Draft amendments to the Immigration Law (入出國及移民法) approved by the Executive Yuan yesterday would expand eligibility for foreign professional talent and open up investment-related immigration.
Foreigners and Chinese nationals refusing to have personal interviews with immigration authorities without reasonable grounds would also be denied their application for stays or residency status.
In addition, matchmaker brokerages would be required to register.
As well, civil servants whose job is associated with national security should obtain an approval from their supervisor before taking an overseas trip.
Those applying for short- or medium-term stays for adoption reasons would only be eligible to apply if they reside with their adoptee in Taiwan.
Claiming the legal revision is necessary, Premier Yu Shyi-kun said the draft strikes a balance between national security and human rights.
"A sound immigration mechanism not only brings in professional talent the country needs but also prevents such crimes as human smuggling," Yu said.
Jean Michel Betend, a 32-year-old French citizen who has been working here for seven years, however, said that the government has not done enough for either foreigners or Taiwanese people.
"Instead of recruiting professionals from abroad, the Taiwan government might want to think about how to create more jobs here for young Taiwanese students graduated from universities, both here and overseas," he said.
Under the draft, foreigners, with the exception of Chinese nationals, with professional specialties in areas other than high-technology would be eligible to apply for permanent-residency status.
"Specialty areas" include politics, sociology, economics, culture and law, in addition to high-technology.
Currently, foreigners who make a special contribution to the nation, are high-technology specialists or have resided in the country for at least 183 days each year for seven consecutive years. They are already eligible to apply for permanent-residency status.
The draft would also allow foreigners who invest a certain amount of money here to apply for permanent-residency status.
Criteria for the investment-related immigration would be specified in a separate regulation and no annual quota would be set for investment-related immigration.
Taking human rights into consideration, the draft would loosen regulations requiring foreigners to show their picture identification. The draft stipulates that only those refusing to show their identification would be punished. Currently, foreigners who fail to show their visa or residence permit to authorities are subject to a fine of up to NT$10,000.
Foreigners in custody for immigration reasons could also use their detention time toward their jail sentences should they be convicted of a crime.
Currently, foreigners who are ordered to leave the country but have not yet completed the exit process have to be put in custody. Those who illegally enter the country or overstay their visas must also be put in custody as well as those wanted by a foreign government.
In addition, the draft would require applicants for short- and medium-term stays and permanent-residency status to go through personal interviews before being granted the permits. Short-term stays are defined as stays of less than six months, while medium-term stays are defined as stays of six months to three years.
Civil servants whose job is associated with national security should obtain an approval from their supervisor before taking an overseas trip. Violators would face a fine of between NT$100,000 and NT$500,000.
Matchmaker brokerages would also be required to register before plying the trade. Their advertisements should not violate related laws or carry exaggerated or false information. Violators could face a fine of between NT$30,000 and NT$150,000.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching