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I had to leave California (been there 6 years). I was lucky because I had four other room mates to keep me company but even with that it was tough. I also wasn'

I had to leave California (been there 6 years). I was lucky because I had four other room mates to keep me company but even with that it was tough. I also wasn't really enjoying what I was working on at my previous company (adtech) and needed a change. I ended up moving to Taiwan a few weeks ago. Zero COVID here, and was surprisingly easy to immigrate (coming from someone who was dealing with the US immigration system as a Canadian). Working at a fun startup back on the consumer product side instead. Went to a bar for the first time in a year last week and was able to just sit in a coffee shop with 10 other people this morning. I'm still teaching myself to read/speak Chinese but it's totally worth it. Anyone with experience with TypeScript/React interested in tagging along to Taiwan, send me an email (my email is in my hacker news profile). I'm actively hiring engineers now. We're a distributed team across many different countries but a few of us hang out in Taipei together at a coworking space. It's the best of both worlds, I'm able to WFH when I feel like it but still go to a public space to be around people

qmmmur 6y ago
Christ this sounds unbelievably nice. I'm quite jealous (as someone in the UK right now whose home is Australia...) I've heard inequality is quite bad in Taiwan - you can see a whole range of people living completely different lives including severe squalor. What have you observed?
- jameshush 6y ago
  I'm in the nice part of Taipei, I've seen drastically more inequality and squalor in Los Angeles than here. Especially post-COVID, my old apartment was in the Brentwood area and it's BONKERS how much more homelessness there is. All in all, living standards seem very high, I haven't seen much homelessness in my day to day (especially compared to USA), but I've only been here for a month so maybe I've been in a bubble.
jedberg 6y ago
That's really great! I had a friend who did the same thing. We had a FaceTime while they walked around the city with no masks. It was surreal. FYI for anyone interested, if you make $67,000USD a year, you can go to work in Taiwan too: https://taiwangoldcard.com https://taiwangoldcard.com
- bogomipz 6y ago
  Have you done this then or know anyone who has? I'd be interested to hear your experience with the process.
  - jameshush 6y ago
    This is _exactly_ what I did. Experience was great. SUPER easy. Took me about 2 months. Cost $300, filled out one form online, and sent a copy of my USA 2020 tax returns showing my income. Super, super easy. If you're even KIND OF thinking about going I'd just apply today. You have nothing to lose and don't have to go if you don't want to. It gives a lot of flexibility.
    - bogomipz 6y ago
      Thanks. This might be a silly question but did you redact your social security number from the tax return you submitted? Also do you have a link to the official site you used?
- drcross 6y ago
  Same in Sweden up until very recently. They didn't have a mask mandate or restrictions for the longest time yet are only 15th in deaths for all of Europe.
  - blub 6y ago
    With the minor difference that in Taiwan you're safe from the virus and in Sweden you're absolutely not.
yibg 6y ago
Taiwan’s borders aren’t closed to non nationals?
- strstr 6y ago
  Friend of a friend did the same thing as GP. I believe it “just” requires visa approval and quarantine.
- jlokier 6y ago
  A lot of countries with borders closed to non-residents for pandemic reasons still allow those with residency in. So if you can do the paperwork to get residency, you can usually get in to your new home.
vmception 6y ago
I'm considering Taiwan too, any idea how Africans are treated, in Taipei? I get the impression there are more black Africans than black Americans there. I recall some issues on mainland China with people violently scapegoating disease on them and anyone with dark skin. In most countries I've lived in nationality carried more weight than simply color. I just want to go to music festivals lol, Ultra Fest are you kidding me!?
- seanmcdirmid 6y ago
  Nationality actually is important in China as well. African Americans for example are treated much better than Africans (eg Chadians). However, taxi drivers might not be able to tell (though they do discriminate based on skin tone, this can affect south Asians as well).
- hker 6y ago
  (Disclaimer: not living in Taiwan.) My impression is that Taiwan embraces multi-culture and multi-race better than China—though both are dominantly Han. As for Black experience in Taiwan, especially Taipei, you may be interested in [1]. [1]: https://international.thenewslens.com/article/141610 https://international.thenewslens.com/article/141610
  - vmception 6y ago
    Thanks, I read some similar things although not as recent.
- autarch 6y ago
  My wife is Taiwanese and over time I've heard some anti-black racist stuff from some members of her family, almost all from older members of the family (people who are in their 70s and 80s). I'm not sure exactly where it comes from, though my instinct is to blame American media. I'm white myself, so this doesn't come up much with me. I mostly noticed it when some of her family visited us in the US. I would expect much less of this from younger people, as Taiwan is probably the most socially progressive country in East Asia. That said, Taiwan is pretty homogeneous, so a foreigner of any color will be a rarity, and I suspect Africans are relatively uncommon among foreigners. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Taiwan#Foreign_residents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Taiwan#Foreign... for an actual demographic breakdown.
mikeho1999 6y ago
I concur 100% about Taiwan. I am a US-born Taiwanese-American who lives in San Diego most of the time, but we spend most winters here in Taiwan to visit relatives and try and get mandarin language immersion for our kids. Since we're all WFH and remote school anyway, we decided to spend an extended period of time this winter to ride out the pandemic. If you're able to do so and are interested, I'd highly recommend it, since like the OP I have enjoyed being able to go out to eat dinner, hang out at coffee shops, etc. To answer a few questions that have been raised so far: * Unfortunately, Taiwan is now closed to non-residents. You are not able to come here on a visitor's visa anymore. However, as another poster mentioned -- it's relatively easy to apply to get a Gold Card (https://taiwangoldcard.com/ https://taiwangoldcard.com/). As long as you can document income above about $67k USD/year (the actual requirement is to be above $160k TWD / month), you should be able to get it. The process is normally supposed to take about 30 days... but since there has been so much interest in the program over the past year, I believe the process is now taking 45 ~ 60 days. * If you have a spouse / children that you want to bring with you, the process will take even longer -- you can only apply for your spouse/kids resident visas after you get the Gold Card. This process usually takes an additional 2 or so weeks. * Everyone who comes in is required to undergo a 21-day quarantine restriction. It's a 14-day strict quarantine (where they monitor you and call you at least once a day), and then a 7-day "self" quarantine after that. (Although there are rumors that they may increase the restrictions on the 7-day period) * For the specific question about race -- if you are African / African-American, IMO you likely wouldn't see much in terms of direct, hostile racism. OTOH, I would imagine that you would likely encounter racialism -- https://www.huffpost.com/entry/racism-and-racialism-are-_b_6368010 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/racism-and-racialism-are-_b_6... is a good article distinguishing it. There's a lot more I could post about the experience about coming out here and what life is like once you're here (especially as a software dev / digital nomad) -- but in the interest of brevity, I'll stop for now. But if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me.
bogomipz 6y ago
Congrats on the new gig. How has finding housing been? Any tips for other considering a similar move. Someone else mentioned the Gold Card visa. Have you heard or met anyone there that has used that?
- jameshush 6y ago
  I got the gold card. Super easy. Filled out a form online and uploaded my 2020 usa tax return proving my income. You don't even need a job lined up. 100x easier than moving to the USA. It took about 4-5 hours of my time and 8 weeks of waiting for the government to approve it. I got really lucky. I had a friend of a friend who I moved in with. He found his apartment through an agent who speaks English. Send me an email if you end up making the plunge and I'll connect you with our agent. If you're considering a similar move: just do it. For real. It's not going to get any better any time soon internationally. It's easily the best decision I could have made. If you're worried about money either get a remote dev job or even just teach English here, there's a million schools around. It's incredibly cheap to live here compared to metro USA ($3000 USD/month gets you an upper class life, all in, including dining out, gym, drinks etc. You'll probably spend less than that if you even remotely budget). You can live a great life as a single person on even less than that.
swyx 6y ago
left NYC for Singapore here, its basically Taiwan that speaks English. covid under control. happy to answer any qtns.

