The Taipei High Administrative Court has ordered the Ministry of the Interior to rescind its decision to deny a Chinese spouse’s application for permanent residency, calling it an unlawful arbitration that lacked evidence for its claim that she worked long term at a bank linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The court overturned the ministry’s decision based on the findings in a ruling that can still be appealed.
The woman, surnamed Liu (劉), filed a lawsuit with the court when the ministry declined to approve her application for permanent residency, citing her work at state-run Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) from 1983 to 2021, the ruling said.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
Liu married a Taiwanese in 2013 and was issued a resident’s permit by the ministry in 2017 that allowed her to remain in Taiwan through November last year, the court said.
However, Liu complained that her application for permanent residency filed in April 2021 was turned down by the ministry following a meeting in June last year.
The ministry said that her 37 years working at ICBC contravened national security rules because the bank is affiliated with the Chinese State Council and the bank’s chairman heads its CCP committee.
Liu said that she did not serve in any post linked to the CCP or politics, and asked the ministry to rescind its rejection of her application, as it jeopardized her family life in Taiwan, the ruling said.
After delving into the case, the court ruled that the ministry came to its conclusion without conducting an investigation.
The court cited minutes from a ministry meeting stating: “Taking Liu’s family union needs into consideration, her residence permit will not be invalidated, but her permanent residence application will be denied” and that it “should ask the immigration and national security authorities to help probe Liu’s case the next time she applies for permanent residence status.”
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