Taiwan Tips #3

MY QUESTION: We were told by many sources that if our son kept dual citizenship if he should happen to travel to Taiwan between the ages of 19-40 (I think those are the correct numbers), he could be held in Taiwan and forced to serve in the military. Do you know if this is true? Can you share any benefits to a child for keeping his Taiwan citizenship?

HER ANSWER: Yes, there is one-year mandatory military service requirement in Taiwan for man at 19 (or postpone to attend college), then all men between 19-40 are in reserve to fight if a war breaks out which is quite unlikely. However, Taiwanese with expat status on their Taiwanese passport gets a 90-day relief. Therefore as long as they leave Taiwan in 90 days they won't be drafted when they live in Taiwan using their Taiwanese passport. My brother lived in Taiwan for 3 years under this status. He had to travel to HK quite often, so he never had issue with that 90-day rule and was never drafted. My brother wanted to live in Taiwan and enjoy the almost free health care under the National Health Insurance, so that was an obvious advantage to use his Taiwanese expat/citizen status. I can't really think of other tangible beneifts, unless you consider his right to vote and work freely in Taiwan as benefits. :) Taiwan actually makes it very hard to obtain a Taiwanese citizenship for the new immigrants, so the benefits of citizenship will be more for people from less developed countries to be able to live freely in Taiwan.
If the citizenship laws are not changed in Taiwan, your son's Taiwanese expat status can be applied and renewed at anytime. There has been talks of repalcing the mandaory military services with an all-volunteer military, so the draft could be a non issue a few years down the road.