Article 1 Acquisition, loss, restoration, and revocation of the nationality of the Republic of
China (hereinafter referred to as the ROC) shall be subject to the provisions of this
Act.
Article 2 A person shall have the nationality of the ROC under any of the conditions provided by
the following Subparagraphs:
1. His/her father or mother was a national of the ROC when he/she was born.
2. He/she was born after the death of his/her father or mother, and his/her father or
mother was a national of the ROC at the time of death.
3. He/she was born in the territory of the ROC, and his/her parents can’t be ascertained
or both were stateless persons.
4. He/she has undergone the naturalization process.
The provisions of Subparagraphs 1 and 2 in the preceding paragraph shall be also
applicable to those under the age of 20 at the time of the amendment and implementation
of this Act on February 9, 2000.
Article 3 Foreigners or those without nationality who currently have a residence within the
territory of the ROC while meeting the requirements of the following subparagraphs may
apply for naturalization:
1. Have legally resided in the territory of the ROC for more than 183 days each year for
at least five consecutive years;
2. Have the capacity to act in accordance with the laws of the ROC and the laws of their
own state.
3. Have no bad conduct, and have no criminal records as certified by the Police Clearance
Certificate.
4. Possess enough property or professional skills to support themselves or lead a stable
life;
5. Possess basic proficiency in the national language of the ROC and basic knowledge of
the rights and obligations of ROC nationals.
The “no bad conduct” as prescribed in Subparagraph 3 of the preceding paragraph shall
be determined by the Ministry of the Interior based on the procedures, mechanisms under
periodic review, and other methods to be complied with as discussed by invited experts,
scholars, and social justice personnel.
The standards for recognition, testing, exemption, fee charging, and other matters to be complied with, relate to the “basic proficiency in the national language of the ROC and
basic knowledge of the rights and obligations of ROC nationals” as prescribed in
Subparagraph 5 of Paragraph 1, and shall be determined by the Ministry of the Interior.
Article 4 Foreign nationals or stateless persons who currently have domicile in the territory of
the ROC, meet the conditions prescribed in Subparagraphs 2 to 5 of Paragraph 1 of Article
3, and have legally resided in the territory of the ROC for more than 183 days each year
for at least three consecutive years, may apply for naturalization if any of the
following circumstances apply:
1. If they are married to an ROC national, they are not required to meet the conditions
prescribed in Subparagraph 4 of Paragraph 1 of Article 3.
2. They have divorced an ROC national due to domestic violence and have not since
remarried, or their ROC spouse has died and they have not remarried and can
demonstrate they remain in contact with family members of their deceased spouse.
However, those who had been married to an ROC national for at least two years before
his or her death are exempted from the requirement concerning contact with family
members.
3. They support their children who possess ROC nationality and who are legally
incompetent or have limited legal competence, exercise rights and obligations on
behalf of such children, and meet and interact in person with them.
4. They have at least one parent who is or was an ROC national.
5. They have been adopted by an ROC national.
6. They were born in the territory of the ROC.
7. They are the guardian or assistant of an ROC national.
Foreign nationals or stateless persons who are unmarried minors, whose (adoptive) father
or (adoptive) mother is an ROC national, who have legally resided in the territory of the
ROC for less than three years, and who do not meet the conditions prescribed in
Subparagraph 2, 4, and 5 of Paragraph 1 of Article 3, may apply for naturalization.
Article 5 A foreign national or stateless person who now has a domicile in the territory of the
ROC, if meeting the requisites provided in Subparagraph 2 to Subparagraph 5 of Paragraph
1 of Article 3, under any of the conditions provided by the following Subparagraphs, can
also apply for naturalization:
1. He/she was born in the territory of the ROC, and his/her father or mother was also
born in the territory of the ROC.
2. He/she has legally resided in the territory of the ROC for more than 10 consecutive
years.
Article 6 A foreign national or stateless person who has made special contributions to the ROC but
doesn’t meet the requisites provided in Subparagraphs of Paragraph 1 of Article 3, can
also apply for naturalization.
Preceding permission of naturalization by the MOI shall be approved by the Executive
Yuan.
Article 7 Unmarried minor children of a naturalized person may apply for accompanying naturalization.
Article 8 A foreign national or stateless person who applies for naturalization files the application
with the MOI and shall acquire the nationality of the ROC from the date of the permission.
