The Cabinet yesterday proposed easing residency rules for foreigners and Taiwanese without household registration to attract and retain professionals to work in the country in order to address a growing brain drain.
Under the proposed amendment to the Immigration Act (入出國移民法), the Cabinet suggested removing the requirement that foreigners granted permanent resident status spend more than 183 days each year in the country to keep their status valid.
The amendment proposes revoking the permanent resident status of foreign nationals only if they stay overseas for more than five years.
It also recommends exempting foreign nationals who have been issued a “four-in-one” card, known as an “employment pass,” which incorporates a visa, work permit, alien resident’s certificate and re-entry permit, from a rule that requires foreigners to apply for an alien resident certificate (ARC) within 30 days after they are granted the right to stay or reside in the country.
The ARC serves as an ID card and proof of residency for foreign nationals.
If the amendment is approved by the legislature, more foreigners will be eligible to apply for ARCs, including foreigners employed as consultants or researchers by government agencies or their subordinate academic research institutes, or employed at a public or registered private college/university within six months in the field of a course of lectures or academic research approved by the Ministry of Education.
The rules would also apply to the applicants’ spouses, minor children and children aged 20 and above who are single, with disabilities or incapable of caring for themselves.
Another proposal seeks to encourage young foreign talent to work in Taiwan by granting ARCs to foreign students who study, either in college, university, or short-term language courses, or attend an internship program in the country after they have completed their education.
For Taiwanese without household registration, the amendment would ease rules for the offspring of Taiwanese living overseas to apply for residency.
The amendment would remove the current age limit that overseas-born Taiwanese under the age of 20 cannot apply for residency.
In addition, the minimum period of stay for nationals without household registration to apply for residency would be reduced to five years, with no less than 183 days spent in Taiwan per year, from the current seven years.
The amendment would also give greater flexibility for spouses and minors of Taiwanese without household registration to apply for residence status.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
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