1. In accordance with the "Regulations Regarding Study and Counseling Assistance for Overseas Chinese Students in Taiwan", the term "overseas Chinese student" refers to a student of Chinese descent who has come to Taiwan to study who was born and lived overseas until the present time, or who has been living overseas for six or more consecutive years in the immediate past and obtained permanent or long-term residency status overseas. Please note that a minimum of eight consecutive years of overseas residency is required if the person is applying to study in a university department of medicine, dentistry, or Chinese medicine in Taiwan.
2. The term "overseas” refers to countries or regions other than, the Mainland Area, Macao, and Hong Kong.
3. The reference to “consecutive years” regarding residency overseas means calendar years in each of which an overseas Chinese student has not spent more than 120 days in Taiwan. When calculating the number of consecutive years spent overseas, if the initial or final year of the period is not a complete calendar year, any time spent in Taiwan in the initial or final year must not exceed 120 days. However, time that a person has spent in Taiwan is not subject to this restriction and is not counted when calculating how long they were in Taiwan in a particular year if in that period of time the overseas Chinese student has:
(1) attended an overseas youth technical training course conducted by the OCAC or a technical professional training program accredited by the central competent education administration authority;
(2) attended an activity held by the OCAC or an activity recognized by the OCAC that was held by a government agency, or taken a Chinese language course provided by a Chinese language education institution which has been approved by the competent authority to recruit students overseas, and the person has spent a total period of less than two years undertaking such activities or courses;
(3) spent a total period of less than two years in Taiwan as an exchange student;
(4) spent a total period of less than two years undertaking an internship that they came to Taiwan to undertake with the approval of the designated central competent authority;
(5) returned to Taiwan to do military service and has been enlisted and served;
(6) stayed in Taiwan because they were unable to return to their country of residence because of war, some natural disaster, or a major outbreak of some infectious disease; or
(7) stayed in Taiwan because they were unable to return to their country of residence because of some other matter that the student was not responsible for and they have documentary evidence of this.
4. Having the right to live overseas as a citizen or permanent resident, or having “overseas Chinese” status indicated on an R.O.C. passport may be used for documentary proof of having “obtained permanent or long-term residency status overseas”.