Article 9 Foreign nationals applying for naturalization shall provide a certificate of loss of
original nationality within one year from the day of approval of naturalization or from the
day of reaching the age at which they may renounce nationality under the law of their
original country.
Failure to submit a certificate of loss of original nationality within the prescribed period
shall result in the revocation of the approval of naturalization. However, an application
for a deadline extension may be filed in the event of inability to submit said certificate
due to legal or administrative restrictions of their original country as verified by the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Foreign nationals shall not be allowed to reside in Taiwan prior to the submission of a
certificate of loss of original nationality as prescribed in the preceding two paragraphs.
Foreign nationals may be exempted from submitting a certificate of loss of original
nationality if any of the following circumstances apply:
1. They apply for naturalization pursuant to Article 6.
2. They are high-level professionals in the technological, economic, educational, cultural,
art, sports, or other domains who have been recommended by the central competent
authority, whose specialties are deemed to serve the interests of the ROC, and who have
been approved through a joint review organized by the Ministry of the Interior and
conducted by relevant agencies and impartial individuals.
3. They are unable to obtain a certificate of loss of original nationality for reasons not
attributable to them. Standards to define high-level professionals as referred to in
Subparagraph 2 of the preceding paragraph shall be prescribed by the Ministry of the
Interior.
Article 10 Naturalized foreign nationals or stateless persons have no right to hold the following
government offices:
1. President, vice president.
2. Legislator.
3. Premier, vice premier or minister without portfolio of the Executive Yuan; president,
vice president or Grand Justices of the Judicial Yuan; president, vice president or
members of the Examination Yuan; president, vice president, members or auditor-general of
the Control Yuan.
4. Personnel specially appointed or designated.
5. Deputy Minister of each Ministry.
6. Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, minister extraordinary and plenipotentiary.
7. Vice minister of the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission.
8. Other government offices shall be compared with personnel holding selected ranks above
the thirteenth grade.
9. General officer of the land, navy or air force.
10. Local government office position elected by the people.
The foregoing restrictions shall be lifted after 10 years from the date of naturalization,
but if otherwise provided by any other act, the provisions of that act shall prevail.
Article 11 Nationals of the ROC under any of the following conditions may lose their nationality of
the ROC with the permission of the Ministry of the Interior:
1. Incapable persons or persons without legal capacity who, undertaken by their foreign
father, mother, adoptive father or adoptive mother who exercise their rights and
obligations in possession or guardianship, shall acquire the same nationality as their
foreign (/foreign adoptive) parents due to their need in living with their foreign
(/foreign adoptive) parents outside the territory of the ROC;
2. Be the spouse of a foreigner;
3. Those with legal capacity in accordance with the laws of the ROC who voluntarily acquire
foreign nationality. However, if subject to the control of assistantship shall they must
obtain the consent of their assistant.
The minor children mentioned in the preceding paragraph who were married before the
amendments to the provisions of this Act came into force on December 29, 2020 shall be
entitled to the pre-amendment provisions of the Act after the implementation of the
amendments to the Act until they reach the age of 18, if they are still under 18 years old
after the implementation of the amendments to the Act.
Article 12 For a person who applies to lose his/her nationality according to the preceding Paragraph,
under any of the following conditions, the MOI shall not permit the loss of nationality:
1. A male from January 1 of the next year after he was 15 years old, who is not exempted
from military service and has not fulfilled his military service. But nationals, who
reside overseas and were born overseas, and have no household registration in the ROC or
moved overseas before December 31 of the year they were 15 years old, shall be excluded.
2. He/she is in active military service.
3. He/she now holds a government official of the ROC.
Article 13 Under any of the following conditions, a national who meets the provisions of Article 11
shall not lose his/her nationality:
1. He/she is a criminal defendant under investigation or trial.
2. He/she was sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment and the sentence has not been
completely served.
3. He/she is a civil defendant.
4. He/she is the subject of a court judgment or administrative order and the judgment or
order has not been fully executed yet.
5. He/she was pronounced bankrupt and his/her rights were not restored.
6. He/she is obligated to pay overdue tax or arrears of tax penalty.
Article 14 For a person who loses the nationality of the ROC according to Article 11, during the time
he/she has not acquired the nationality of another country, his/her loss of nationality
may be withdrawn with the permission of the MOI.
Article 15 For a person who loses the nationality of the ROC according to Article 11, if he/she now
has a domicile in the territory of the ROC and meets the requisites provided in
Subparagraph 3 and Subparagraph 4 of Paragraph 1 of Article 3, he/she may apply for
restoring his/her nationality of the ROC.
