How to Read the Expiry Date on Your Taiwan ARC

If your residence permit shows 115/07/29, that is 29 July 2026 — not 2015. Taiwan dates official documents in ROC (Minguo) years: Western year = ROC year + 1911.

The conversion, once

Taiwan counts years from the founding of the Republic of China in 1912, which is ROC year 1. Everything else about the calendar is identical to the Gregorian calendar you already use — the months and days never change. So converting a date on any Taiwanese document means adjusting the year and nothing else.

Formula	Western year = ROC year + 1911
Example	115/07/29 → 115 + 1911 = 2026 → 29 July 2026
Other formats	115.7.29  ·  民國115年7月29日  ·  115年07月29日 — all the same date

Convert any date with the ROC year converter, which also shows the weekday and the formal written form used on paperwork.

Quick reference for current documents

The 2015 trap

The single most common error is reading 115 as 2015. The numbers look similar and the instinct is to see a shortened Western year. But 2015 was ROC 104, and ROC 115 is 2026 — an eleven-year difference. On an expiry date, that error can mean believing a valid permit has lapsed, or that a lapsed one is still valid.

A reliable check: if the year is a three-digit number in the low hundreds, it is a ROC year. No Western year is written that way.

Where the date appears on your permit

Residence permits print several dates, and they are all in ROC years: the date of issue, the period of stay or validity, and the expiry date. Your date of birth may be printed in Western years if you were born outside Taiwan, which means a single card can carry both formats. Read each field's label rather than assuming the whole card uses one system.

Before your permit expires

Convert the expiry date first, then diarise it in Western years so it does not get lost. Extension applications open a set period before expiry, and that window is set by the National Immigration Agency and changes from time to time — check the National Immigration Agency for the current requirement rather than relying on any third-party summary, including this one.

This page explains the date format only. It is not immigration advice and is not affiliated with any government agency. For anything affecting your legal status, rely on the issuing authority.

Frequently asked questions

My ARC says 115/07/29. What date is that?

29 July 2026. The first number is the ROC year, so 115 + 1911 = 2026. The month and day are unchanged. It is not 2015, which is the most common misreading.

Why does my residence permit show a year like 115?

Taiwan dates official documents in ROC (Minguo) years, counted from the founding of the Republic of China in 1912. ROC year 1 is 1912, so the Western year is always the ROC year plus 1911.

Does the month and day need converting too?

No. Only the year differs. The ROC calendar is the Gregorian calendar with a different starting point for the year count, so months and days are identical.

How do I tell a ROC date from a Western date at a glance?

A three-digit year in the range 100–120 is a ROC year for any document issued in recent decades. A four-digit year starting 19 or 20 is a Western year. If the year is two digits and below 100, check the document type: older Taiwanese documents used ROC years without padding.

Where else will I see ROC dates?

National ID cards, driver's licences, household registration transcripts, health insurance cards, bank and insurance forms, rental contracts, tax filings, court documents and product expiry dates.