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Letter: PARC paperwork a farce

Having lived in Taiwan for seven years, I decided to convert my Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) to a Permanent Alien Resident Certificate (PARC). To do this you have to produce certain documentation. Could somebody from the government step forward and explain why I need this documentation?

For example: I need a criminal record certificate from my country of origin, stating that I have taken part in no criminal activity in that country during the last five years. Now, as I have lived in Taiwan for the last seven years, it must be pretty obvious that nothing would show up. If, as I do, you hail from the UK, you are required to fill out a form to apply for this record. On the form it asks for your permanent address. As I live in Taiwan I must write my Taiwanese address. But if I do, it will get sent back to me asking for my permanent address in the UK, which I don't have as I live in Taiwan. So to obtain my criminal record I must lie and put a fake address. Does this not defeat the object of obtaining the certificate?

Second, I need a medical health certificate. As by law in Taiwan, if you have lived here for more than three months, health insurance is required, it follows then that if I had been sick or ill, the local health system would have been treating me for the last seven years and would have a record. If they are insinuating that I had been sleeping around and contracted AIDS, then I am sure my wife would have something to say about this, not to mention the fact that I would have caught it here as I have been living here for the past seven years.

Third, I have to produce my household registration. Again, as I have lived here for the last seven years with my Taiwanese wife (married for four years), are the authorities now saying that my wife and I are homeless and living on the street? My address is written on my ARC (and has already been verified). Why do I have to prove this all over again?

Surely converting an ARC into a PARC should be a simple matter of using the stamps in my passport to prove that I have spent the requisite number of years in Taiwan. I have already produced all the other documents in order to obtain a job, get married and get an ARC. Why do I need to produce them again when I have lived here permanently for the last seven years? The whole process seems pointless.

Alun Arnold
Tainan
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