Nearly five years ago, when Taiwan’s National Development Council (NDC) announced that the uniform identification numbers (UINs) printed on foreign nationals’ Alien Resident Certificates (ARCs) would soon more closely resemble the ID numbers assigned to citizens, Larry Johnson was “excited and hopeful.”
“I really thought that all the ID-card number problems would be solved and that foreigners would have the same online rights as Taiwanese citizens,” says the Seattle native, referring to a long-standing complaint about the pre-2021 system. Because the system assigned identification numbers different from those issued to citizens, foreign residents were often unable to access even the most basic daily services — from making online purchases to booking tickets or using digital kiosks in convenience stores.
Despite early optimism, “there’s been no positive difference whatsoever,” laments Johnson, who has written in detail about the ramifications of the reform on his website, www.foreignersintaiwan.com.
Having to trek to banks and other places to update UINs in the post-2021 system “has wasted innumerable man-hours and imposed costs, not including time off from work, for foreign residents who had the misfortune to come to Taiwan before 2021,” he explains.
And when they try to conduct business online, noncitizens continue to face barriers. “I still run into systems that don’t accept foreigners’ ID numbers, most notably the vehicle [license] plate tax and vehicle emissions tax payment platforms,” says Johnson. “It appears that it’s still up to each system’s manager to manually allow foreigners’ ID formats.”
If the inconvenience is frustrating for him, it is far more consequential for Carrie Kellenberger. The former chairwoman of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan requires frequent hospital treatment for Axial Spondyloarthritis, a form of arthritis that affects the spine, and associated medical complications.
A beneficiary of recent reforms allowing foreign residents to claim disability benefits, Kellenberger had a frustrating experience earlier this year, shortly after receiving her disability certificate. All her attempts to log in to Hsinchu County Government’s Smart Welfare Service Platform failed.
Her husband, John, drove to the welfare center to ask why. “They brought out their tech guy to try and figure out why we couldn’t access the online portal,” she says. “He took one look at my new certificate and said the system isn’t set up for non-Taiwanese ID numbers, and they have no reason to change it because there aren’t many foreigners with disability certificates.”
“This means any time we need info or to apply for a service, we must go there in person,” she says. “It’s ironic that the online platform, which is supposed to be accessible, isn’t accessible. It kind of defeats the purpose of applying for the certificate.”
Johnson and others suspect that such difficulties persist because a key distinction remains between foreigners’ Uniform ID Numbers and those of citizens. Both begin with an English letter denoting a city or county — “A” for Taipei City, “F” for New Taipei City, and so on — followed by nine digits. For Taiwanese citizens, the first digit indicates gender, with 1 for men and 2 for women. For noncitizens, however, the numbers start with 8 or 9.
Back in 2021, when Johnson saw negative comments by foreigners who had converted their UINs, which until then had used two letters and eight digits, he thought it might take the government a month or two to sort things out. “But then someone pointed out that the numbering system was still fundamentally different,” he says. “So my opinion now is that the change was totally useless. It seems like a stunt to show they were doing something to help the community.”
Despite the obvious divergence, the NDC’s January 2, 2021 announcement of new UINs for noncitizens asserted that the change would resolve the previous problems, “marking a new milestone in creating a friendly environment for foreign nationals in Taiwan.”
Taiwan Business TOPICS asked the NDC why the government decided that noncitizens’ genders should be indicated with 8 and 9 rather than 1 and 2. The NDC passed this and other questions to the Ministry of the Interior’s National Immigration Agency (NIA), which declined to explain the discrepancy. The agency also did not disclose how much the transition to the new UIN system cost the government, nor did it offer guidance to foreign residents encountering public or private sector systems that fail to recognize the updated numbers.
Rollout and reality
For foreign nationals who attained residency status before 2021, the transition to new UINs has been incremental. Replacement ARCs (issued when the holder is granted an extension, changes their address, or for another reason) show the new-style number on the front, with the previous number noted on the back. According to the NIA’s emailed statement, of the more than 970,000 individuals who held old-type UI numbers, over 87% have received their new numbers as of the end of September 2025. Most of the others currently live overseas.
Responding to a request for examples of any progress that has been made, the NIA said the revised numbering system “allows for easier recognition and acceptance across public and private sectors and improves access to everyday services for foreign persons in Taiwan.” The NIA added that it has “actively coordinated with relevant government agencies to improve systems.”
Transportation companies, including Taiwan High-Speed Rail, Taiwan Railways Corp. (TRC), domestic airlines, and intercity bus operators, now accept ticket bookings using either the old or new UINs or a passport number, according to the NIA.
In the fields of finance and taxation, the NIA notes that the tax filing system accepts both old and new UINs, “ensuring prior records remain intact.”
The agency adds that the Financial Supervisory Commission has instructed banks to “establish non-physical mechanisms for updating customer records, replacing the need for in-person visits. Instructions are provided bilingually on each bank’s website.”
However, such mechanisms were created too late, or inadequately publicized, to save some long-term foreign residents from having to go to every institution where they have an account.
Marie, an English teacher living in Hsinchu County who prefers not to give her full name, says that the only bank she didn’t need to visit to update her UIN was MegaBank. Her experience at Sinopac was fairly painless, thanks to decent in-branch customer service.
By contrast, the experience at Taiwan Cooperative Bank was “aggravating,” because she was initially told she needed to close her account, set up a new one, and then wait for a new ATM card. She says Cathay United Bank was even worse, despite Marie having been a customer for over 14 years.
“They wanted to make me wait a week, saying the paperwork had to go to Taipei for approval,” she says. “My clear annoyance resulted in the manager intervening. They finally agreed to give me the card the following afternoon, so it still was a two-day process.”
Updating her scooter registration at the local motor vehicles office was “very quick and easy,” she says. Amending her car registration was more complex, as it required the approval of the finance company that holds her car loan. Marie first had to update her paperwork with the lender, which then issued a stamped form approving the update to the car’s registration, even though the ownership remained the same.
Despairing of what she calls “redundant” requirements, she says: “Having the old number on the back of the ARC should make updating every single thing unnecessary, but in reality, it doesn’t. You still need to do it.”
Tammy Turner, an American permaculture designer and educator who’s lived in Taiwan for 39 years, says that the UIN change “impacts everything tied to your ID, and this by itself caused me over 100 hours of form-filling and communication with various entities.”
Her health card was the easiest document to update, but it still required paperwork and an in-person visit, she says. When it came time to inform her banks about her new UIN, which she received in February 2024, there was no apparent alternative to physically visiting each one.
“We definitely looked into it and didn’t find anything like that,” she says, adding that — based on her long experience with local banks — even if online or mail options theoretically exist, she would expect them to still insist on in-person verification.
Because she owns a multilingual communications technology business, Turner also had to update her company’s registration details. Even after that is done, she explains, the new UIN does not automatically get applied to everything connected to the business. Licenses, for example, have to be updated one by one.
According to the NIA, the Ministry of Labor, “through its system linked with that of the NIA, automatically updates labor insurance records for individuals who have switched to the new UINs.” Turner’s experience suggests this is a recent improvement.
She remembers updating her details at the Bureau of Labor Insurance as relatively straightforward, “but it was tedious, as the folks there have to add your new number to a list of past numbers — I’ve had a total of three because of an earlier ID-number format change. Thank goodness we have copies of every passport and ARC we’ve ever had!”
Asked if she has noticed any upside to having a new UIN, Turner replies: “None. Even the promise of various systems being able to handle the ID format has been very hit and miss.”
Outside the system
Requesting anonymity in case his opinions jeopardize his application for permanent residency, a European living in Taipei calls attention to the authorities’ insistence that foreigners change their numbers, “yet we’re still blocked by many systems.”
A recent experience, however, prompts him to say that people who would like to feel at home in Taiwan (he considers himself one of them) actually face a more serious problem: the exclusion of long-term foreign residents from many public or private programs. When he tried to register for Taiwan Railways membership, which would entitle him to discounts and other benefits, every attempt was rejected. Guessing this could be because his UIN differs from citizens’ ID numbers, he telephoned the TRC. They told him that only Taiwanese nationals can become members.
“So it wasn’t a technical problem, but a policy problem,” he says. “The feeling of exclusion is a weight on my shoulders, especially when I think I do more than my share for society. I’ve made an effort to integrate, I’ve opened a company, which helps families here, and I pay a decent amount of taxes. TRC has a public-service role and should be inclusive. We’re not talking about something sensitive like voting.”
ARC holders who have not yet received their new UIN should apply to the NIA before January 1, 2031. After that date, old UINs will be invalid. They will no longer function in government systems, and critical private-sector services like online banking may also be affected.
