or a Taiwanese visa or resident certificate issued within ten years. Since 14 September 2023, Vietnamese passport holders cannot use a Japanese or Korean document.

A visitor visa for business needs evidence of business activities and an invitation letter. Vietnam is not among the designated countries that BOCA lists for a stricter visitor-visa procedure.

Criminal-record rules

Where a home-country criminal record is required, the NIA names the Vietnamese “Judicial Record No. 2”. The NIA exempts investors and company heads under article 23 from that record, and exempts investment-immigration applicants under article 25, paragraphs 3 to 5. This means the rule matters on routes those exemptions do not cover, such as the ordinary five-year route.

Foreign documents

The NIA’s notices ask that documents made abroad be authenticated by a Taiwan overseas mission, unless article 15-1 of the Document Legalization Act applies. That article covers countries that have signed with Taiwan an agreement abolishing repeat legalisation.

Taiwan does not appear in the Hague Conference’s table of parties to the Apostille Convention, which took effect for Viet Nam on 11 September 2026.

What the record shows about use

A research report prepared at the NIA in November 2020 counts 21 people approved for permanent residence by investment up to the end of 2019, 12 investors and 9 dependants. The agency’s card unit supplied the figures on 10 January 2020, and the report marks its conclusions as the researchers’ own.

The 21 came from seven countries: the United States (8), South Korea (5), Canada, Japan and Malaysia (2 each), and the United Kingdom and Singapore (1 each). Vietnam was not among them.

None was approved under the bond route. The report records one bond application, in 2013, that was not approved because the money used for the bonds had not been remitted from abroad.

What this article has not established

The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ rule that sets the US$200,000 floor for the resident visa was not read; the figure comes from BOCA and NIA pages. The Entrepreneur Visa directions were read from the NIA’s copy, and whether they have changed since 21 October 2022 was not established.

Whether entry on the Travel Authorization Certificate counts as entry without a visa, which BOCA says bars the investor resident visa, is not stated on any page read. BOCA’s notes say Taiwan may deny resident visas to nationals of designated countries but attach no list.

Whether Taiwan has signed an agreement abolishing repeat legalisation with Vietnam was not established.

No count of permanent residents by investment after 2019 was found, and nothing shows whether any Vietnamese national has used the route since. No bill or notice changing the amounts was found in the pages read, and whether any is pending was not established. No single official text sets out when in the sequence the permanent-residence application is filed against the three-year period.

Whether a limit on foreign nationals’ purchases of central-government bonds still applies was not established; the 2020 report records a 2010 Financial Supervisory Commission letter capping them at 30% of the funds remitted in.

The Nationality Act was not read, and whether investment immigration leads to citizenship or naturalisation was not established.