The preceding Subparagraph shall not apply to naturalized persons and their children
naturalized concurrently who lost the nationality of the ROC.
Article 16 Minor children of a person who has restored his/her nationality of the ROC may apply for concurrently restoring their nationality of the ROC.
Article 17 A person who applies for restoring his/her of the nationality of the ROC according to
Article 15 to Article 16 shall file the application with the MOI and shall have his/her
nationality of the ROC restored from the date of permission.
Article 18 A person who has had restored the nationality of the ROC has no right to hold the
government offices provided in the Subparagraphs of Paragraph 1 of Article 10 within 3
years from the date of restoration of the nationality, but if otherwise provided by
another act, the provisions of that act shall prevail.
Article 19 In addition to the revocation of approval of naturalization pursuant to Paragraph 1 of
Article 9, naturalization or loss or restoration of ROC nationality may also be revoked by
the Ministry of the Interior within two years of discovering any circumstances that are
not in conformity with this Act. However, naturalization or loss or restoration of ROC
nationality may not be revoked if five or more years have passed since it took effect.
The time restriction on revocation as described in the preceding paragraph does not apply
to persons who, in accordance with a ruling by a judicial court, have been found to have
become naturalized ROC nationals by colluding to conclude a fraudulent marriage or
adoption.
Before revoking naturalization or loss or restoration of nationality, the Ministry of the
Interior shall convene a review panel to accord the person concerned an opportunity to
state his or her views. However, this shall not apply to the revocation of approval of
naturalization in any of the following circumstances:
1. Pursuant to Article 2, it has been determined that the person concerned possesses ROC
nationality.
2. It has been determined by a final ruling of a judicial court that the person concerned
has become a naturalized ROC national by colluding to conclude a fraudulent marriage or
adoption.
The review panel referred to in the preceding paragraph shall be composed of
representatives of competent authorities, impartial individuals, experts, and scholars,
who are selected and appointed by the Ministry of the Interior. Neither gender shall
constitute less than one-third of the review panel members, while impartial persons,
experts, and scholars shall not constitute less than half of the review panel members.
The formation, review criteria, procedures, and other matters pertaining to the review
panel referred to in Paragraph 3 shall be prescribed by the Ministry of the Interior.
Article 20 A national of the ROC who acquires the nationality of another country has no right to hold
government offices of the ROC. If he/she has held a government office, the relevant
authority shall discharge his/her government office; a legislator shall be discharged by
the Legislative Yuan, government service personnel elected by the people of a
municipality, county(city), township(city) shall be discharged by the Executive Yuan, the
MOI, or a county government respectively, a village chief shall be discharged by the
township(city, district) office, but the following Subparagraphs shall not be subject to
this restriction if provided by the competent authorities:
1. Presidents of public universities, teachers who concurrently serve as administrative
governors of public school of all levels, principals, vice principals or researchers
(including researchers who concurrently serve as governors of academic research) of
research organizations (bodies) and principals, vice principals and contracted
professionals (including part-time governors) of social education or culture bodies
established with the approval of the competent administrative authority of education or
culture authorities.
2. Personnel in public-operated utilities other than the persons who take primary
decision-making responsibility for the operational policy.
3. Non-governor positions focusing on technology research and design regularly engaged
through contract by various authorities.
4. Commissioners without position engaged through selection for consultation only
according to the organizational law by the competent authority of overseas Compatriot
affairs.
5. Otherwise provided by other acts.
Persons in Subparagraph 1 to Subparagraph 3 of the preceding Paragraph shall be limited to
talents who have expertise or special skills difficult to find in our country and occupy
positions not involving state secrets.
Government services of Subparagraph 1 don’t include teachers, lecturers and research
personnel, professional technical personnel who do not concurrently serve as
administrative governors at all levels of public schools.
If a national of the ROC who concurrently has the nationality of another country wants to
hold a government office limited by nationality as determined by this Article, he/she
shall handle the waiver of the other country’s nationality before taking office, and
complete the loss of that country’s nationality and the acquisition of certification
documents within 1 year from the date of taking office, but if otherwise provided by
another act, the provisions of that act shall prevail.
Article 21 （Deleted）
Article 22 The enforcement rules of this Act shall be enacted by the MOI.
Article 23 This Act shall come into force from the date of promulgation.
The amendments of the articles to this Act made on December 29, 2020 shall come into force
on January 1, 2023.