qmmmur 6y ago

Christ this sounds unbelievably nice. I'm quite jealous (as someone in the UK right now whose home is Australia...) I've heard inequality is quite bad in Taiwan - you can see a whole range of people living completely different lives including severe squalor. What have you observed?

jameshush 6y ago
I'm in the nice part of Taipei, I've seen drastically more inequality and squalor in Los Angeles than here. Especially post-COVID, my old apartment was in the Brentwood area and it's BONKERS how much more homelessness there is. All in all, living standards seem very high, I haven't seen much homelessness in my day to day (especially compared to USA), but I've only been here for a month so maybe I've been in a bubble.

jedberg 6y ago

That's really great! I had a friend who did the same thing. We had a FaceTime while they walked around the city with no masks. It was surreal. FYI for anyone interested, if you make $67,000USD a year, you can go to work in Taiwan too: https://taiwangoldcard.com https://taiwangoldcard.com

bogomipz 6y ago
Have you done this then or know anyone who has? I'd be interested to hear your experience with the process.
- jameshush 6y ago
  This is _exactly_ what I did. Experience was great. SUPER easy. Took me about 2 months. Cost $300, filled out one form online, and sent a copy of my USA 2020 tax returns showing my income. Super, super easy. If you're even KIND OF thinking about going I'd just apply today. You have nothing to lose and don't have to go if you don't want to. It gives a lot of flexibility.
  - bogomipz 6y ago
    Thanks. This might be a silly question but did you redact your social security number from the tax return you submitted? Also do you have a link to the official site you used?
drcross 6y ago
Same in Sweden up until very recently. They didn't have a mask mandate or restrictions for the longest time yet are only 15th in deaths for all of Europe.
- blub 6y ago
  With the minor difference that in Taiwan you're safe from the virus and in Sweden you're absolutely not.

yibg 6y ago

Taiwan’s borders aren’t closed to non nationals?

