Under a legal revision drafted at the Ministry of the Interior on Thursday, Chinese spouses of foreign specialized professionals will be able to seek non-Taiwanese nationals to be their guarantors here. The move will ease strict requirements on spouses that have drawn criticism from foreign chambers of commerce in Taiwan.
"The current regulation stipulates that in order for a Chinese spouse of a foreign specialized professional to live in Taiwan, a Taiwanese guarantor is required," said Ho Jung-chun (
The draft will revise articles in the Regulations Governing Entrance for the Mainland-Area Peoples to Taiwan (
Another minor revision drafted in the meeting will end the requirement that Chinese passports or travel documents belonging to Chinese spouses of foreign specialized professionals be retained by the bureau upon entry into the country. Instead, only copies of travel documents will be made.
The Council for Economic Planning and Development held a meeting in June with the ministry to discuss the issue, which has concerned some foreign expatriates and white-collar employees.
"Some foreign chambers of commerce in Taiwan had made known to us that some of their members faced a hard time finding Taiwanese citizens to be their spouses' guarantors," an officer within the Council's legal department stated yesterday. "Therefore, we conducted research into the legal aspects of this issue and brought it up with the relevant authorities."
The Council of Labor Affairs was able to provide statistics for the number of white-collar foreign workers in Taiwan.
"Before January this year, the hiring of specialized foreign workers was handled and approved by different government offices, depending on occupation type," the council's white-collar department officer said. "Unfortunately, none of the offices kept statistics. Only by January did the [council] take over the work-permit administration of white-collar foreign workers. Therefore, the CLA is unable to estimate the number of white-collar foreign workers in Taiwan."
But academics downplayed the significance of the revision, saying it does not address the needs of Chinese spouses who plan to stay in Taiwan long-term.
"This revision did not touch upon the main difficulties faced by these spouses: permission to work and the ability to leave and enter Taiwan [without red tape]," said Tso Chen-dong (
"Once a Chinese spouse of a specialized foreign professional is to stay here long-term, he or she may want to find a job or be able to travel in and out of the country easily. But current regulations do not allow for such freedom," he said.
The revised draft is currently under review at the Mainland Affairs Council and will later be forwarded to the Executive Yuan for final approval.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai