American retiring to Taiwan

Taiwan does not offer residency for retirees.  Countries such as Australia Malaysia and Thailand do. Any previous business you owned in Taiwan is irrelevant and would provide no leverage.

What if the foreigner  owns a business in Taiwan but does not retire as owner?  A Taiwan citizen would run the day to day operations as Director of Operations.  The owner would oversee his function.

It seems extremely odd that Taiwan would want to lose the revenue stream from taxes on the business  and a retiree's personal spending.

Do you know why the government does not want foreign retirees to retire to Taiwan?  Seems odd if they are self supported with a retirement income which is larger than the average income of most Taiwanese? 

Seems like the only country that doesn't including most European countries.  Is it a form of bigotry against Caucasians?

Of course you could ask the authorities if your last point is the reason.

I have a French friend in his mid eighties living in Taipei but he runs a business. His partner or friend is Taiwanese and she told me that it was really difficult to get him residency there. I mean she is well connected but still found it very difficult, but finally they succeeded.

You could try Malaysia or Thailand or Indonesia, they all have some form of retirement visa, and make occasional visits to Taiwan.

Why do you suppose does Taiwan not have a similar retirement visa as Thailand?

Every country has a different policy concerning retirement visas. But for Taiwan i guess you could probably find out as well as anyone especially considering your experience with your news digest website, surely you must have good connections there. However, I will WhatsApp my friend there and perhaps she can shed some light on why the government doesn't offer retirement visas, and I will get back to you if she tells me.

arnie wrote:

Why do you suppose does Taiwan not have a similar retirement visa as Thailand?

Why do suppose they should? Taiwan does not need retirees to move to Taiwan there is no benefit in doing that.

I love how the other person claims their friends have "connections"  lol  We all have connections in Taiwan.  It is not Taiwan that is bigoted against Caucasians for not offering a retiree visa. It's not going to happen. That is a stupid comment.  Taiwan does not offer retiree visa's to non Caucasians as well, secondly the USA is hardly a Caucasian country considering how many different ethnic groups live there.

I basically agree with the above comments Why should a country feel privileged to accept westerners who want to retire in their country? They have no obligation at all. Better find the countries that offer a retirement visa. Also, if you check those countries you will find that some of those countries have high requirements while others are easier. Indonesia is easier but you cannot buy a house there and if you buy an apartment it needs to reach a very high minimum price. Malaysia has a popular retirement program called MM2H and is quite easy too except you need to place quite a sizeable chunk of money into an FD that cannot be touched without special circumstances and they also have a quite high minimum limit on the price that foreigners need to spend on a property.

It's funny the way you say that everyone has connections in Taiwan. The OP obviously doesn't but probably wishes he does

arnie wrote:

It seems extremely odd that Taiwan would want to lose the revenue stream from taxes on the business  and a retiree's personal spending.

Do you know why the government does not want foreign retirees to retire to Taiwan?  Seems odd if they are self supported with a retirement income which is larger than the average income of most Taiwanese?

Even with all your money, those *** don't want your wrinkly butt in their country? What an insolence, bruhuhu! 

while I certainly understand they may not feel the need to make their population age even faster than it does naturally... I wish they would have some retirement visa options available... very impressed with the way they master the nasty virus (to only mention that topic here).

Taiwan has the _least_ birth rate of the world and an aging population. It does not need more old people to compete the social benefit or medical resource. It needs young working force. Taiwan would not change much of their policy to welcome retirees.

If you are hoping to be part of Taiwan medical insurance/benefit umbrella that cost less than 10% of off-the-pocket US medical expense for the same service. Don't. The system is too good to last.

Ja.  It seems this thread became a little ... testy.  I don't understand, but online it happens.  Taiwan could have and probably should have very good reasons for developing a retirement visa program, most of which are sound economically and even geopolitically.  Taiwan can charge for a retirement visa.  Taiwan can charge for its excellent medical care.*  The impetus an international retirement industry would have in Taiwan for related real estate developments would provide a boost to the economy.  I note that some of those would inevitably be better than others, but this will all have to be regulated.  A larger retirement community of internationals would further cement the emotional ties many western voters have with Taiwan and strengthen resolve to help maintain Taiwan's beauty as opposed to its becoming a retirement community for mainland bureaucrats who have screwed every bit of the mainland and Hong Kong into being unenviable as retirement destinations.  It's not all about wrinkly white butts.  It's about fees-paying wrinkly white (and all other colors) butts. 

*I self-paid for medical care in Taiwan.  It was excellent.  It was not charged at nearly enough to cover overhead costs.  I wouldn't say the sky is the limit, but a concerted effort to price medical care in Taiwan at a limited number of hospitals at a price point easy for medical tourists to understand and cover expenses would go very far to helping Taiwan maintain its edge in medical care in the region.  Just a thought. 

You'll probably see my wrinkly white butt there if you look for it anyway, but there is great potential for Taiwan to create a new industry for itself here.

Hell, you could even tax a retirement visa to help pay for local elderly in the rapidly greying isle.

Taiwan has had an excellent medical industry for a long time. I had an operation there in the National Taiwan University Hospital and also another time for torn ankle ligaments after a motorbike accident, aswell as acupuncture treatment. Sure, they could do some kind of retirement program like so many southeast Asian countries have done. But then they could also better promote their tourist industry too, something I've always felt was underdeveloped. But it's really up to them.

Malaysia with it's MM2H retirement program found lot's of foreigners buying property there, not just people on that program but foreigners in general, and many locals were forced out of the market and could not afford to buy in the prime locations anymore. The government there took actions to change that.

I really think it's up to Taiwan to do whatever they think is best for their country. I would love to see a retirement scheme in Taiwan as it's such a wonderful country, but I am sure they know exactly what they are doing.

@arnie if you prefer clean air daily, hourly, minute by minute, and not being awoken by choking half to death then stay away from asian countries, their "traditional" worshipping is 24/7/365.25, and that's no kidding. Also it is difficult/impossible to park near your destination, and pedestrians are not accomodated with safe or clear walkways. And they block store doorways and residences with their vehicles, they including politicians. There is loud beeping everywhere and for every thing that's operated/in-use. Privacy, forget it, there is survelance everywhere.

I got here by marriage, to give her oppurtinity to repair/improve family relations since Nov 17, 2011. Now Nov 2023 it's time to move to a more agree able atmosphere.

I'm in Taichung near the new international public library, we live in a two story rebuilt house, and it's practically impossible not to live near a temple or aneighbor that doesn't have their own burn can to senselessly create huge amounts of choking smoke.

Good Luck!

Oh yeah, electronic signal using gadgets all around, wifi sucks here.