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CLA relaxes regulations on Chinese spouse labor

Chinese spouses waiting to acquire residence rights are soon to be given the opportunity to work in Taiwan, the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) has announced.

Following six months of work, the CLA has finished a draft of regulations for working permits for spouses from China who stay in Taiwan waiting to acquire residence rights.

Under the regulations, working opportunities will open up to Chinese spouses when their applications for residence permits have been accepted or are undergoing review.

Such spouses looking to work in Taiwan must apply to the CLA, which will then decide whether to grant a work permit based on local employment levels and financial conditions of the applicants' families. Therefore, only a limited number of applicants will be successful and there will be limitations on the work the spouses can perform.

The draft regulations also specify the working permits for the Chinese spouses will only remain valid in accordance with the length of their approved visit in Taiwan, ranging from three months to a year.

Filing of new applications is required upon re-entering Taiwan.

Moreover, the CLA draft excludes any applications based on "arranged marriages" between Taiwan and Chinese nationals. Other fraudulent attempts, such as the use of forged documents, are also prohibited, the CLA stated.

Currently, the law which governs the status of spouses from China does not allow them to work before having obtained a residence permit.

In view of financial difficulties of the families of Chinese spouses awaiting residence permits, the legislature amended the law last December to grant them the opportunity to work.

To protect the interests of local residents, the legislature then added a provision which guaranteed that Aborigines first be considered for a job before it can be offered to a Chinese spouse.

Under the amendment, the legislature stipulated that the CLA work out the regulations for administration and approval of the spouses' applications. The CLA's draft is now pending final approval by the Executive Yuan.

Because of the sensitivity of cross-strait ties, the Taiwan government's policies on entry of Chinese spouses has been quite strict.

Residence permits are made available only to those whose marriages to Taiwan nationals are no less than two years old and who have had children with their spouses.

Currently, the government allows 1,800 Chinese spouses to obtain residence permits each year. However, there are more than 840,000 applications already on file.

Chinese spouses have long urged the government to grant residence at a faster rate, so that they will be able to accept jobs and receive benefits under the national insurance program.

In response, the government recently decided to raise the annual number of new permits issued for spouses from China to 3,600 and open up working opportunities for them.
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