We met Tom Fifield of Taiwan Gold Card when he was in New York City at Passport to Taiwan in May. The Taiwan Employment Gold Card Office had a booth there and he stopped by the Talking Taiwan podcast studio, but the recording conditions were less than ideal since we had a very loud generator nearby. We re-recorded the interview remotely a few months later. Tom talked about how he later became a gold card holder, what he enjoys about living in Taiwan and later became a citizen of Taiwan Tom Fifield works for the Taiwan Employment Gold Card Office at Taiwan’s National Development Council. His main role is to lead a whole-of-government task-force to improve Taiwan’s migration and foreign investment environment.
Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:
- How Tom is from Australia and what brought him to Taiwan initially
- How Tom decided to move to Taiwan and to get Taiwan citizenship
- The myth that foreigners who apply for Taiwan citizenship have to renounce their other citizenship
- What Tom finds so livable about Taiwan
- How Tom became a gold card holder and involved with the Taiwan Employment Gold Card Office
- Where the Taiwan Employment Gold Card Office is located
- The 10 industries eligible to apply for the Taiwan Employment Gold Card
- Why someone should consider applying for the Taiwan Employment Gold card
- The most difficult thing about applying for a Taiwan Employment Gold Card
- What the Taiwan Employment Gold Card Office does and offers
- The Taiwan Employment Gold Card Office’s email address: help@taiwangoldcard.tw
- How the Taiwan Employment Gold Card Office opened in 2020 during COVID
- How Taiwan was one of the few places in the world to have a net migration increase in 2020 during the COVID pandemic
- What Taiwan Employment Gold Card holders have gone on to do and work on
- How Tom also helps others to become naturalized citizens of Taiwan
- Other options for those who don’t qualify for the Taiwan Employment Gold Card
Related Links:
Australian IT expert says Taiwan is no ‘ghost island’ (an article from Taiwan News about Tom Fifield): https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4391842
Taiwan Employment Gold Card website: https://goldcard.nat.gov.tw/en/
Academica Sinica: https://www.sinica.edu.tw/en
The website that Tom created to help others interested in Taiwan citizenship: https://citizenship.tw/
Taiwan’s Presidential Office: https://english.president.gov.tw/
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