Revised regulations on work, residency and tax concessions designed to attract foreign professionals to live and work in Taiwan took effect on Monday, the National Development Council (NDC) has said.
The amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法), which the Legislative Yuan passed in June, expand the professions eligible for the incentives.
Beyond the eight professional fields covered in the original act, the amendment includes national defense and other fields identified by the authorities, with added occupations including teachers of foreign professionals’ children and teachers of experimental education.
In terms of benefits for foreign nationals, the revised act still requires professionals seeking employment in Taiwan to have a master’s degree or above in a specialized or technical field, or to have graduated from a top university, but no longer requires two years of work experience prior to entering Taiwan, except where restricted by law.
Under the revised law, the time that foreign professionals must work in Taiwan before being eligible to apply for permanent residency is shortened from five years to three. The period can be further reduced if a person spends one to two years in Taiwan studying for a master’s or a doctoral degree.
In terms of optimizing social protections and tax concessions, the revised law extends the tax deduction period for foreign specialists from three years to five.
The amendment also allows professionals who are employers or business owners, as well as their dependents, to be immediately covered by the National Health Insurance system, waiving the typical six-month waiting period.
Information related to the act, its sublaws and complementary measures are available at foreigntalentact.ndc.gov.tw and goldcard.nat.gov.tw.
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS