Applying for the Taiwan Employment Gold Card under Arts / Culture as a musician

Be sure to read the previous posts for some relevant background information. Also keep in mind that the Gold Card program is new and still in development. On this date of July 7th, 2021, the following information is still accurate, but be sure to always check updated sources. 

This blog post is about applying for the Gold / Card under the Arts / Culture category. This is the category that I applied for. When I applied I did not have any contacts in any of the government branches that could help me. I mentioned in a previous post that I come from a family with deep political ties to Taiwan. The result of my application comes strictly from the application itself; my family's involvement with Taiwan politics was not mentioned at all.

Of course, some of the information  that I will share may apply to other categories as well. Most importantly, this is about what I personally went through to give some of you folks an idea. As I mentioned a few times already, the Gold Card Office is constantly trying to improve the experience, and things will undoubtedly change as the program develops.

Relevant links:

-Official Taiwan Gold Card site

-The actual site where you make the application.

-Taiwan Gold Card Community site. This is a community site run by Gold Card holders and they are not necessarily directly affiliated with the actual Gold Card program. In other words, for official answers, it is best to refer to the previous sites. Nonetheless, it can be good to interact with those in the community to ask questions about how certain people went about applying.

-Working as a creative professional in Taiwan. Resource for those who want to apply under the Arts / Culture category.

What you need:

-An actual computer. At the time of application, the site was buggy and worked best on an actual computer

-Some kind of word processor. I converted all my documents to PDF.

-Some kind of image editor. The images have to be uploaded in a specific format.

-Not 100% necessary but it would help to have someone fully fluent in Mandarin, and ideally someone in Taiwan. You're supposed to be able to apply the site with only English, but a number of people in the government do not speak English, and communicating in Mandarin can make things a lot easier.

First things first, I did not use a lawyer to apply for a Gold Card. However, the last link I provided is a law firm that seems to be very familiar with the application process for creative professionals. 

Does a lawyer guarantee you success in your application? No. A qualified lawyer will know how to optimize the application process, but ultimately, the government's perception of your application process is what determines whether it will be successful or not. I would hope that a lawyer could at least talk to you and let you know if they think you have a chance.

The government's perception is the key here. As I mentioned in the previous blog post, despite being one of the most progressive societies in Asia, Taiwan still has a fairly old-fashioned conservative way of looking at things. I expect this to change as younger open-minded generations take over government jobs in the future. This conservative way of doing things is not unique to Taiwan, and is very common in east Asia; it is all about red tape and bureaucracy. 

For example, perhaps you revolutionized your industry but don't have a college degree. This could be potentially problematic in east Asian mindsets. Perhaps you are not so good in your industry but graduated from a college deemed prestigious by whomever is looking at your application. In the east Asian way of looking at things, the college graduate will potentially have a better chance.

This is important in the creative industry, as many high level and renowned artists are self-taught or did not necessarily receive formal training. To give you an example, I was told that some in the Ministry of Culture in Taiwan had never heard of Broadway, and an applicant's resume with a list of Broadway work experience was therefore useless.

Those who work in the creative industry know very well that graduating from a school, strangely, does not mean that one is actually skilled in that industry. There are many music schools that will take international applicants based solely on their ability to pay high tuition. Basically, people can buy a diploma. This is far more valuable in current conservative east Asian mindsets than actual work experience.

When it comes to work experience, it is arbitrarily decided what is considered good work experience. I gave the example of the musician with Broadway experience who was not successful in their application. 

You can be successful in pop music but not necessarily be the actual "image" of the pop group. Perhaps you are a sideman and have worked with the biggest names in the industry for years, but solely as a sideman. Even with letters of recommendation, you may be rejected in your application because you are not the actual big name musician. 

So what matters to the government folks? Awards play a big role, and in Taiwan, for musicians, the biggest award is the Golden Melody. The Taiwanese equivalent of the Grammys. If you have something equivalent from your country, then this is a big thing for the government. How many musicians in the USA actually win a Grammy? We all know that such award ceremonies are highly political anyway. As I mentioned in my previous post, in Taiwan, it is very easy to become famous, so it's actually much easier to get the Golden Melody award, provided you play the same political game.

