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MAC set to relax work restrictions for Chinese spouses

Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) yesterday promised to relax existing regulations and allow Chinese spouses who enter Taiwan legally to start working immediately without needing to file applications.

The council will also seek to shorten the waiting period for Chinese spouses to obtain right of abode from eight years to six years and cancel the restrictions on the amount of money Chinese spouses were able to inherit, Lai said yesterday when receiving cross-strait marriage activists and experts on immigrants’ human rights at the council.

Current regulations state that Chinese spouses can apply to work after being married to a Taiwanese for two years.

Lai said the draft amendment to the Statute Governing Relations between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) proposed by the MAC states that the spouses be granted the same rights as foreign spouses from other countries and are able to start working immediately after entering Taiwan.

Present regulations mean Chinese spouses can only receive up to NT$2 million (US$ 59,000) in inheritance. Lai said the council would seek to lift that restriction.

Labor Rights Association executive director Wang Chuan-ping (王娟萍) yesterday took the opportunity to urge the government to include Chinese and other foreign spouses who have resided in Taiwan for more than 183 days in the proposed groups eligible to receive consumer vouchers.

“Chinese and other foreign spouses live in Taiwan and are also consumers. They pay taxes and they are willing to live in Taiwan. Their rights to claim the vouchers should not be ignored,” Wang said.

The government did not explain whether or not foreign spouses who have yet to obtain Taiwanese citizenship would be entitled to apply for the vouchers.

Lai, however, made no comment on the issue during her meeting with the representatives.
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