The Home and Border Commit-tee of the Legislative Yuan has passed a draft amendment to the nationality law, allowing children of Taiwanese women married to non-Taiwanese to obtain ROC citizenship. The nationality law, which has not been altered in 70 years, currently grants citizenship only to children fathered by an ROC national.
The amendment will now go on to second reading in the legislature.
The amendment is meant to put gender equality into the law. Over the years, the number of Taiwanese women marrying non-Taiwanese has increased. The children of such marriages have faced the problem of having to move overseas once they become adults because they lacked ROC citizenship.
The new amendment will also allow foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens, male or female, to become naturalized, if they have lived in Taiwan for at least 183 days per year for three consecutive years.
Under the amendment those people who hold dual nationality, one of which is the ROC, will be able to head public universities, academic institutes or research institutions. However, it must be proven that the dual national has a specialty or skills that cannot be matched by local citizens.
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