strstr 6y ago
Friend of a friend did the same thing as GP. I believe it “just” requires visa approval and quarantine.
jlokier 6y ago
A lot of countries with borders closed to non-residents for pandemic reasons still allow those with residency in. So if you can do the paperwork to get residency, you can usually get in to your new home.

vmception 6y ago

I'm considering Taiwan too, any idea how Africans are treated, in Taipei? I get the impression there are more black Africans than black Americans there. I recall some issues on mainland China with people violently scapegoating disease on them and anyone with dark skin. In most countries I've lived in nationality carried more weight than simply color. I just want to go to music festivals lol, Ultra Fest are you kidding me!?

seanmcdirmid 6y ago
Nationality actually is important in China as well. African Americans for example are treated much better than Africans (eg Chadians). However, taxi drivers might not be able to tell (though they do discriminate based on skin tone, this can affect south Asians as well).
hker 6y ago
(Disclaimer: not living in Taiwan.) My impression is that Taiwan embraces multi-culture and multi-race better than China—though both are dominantly Han. As for Black experience in Taiwan, especially Taipei, you may be interested in [1]. [1]: https://international.thenewslens.com/article/141610 https://international.thenewslens.com/article/141610
- vmception 6y ago
  Thanks, I read some similar things although not as recent.
autarch 6y ago
My wife is Taiwanese and over time I've heard some anti-black racist stuff from some members of her family, almost all from older members of the family (people who are in their 70s and 80s). I'm not sure exactly where it comes from, though my instinct is to blame American media. I'm white myself, so this doesn't come up much with me. I mostly noticed it when some of her family visited us in the US. I would expect much less of this from younger people, as Taiwan is probably the most socially progressive country in East Asia. That said, Taiwan is pretty homogeneous, so a foreigner of any color will be a rarity, and I suspect Africans are relatively uncommon among foreigners. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Taiwan#Foreign_residents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Taiwan#Foreign... for an actual demographic breakdown.

mikeho1999 6y ago

I concur 100% about Taiwan. I am a US-born Taiwanese-American who lives in San Diego most of the time, but we spend most winters here in Taiwan to visit relatives and try and get mandarin language immersion for our kids. Since we're all WFH and remote school anyway, we decided to spend an extended period of time this winter to ride out the pandemic. If you're able to do so and are interested, I'd highly recommend it, since like the OP I have enjoyed being able to go out to eat dinner, hang out at coffee shops, etc. To answer a few questions that have been raised so far: * Unfortunately, Taiwan is now closed to non-residents. You are not able to come here on a visitor's visa anymore. However, as another poster mentioned -- it's relatively easy to apply to get a Gold Card (https://taiwangoldcard.com/ https://taiwangoldcard.com/). As long as you can document income above about $67k USD/year (the actual requirement is to be above $160k TWD / month), you should be able to get it. The process is normally supposed to take about 30 days... but since there has been so much interest in the program over the past year, I believe the process is now taking 45 ~ 60 days. * If you have a spouse / children that you want to bring with you, the process will take even longer -- you can only apply for your spouse/kids resident visas after you get the Gold Card. This process usually takes an additional 2 or so weeks. * Everyone who comes in is required to undergo a 21-day quarantine restriction. It's a 14-day strict quarantine (where they monitor you and call you at least once a day), and then a 7-day "self" quarantine after that. (Although there are rumors that they may increase the restrictions on the 7-day period) * For the specific question about race -- if you are African / African-American, IMO you likely wouldn't see much in terms of direct, hostile racism. OTOH, I would imagine that you would likely encounter racialism -- https://www.huffpost.com/entry/racism-and-racialism-are-_b_6368010 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/racism-and-racialism-are-_b_6... is a good article distinguishing it. There's a lot more I could post about the experience about coming out here and what life is like once you're here (especially as a software dev / digital nomad) -- but in the interest of brevity, I'll stop for now. But if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me.

bogomipz 6y ago

Congrats on the new gig. How has finding housing been? Any tips for other considering a similar move. Someone else mentioned the Gold Card visa. Have you heard or met anyone there that has used that?

jameshush 6y ago
I got the gold card. Super easy. Filled out a form online and uploaded my 2020 usa tax return proving my income. You don't even need a job lined up. 100x easier than moving to the USA. It took about 4-5 hours of my time and 8 weeks of waiting for the government to approve it. I got really lucky. I had a friend of a friend who I moved in with. He found his apartment through an agent who speaks English. Send me an email if you end up making the plunge and I'll connect you with our agent. If you're considering a similar move: just do it. For real. It's not going to get any better any time soon internationally. It's easily the best decision I could have made. If you're worried about money either get a remote dev job or even just teach English here, there's a million schools around. It's incredibly cheap to live here compared to metro USA ($3000 USD/month gets you an upper class life, all in, including dining out, gym, drinks etc. You'll probably spend less than that if you even remotely budget). You can live a great life as a single person on even less than that.

swyx 6y ago

left NYC for Singapore here, its basically Taiwan that speaks English. covid under control. happy to answer any qtns.