Brunei or Taiwan
Two countries side by side across the same rows as the full comparison. A dash means the value is missing: fields are not filled with guesses. about the data
| Brunei | Taiwan | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | — |
| Citizenship | 20 years | — |
| Partner can work | no | — |
| Parents | — | — |
| Pets | no trouble | no trouble |
| Pet limit | no limit | no limit |
| Quarantine | no | no |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 946 · estimate | $ 915 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 31,6 | $ 47,6 |
| Life expectancy | 75.5 | 80.8 |
| Homicides/100k | 0.49 | 0.61 |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 2.8 | — |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: Brunei — 19, Taiwan — 154. Types present in both: work, family, investment, talent and repatriation. Taiwan adds: remote work, study, startup, retirement, job seeking and working holiday.
Fees, thresholds and deadlines
Brunei: the fee is 50 BND wherever it is published. Taiwan: fees range from 100 to 4,200 TWD. Routes with no fee: 4. Routes stating an income threshold: 30; the lowest is 26,000 TWD a month. Routes with a published decision deadline: 75; the shortest is 3 days.
Beyond the first permit
Permanent status: Taiwan after 5 years; the other country publishes no term. Citizenship: Brunei after 20 years; the other country publishes no term.
Brunei in brief
Brunei is an oil-and-gas monarchy on the island of Borneo with one of the most closed long-term entry regimes in the world. The grounds for working residence are the Employment Pass, rigidly tied to a specific employer and requiring the employer to hold a Foreign Workers Licence from the Department of Labour, the Professional Visit Pass for select categories of experts, the Dependant's Pass for family members, and the Student's Pass. For none of these categories does the immigration service's official website publish processing times. There is no separate permanent residence status with a published number of years: the closest analogue, the Entry Permit, is granted at the discretion of the Controller of Immigration without an objective criterion. Naturalisation is governed by the Brunei Nationality Act (Cap. 15): 20 years of residence in the country out of the preceding 25 years, an oral exam in Malay before the Language Board, and a decision made entirely at the Sultan's discretion; time spent in the country on temporary passes (including work passes) does not count toward this period unless the Sultan directs otherwise. Dual citizenship is not permitted. There is no personal income tax — the Income Tax Act taxes only the income of legal entities. The country's economy rests on the extraction and export of oil and natural gas. Since 2014 the Syariah Penal Code Order, 2013 has been phased in and is in force; under the code's direct provision (s. 3(1)) it applies to both Muslims and non-Muslims unless expressly stated otherwise, and it includes hudud and qisas categories of offences. The sale of alcohol is banned throughout the country (Excise Order, 2006, s. 73).
Taiwan in brief
Taiwan is one of the few destinations where the primary source is available in full and in official English translation: the Immigration Act sits in the Ministry of Justice's law database, and the animal import rules are laid out page by page on the quarantine agency's site. The structure is simple: the visa is only for entry, and it is the Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) that allows a person to live there — obtained within 30 days of arrival, valid for up to three years and renewable. Permanent residence is granted after five years of residence with 183 days in each of them. The fork that determines everything: workers in the categories Taiwanese law treats as unskilled labour are excluded from this system — neither the resident visa nor permanent residence is open to them, and their spouses cannot obtain a resident certificate. The spouse of a national reaches permanent residence not in five years but in ten. A rule worth knowing in advance: overstaying the card by less than 30 days can be fixed with a fine, but a whole year is then deducted from the qualifying period for permanent residence. Bringing animals is straightforward: there is no quarantine at all where the requirements are met, but those requirements are strict — a microchip, vaccination, an antibody titre of at least 0.5 IU/ml and an application 20 days ahead; Pit Bull Terriers are banned. The country has fewer indicators than the others: the World Bank, the WHO, UNODC and INFORM do not treat Taiwan as a state and publish no data on it, so the indicators section here holds only what Ookla and livingcost provide.
Other comparisons
Brunei or… South Korea · Japan · Thailand · Kazakhstan · Lebanon · Uzbekistan · Malaysia · Azerbaijan
Taiwan or… Philippines · Bangladesh · Kuwait · Iraq · Mongolia · Oman · People's Republic of China · Sri Lanka
More on each: Brunei · Taiwan. Build your own comparison — up to four countries
This material is for reference and is not legal, tax or immigration advice. Visa rules, tax thresholds and prices change. Before deciding anything, check the official sources and consult a licensed professional in the relevant country.