Changes to work visas considered

The government is willing to consider changing the two-year work experience requirement for foreigners doing white-collar jobs, an official at the policy-making Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) said yesterday.

The American and European chambers of commerce have complained for years that the rules prevent them from hiring and training interns from overseas. Now the government is hoping foreign interns will become ambassadors for the nation.

"If young people can come to Taiwan and understand it more in depth, then in the future they will have a positive image of Taiwan in their minds," CEPD Vice Chairwoman Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) said. "This is a good idea."

Regulations now stipulate that foreign white-collar workers must have a bachelor's degree and two years of work experience following graduation, or a graduate degree and one year's experience, to qualify for a work visa.

The European Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (ECCT) raised the issue of relaxing the regulations in its 2002-2003 Position Paper, published last year.

"For professionals this requirement is fine as they tend to have work experience," Gloria Chow (周恩榮), chairwoman of ECCT's Human Resources Committee and human resources director at Siemens AG Taiwan Branch. "The main problem is interns. Interns are graduates or graduate students who do not have work experience and need to get work experience."

Companies have found ways around the rule, such as paying the intern a salary in their home country, or paying living expenses in Taiwan, Chow said, but these involve complicated accounting procedures.

"The ECCT wants a different category of visa that would allow interns to come for periods of six months. They can receive salaries and pay taxes in Taiwan and more importantly get to know the country," she said.

Chow's counterpart at the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) said the work-visa regulations were interfering with corporate hiring decisions.

"The free movement of human capital is an important issue for foreign companies in Taiwan and for Taiwanese companies here," said Paul Lo (陸浩仁), who is also director of SES Associates, a recruiting firm in Taipei. "The issue is one that the chamber has been pushing for years."

The chambers are facing resistance from the Council for Labor Affairs (CLA). At a meeting between the CLA, CEPD, AmCham and ECCT last week, CLA aide Kung Wen-guang (龔文廣) expressed concern that a change in the work-visa requirements would open a loophole that could be exploited to bring in illegal workers.

Kung was not available for comment yesterday, but Ho said that there have to be some limits.

"Talent is welcome, but the problem is how to tell an ordinary worker from talent," she said.

There may be a way to skirt the problem that would also placate the CLA -- change the requirements altogether.

"Singapore has a more convenient work-visa system which is judged according to salary," Ho said. "More talent draws more salary. Maybe this is something we can discuss with the CLA."