South Korea 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
| South Korea | Taiwan | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | $ 61 452 | — |
| Citizenship | 5 years | — |
| Partner can work | no | — |
| Parents | difficult | — |
| Pets | difficult | no trouble |
| Pet limit | 5 | no limit |
| Quarantine | 10 days | no |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 999 · estimate | $ 915 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 40,9 | $ 47,6 |
| Life expectancy | 83.63 | 80.8 |
| Homicides/100k | 0.49 | 0.61 |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 6 | — |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: South Korea — 91, Taiwan — 154. Types present in both: work, study, family, investment, startup, talent, repatriation, job seeking and working holiday. Taiwan adds: remote work and retirement.
Fees, thresholds and deadlines
South Korea: fees range from 60 to 90 USD. Routes stating an income threshold: 1; the lowest is 1,500,000,000 KRW a month. 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: both after 5 years. Citizenship: South Korea after 5 years; the other country publishes no term.
South Korea in brief
South Korea combines a developed technology economy and low violent crime with a formal points system for long-term residence (E-7 → F-2-7 → F-5) and substantial restrictions on dual citizenship and on a spouse working. Parents, your own or a partner's, can only get the temporary renewable F-1-15 visa with no right to work. Natural hazards are moderate — seasonal typhoons and monsoon floods, earthquakes rare; the notable problem is air quality, the worst among OECD countries.
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
South Korea or… Japan · Thailand · Kazakhstan · Lebanon · Uzbekistan · Malaysia · Azerbaijan · Philippines
Taiwan or… Bangladesh · Kuwait · Iraq · Mongolia · Oman · People's Republic of China · Sri Lanka · Singapore
More on each: South Korea · 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.