What does the political game mean? For example, in jazz music, there is a tradition of playing what is called "standards". These are songs that jazz musicians like to play and record. They're not actually "covers" but interpretations of compositions. The interpretation can be vastly different from the original composition, and this is a long standing tradition in jazz music. An extreme high level musician who devotes themselves to this tradition is considered old fashioned in Taiwan and is far less likely to get an award than someone who hires a famous musician from abroad to play on their album of originals.

When applying for the Gold Card, you must understand that this is the mindset you will be facing. I brought this issue up with the Gold Card Office. They are aware of this , and are working to get the government folks to be more open-minded and relaxed in the Arts / Culture requirements.

This is important because for political and historical reasons, Taiwan's Arts / Culture scene is in its infant stages. Taiwan needs all the help it can get to develop its cultural scene. A rich culture scene increases tourism, and makes it more appealing for people to want to settle in Taiwan.

So how did I succeed? To be honest, I'm not exactly sure! As I mentioned in a previous post, I chose not to go through a lawyer, because I wasn't that invested in staying here. If I was successful, then great, I don't have to return to Canada which is under heavy lockdown. If I failed, so be it, I go back to Canada.

When you apply for the Gold Card, you do have to pay a fee which will be indicated on the site. The fee depends on how the duration of the visa you are applying for. It can be 1 to 3 years. I chose 3 years which was the most expensive, but it was really affordable: a little over 200$ US.

The site where you make the application was fairly buggy when I started the application process at the end of June 2020. I suggest not doing it on a phone or tablet but on an actual computer. Hopefully, the site can be improved at some point.

I was already in Taiwan when I started the application process and I had to select the type of visa with which I entered Taiwan. This was my first major mistake that ended up delaying my application process. If you are already in Taiwan, make sure you are 100% sure which type of visa you came in on. In my case, it was "visa-exempt". I had selected something along the lines of Tourist visa. This caused my application to be rejected. When you are rejected you are not eligible for an application refund but in this case, they told me they could refund me as many had made the same mistake. It also took close to a year to get my refund. 

If that happens, you have to re-apply, you cannot just change it and, for some reason, they will not change it for you.

OK, so I restarted the entire application process. When you apply under Arts / Culture, you then choose from a list of different subfields. I chose Performing Arts. Finally you have to select your qualifications. I don't remember which one I chose but it will be relevant later.

The site will then ask you to provide a picture of your passport which I took with my phone. It will then ask for "relevant supporting documents" and documents to support the qualification you chose. Again, I forget which qualification I chose.

In the creative industry, these two categories cross over quite a lot so I arbitrarily chose which ones went where. I put my resume and cover letter in the "relevant supporting documents" and some recommendation letters. In the "qualifications" category, I put the rest there.

My resume is like any other resume. It lists all my work experience and accomplishments.

I also wrote an introductory letter that I had translated to Chinese. I talked about my ties to Taiwan and my love for it. I did not mention anything about my father's political ties to Taiwan.  I mentioned that I had my own business, and am already financially independent.

For other documents, I submitted various contracts from festivals that I've performed in the past. Some of those contracts were in other languages and they did request that it be translated to English. I made basic translations and they were accepted. 

I was also successful in applying for the American O1 "Artist Of Extraordinary Talent" visa on two occasions, and I included proof that I had that work permit. I uploaded a picture of my passport with the actual visa. The O1 is one of the most difficult visas to get so I thought it could increase my chances.

In my native Canada, I won some awards. I submitted newspaper articles that proved that I was a recipient of those awards.

I then included a number of testimonial letters from key people in my industry. I included a number of testimonials from some of my high profile contacts in Taiwan, and I am very grateful for their help. If you get a testimonial from someone in Taiwan, make sure that they have the company seal in the letter. This is a standard thing in certain east Asian countries. The company seal in the form of a stamp is crucial. For testimonial letters from elsewhere, a signature will suffice. Be sure to include contact information so they can verify the authenticity of the documents. In my case, they did contact some of my Taiwanese contacts. 

