The number of Chinese spouse arrivals has dropped by half since an interview system was put in place on Sept. 1, Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (
Yu was visiting CKS International Airport yesterday to observe procedures for interviewing arriving Chinese spouses.
Yu said that the drop in arrivals indicated that the word was out on the new policy and that this was frustrating the efforts of those wanting to enter Taiwan illegally.
"The interviews protect those who obey the law and target those who do not," Yu said.
Yu asked immigration officers to carefully screen spouses from China and develop a standard interview format so that no sham applications would slip through the net.
Together with screening of Chinese spouses, Yu said that the interior ministry would do its utmost to provide assistance to foreign and Chinese brides who were in the country legally.
Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Tseng Wen-chang (
Were a marriage determined to be fake, the entry permit for the spouse would be revoked and the Taiwanese applicant would also be prosecuted, Tseng said.
When applying for the entry of a Chinese spouse, Taiwanese applicants will be interviewed and the application will be rejected if there is doubt about its sincerity.
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