Non-B visa vs Taiwan Gold Card
The Thailand Non-Immigrant B is the visa you enter on to take a salaried job or run a business, and it costs 2,000 Baht for a single entry valid three months or 5,000 Baht for a one-year multiple-entry; a three-year version costs 10,000 Baht. It is not a residence permit and not work authorisation: each entry gives you a maximum of 90 days, and you must be granted a work permit before you start work. The company sponsoring you carries the real burden — to get your stay extended to a year, Immigration requires the employer to hold paid-up registered capital of no less than 2 million Baht and a ratio of one foreign employee per four permanent Thai employees, and you must earn at least the figure set for your nationality (50,000 Baht a month for nationals of European countries, Australia, Canada, Japan and the United States). The Taiwan Employment Gold Card bundles a resident visa, open work permit, ARC and re-entry permit into one card valid for 1, 2 or 3 years, with no employer sponsorship and no job offer needed. The best-known route is salary: several fields accept applicants who have held a position with "a most recent monthly salary of at least NT$160,000" — a figure fixed in NT dollars, so the US-dollar equivalent quoted in guides drifts with the exchange rate. Government fees run NT$3,700 / NT$4,700 / NT$5,700 for one, two and three years on a non-US foreign passport, and holders who then earn over NT$3,000,000 in salary and stay 183 days get half the excess above NT$3,000,000 excluded from income tax for five years.
| Non-B visa | Taiwan Gold Card | |
|---|---|---|
| Country | thailand | taiwan |
| Stay per entry | 90 days | Unlimited entries and exits for the life of the card (1-3 years); it is a residence card, not an entry-limited visa. |
| Total validity | 3 months (single entry) or 1 year (multiple entry); a 3-year multiple-entry version is issued for 10,000 Baht | 1, 2 or 3 years, chosen by the applicant at the time of application |
| Government fee | ฿2,000 — single-entry Non-B with three-month validity; 5,000 Baht for one-year multiple entry; 10,000 Baht for the three-year Non-B. Work permit fees, extension-of-stay and re-entry permits are all separate and additional. | NT$5,700 — three-year validity, foreign passport other than U.S.; NT$3,700 for one year and NT$4,700 for two years. U.S. passport holders applying from abroad pay substantially more, and Hong Kong/Macau residents pay a flat NT$3,100. Non-refundable regardless of outcome. |
| Income required | ฿50,000 — minimum gross monthly salary for nationals of countries in Europe (except Russia) plus Australia, Canada, Japan and the USA, applied at the one-year extension of stay, not at the embassy. Lower bands apply to other nationalities; we have not yet sourced those figures | NT$160,000 — per month, gross (before tax), from a position held in a foreign state or in the R.O.C. Only some qualification fields offer this salary route. The Workforce Development Agency divides your annual tax form by 12 to check the average. |
| Savings required | ฿20,000 — evidence of adequate finance shown at visa application: 20,000 Baht per person, 40,000 Baht per family | None |
| Deposit required | ฿2,000,000 — paid-up registered capital the employing company must hold — a requirement on the employer, not on you, tested when Immigration considers your one-year extension of stay. Representative offices, regional offices and overseas branch offices are exempted from this test. | None |
| Minimum age | None | None |
| Health insurance | Not required | Not required |
| Processing time | Not published | Officially "over 60 business days" for the full process; a clean application is often quoted at about 30 days, longer if supplementary documents are requested. |
| Apply from | Online, from inside Taiwan or from abroad, via the National Immigration Agency's Gold Card portal. |
Choose the Non-B visa if
- Leads to indefinite renewal — the one-year extension can be repeated annually for as long as the job and the employer keep qualifying, and years on a Non-B count toward the permanent residence application
- Your spouse and children under 20 can hold dependent Non-O visas tied to your extension rather than needing their own qualifying job
- A three-year multiple-entry version exists at 10,000 Baht for people who mainly travel in and out for business rather than living in Thailand
- The employer-side tests are relaxed for representative offices, regional offices and overseas branch offices, which are exempted from the capital and financial-statement requirements and only need one Thai employee per foreigner
- BOI-promoted employers route through a separate channel that sidesteps the standard capital and ratio tests entirely
Choose the Taiwan Gold Card if
- No employer sponsorship and no job offer required — the work permit is open, so you can freelance, be employed, or start a company
- One card replaces four documents: resident visa, work permit, Alien Resident Certificate and re-entry permit
- Salary income above NT$3,000,000 gets half the excess excluded from income tax for five years, if you stay 183 days and had no prior Taiwan household registration
- Counts toward APRC residence, and from 1 January 2026 holders earning at least NT$6 million a year can apply for permanent residency after one year
- You can apply from inside Taiwan or from abroad, entirely online
Non-B visa last checked 11 September 2026; Taiwan Gold Card last checked 11 September 2026. Sources are listed on each visa page.