I also uploaded posters of festivals that I played in, newspaper articles (online as well) that talked about my concerts, magazine/online interviews, etc.

All in all, I must have uploaded about 20 PDF documents (including the resume, and cover letter). Most documents were single page or two at most.

So with that done, I submitted my application. This was done in the beginning of July 2020. I received my Gold Card in October. It normally takes a month to get an answer, but this was during the pandemic and they received a surge of applications.

So there are certain details I am not 100% sure about but my understanding is that when you apply for the Gold Card you have to go through the different branches of the government and pass each one. From what I can recall, there is:

-the Ministry of Culture

-the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

-the Ministry of Labor

I think those were the three I had to pass. From what I understand, each government branch convenes a few times a month, and if they're not satisfied with something, they will contact you via the site and ask to submit whatever extra documents they need.

Basically, I got contacted once or twice a month. So from what I understand, they only looked at my case once or twice a month, and if something was missing I had to submit the new documents and they would then review it which would be the following month. This is why things dragged on until October.

The first thing they wanted to know is if I was ever a citizen of Taiwan. I was born and raised in Canada and have never lived in Taiwan so that was easy. I am not sure why they care, but maybe something to do with military service, or who knows? I would assume that if your name was more along the lines of Hakim Johnson, they probably wouldn't even bother asking this question.

Well, this cost me a few weeks, as they didn't look at my application until weeks later.

I forget the exact order of the requests and I might be missing one or two, but the next time, they asked about my resume. They noticed that I had performed in Taiwan on a number of separate occasions and wanted to see the work permits. Luckily, I was able to contact the festival organizer, and he sent me the relevant documents. This was the Ministry of Labor requesting these documents.

This is a huge thing, if you are an artist and have worked in Taiwan without the proper visa, DO NOT include that in your application. There is a lot that can be said about work visas for the creative industry, but that will be for a different post. As I mentioned a few times already, Taiwan has strict labor laws, and the Ministry of Labor doesn't joke around.

It should be noted that the different branches of government don't necessarily interact with each other and while the Ministry of Labor is strict about their visas, other branches not so. Basically there are events sponsored by the Ministry of Culture that invite foreign talents but don't bother to secure the necessary visas for them because it is very easy to enter Taiwan (at least back then). As such people who were actually invited by the government may have been working illegally in Taiwan. For such events, it is the responsibility of the organizers to secure the visas, so the fault is not with the artists. This is something that should be addressed, and some of the labor laws should be relaxed for the creative industry, but again, this is deserving of a separate post.

I am aware of people who have worked in Taiwan without visas and included that work experience in their resume. This is asking for trouble. If that happens, you have to hope you can somehow talk your way out of this situation.

Actually, in my resume, I mentioned that I was a guest performer with a local band on a few occasions, but it was just for fun and I did not ask to be paid (which is true). These were just bar gigs that barely paid anything and when I come to Taiwan, it's just to have fun, and so I did.  They requested that I submit a document in Chinese explaining this. I secured a letter from the venue and the band leader. After a few weeks, they asked me to change one word in the document. It was in Chinese, and it was basically, they wanted the word "wage" changed to "salary". Something along those lines. It is extremely bureaucratic. This cost me a few extra weeks.

At one point, they did contact one of my provided contacts in Taiwan to ask about me. Make sure your Taiwanese contacts are not backstabbers!

Finally, in September, the Ministry of Culture did not agree with the qualifications category that I had chosen and requested that I change the qualification category to "Other individuals so deemed by the MOC".  Again, a very bureaucratic technicality.

Once that was done, I shortly received confirmation that I was approved for the Gold Card! 

I hope this can be of help to those of you in the creative field. As you can see the requirements can be quite vague. I am not exactly sure which documents that I submitted did the trick, and I'm also aware of many highly qualified creative professional who were rejected. I brought this issue up with the GC Office folks.

There is to room for a lot of improvements as Taiwan truly needs all the allies it can get, and it is in their interest to relax many rules to attract highly skilled professionals. I will more about this in future posts.