You can refer to the articles following Article 1030-1 of the Civil Code. If there is no contractual marital property system between the parties, the principle is to calculate respectively the property value of each party accrued from the beginning of the marriage until the divorce settlement or filing the civil action for divorce. The party with more accrued property should give the party with less property the half amount of the difference between the property values of both parties.

If there is sufficient evidence that the court can believe the other party does have overseas assets, Taiwan courts can include the overseas assets into the calculate of the marital properties and further adjudicate and allocate such assets in their judgments.

You can move the court for the interlocutory attachment prohibiting the other party from transferring his/her assets by provide evidence showing the possibility of the asset transfer, such as the other party disposes his/her assets.  However, a security bond is required which is equal to one tenth (1/10^th) of the attachment amount. For example, if you move the court to prohibit the other party from transferring NT$20 million of his/her assets, you must provide NT$2 million to the court as the security bond. The bond can be retrieved only after the case is close.

Heterosexual Marriage

Effective.

According to Article 46 of Act Governing the Choice of Law in Civil Matters Involving Foreign Elements, a marriage is also effective if it satisfies the formal requisites prescribed by the law of the place of ceremony.

Same Sex Marriage

Effective.

According to Paragraph 2, Article 24 of Act for Implementation of Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 748, laws other than Civil Code concerning conclusion of marriage shall apply mutatis mutandis to a union as stated in Article 2 (i.e. same sex marriage).

Yes.

The required documents are: Identification documents of both parties, Application for Marriage (which should bear the signatures of two witnesses), the marriage status certification documents legalized by Taiwan’s de facto embassy and the Chinese translation of such citification documents. If the foreign spouse married to a Taiwan national, Declaration of the Chinese Name of Foreign Spouse is also required.

According to Article 53 of the Family Act, a court may accept the divorce motion from the parties who:

1. have a domicile in Taiwan or have joint residence within the territory of Taiwan for a duration of more than one year; or
2. either one party of the marriage has habitual residence within the territory of Taiwan for a duration of more than one year; and a decision made by the court of Taiwan is not manifestly likely to be unrecognized in the jurisdictions to which either the husband or the wife belongs.

Where either the husband or the wife meets one of the following conditions, the other party may petition the court for a juridical decree of divorce:

(1) Where he or she has committed bigamy;

(2) Where he or she has consensual sexual intercourse with another person;

(3) Where he or she abuses the other party as to render common living intolerable;

(4) Where he or she abuses the lineal relative of the other party, or his or her lineal relative abuses the other party as to render common living intolerable;

(5) Where the other party has deserted him or her in bad faith and such desertion still continues;

(6) Where he or she is intent on murdering the other party;

(7) Where he or she has a loathsome disease which is incurable;

(8) Where he or she has a serious mental disease which is incurable;

(9) Where it has been uncertain for over three years whether he or she is alive or dead; or

(10) Where he or she has been sentenced to more than six months imprisonment for an intentional crime.

Either the husband or the wife may petition for a juridical decree of divorce upon the occurrence of any gross event other than that set forth in the preceding paragraph that renders it difficult to maintain the marriage, except if either the husband or the wife is responsible for the event, only the other party may petition for the divorce.

Because Taiwan does not adopt “No Fault Divorce” system, if the husband or the wife believes any occurrence of any gross event that renders it difficult to maintain the marriage and the parties are both at fault, the divorce decree may still be petitioned if both parties have the same degree of fault or by the party who is less at fault.

Divorce Agreement

Place：Household Registration

Means：Household registrations may accept the application for divorce agreement from foreigners.

Divorce Decree

Place：Court

Means：Petition with a court. A judge

Divorce Mediation

Place：Court

Means：Either husband or wife may

Starting from the mediation, followed by the court judgment, if mediation is not successful.

Around 1 month after a party files the action, the court will notify both parties of the hearing. The mediation proceeding will commence at this point and will take around 4 months. The proceeding may be extended by the mutual agreement of the parties. The litigation proceeding will not commence, until the parties cannot reach a consensus during the mediation proceeding. The timeframe depends on the complexity of the case. It may take 6 months to 1.5 year.

If the parties agree to divorce, they can file for divorce with the household registration with their identification documents, marriage certification document(s) and the divorce agreement (which shall be signed by two witnesses).

Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan passed “Act for Implementation of Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 748” (the “Act”) on 24 May 2019. Taiwan officially becomes the first country in Asian and the 27th country in the world legalizing same sex marriage. Since that day, same sex couples in Taiwan may apply for marriage registration with the household registration according to Article 4 of the Act.

Due to the pressure from the anti-homosexual groups, the Act limits the same sex couple’s rights to child adoption. According to Article 20 of the Act, while the same sex marriage relationship exists, one party can only adopt the “biological” children of the other party.  Any other form of adoption is not yet allowed (including both parties adopt non-biological child at the same time). This constitutes adoption discrimination.

According to Article 23 of the Act, same sex spouses have right to inherit the property of each other.  The inheritance laws of heterosexual spouses in the Civil Code completely apply mutatis mutandis to sex same spouses. Therefore, in the inheritance part, the rights of same sex marriage and heterosexual marriage meet the requirement of equality.

When the Act was passed, the relevant transnational marriage laws were not amended at the same time. According to Article 46 of Act Governing the Choice of Law in Civil Matters Involving Foreign Elements, the formation of a marriage is governed by the national law of each party. Therefore, the household registrations only allow foreigners whose national law also recognizes same sex marriage to apply for marriage registration in Taiwan.

Same as the above. It depends on whether the foreign partner’s national law recognizes same sex marriage. If yes, they can apply for marriage registration in Taiwan’s household registration. If not, the household registration will refuse the marriage registration.

According to the Article 15 of the Act, the marital property between same sex spouses is completely governed mutatis mutandis by the marital property laws of Civil Code. Therefore, it is the same as heterosexual spouses.

Taiwan’s Assisted Reproduction Act is only open for heterosexual husband and wife. Meanwhile, surrogate mother is not legalized yet, either. If a male same sex couple engages a surrogate mother to give birth to a child, the surrogate mother is still deemed as the mother of the child. No matter the surrogate mother is engaged in Taiwan or abroad, Taiwan’s household registration can only register the child’s natural mother and father (the one who provided the sperm and must also acknowledge the child as his legal child). The other party of the male same sex couple has no legal relationship with the child.

If the national laws of both parties of the same sex marriage recognize same sex marriage, either party may solely apply for marriage registration with Taiwan’s household registration with the relevant marriage certificate documents legalized by Taiwan’s de facto embassy.