Applications for Citizen Digital Certificates (自然人憑證) were opened to foreign residents for the first time yesterday, paving the way for foreigners to apply for a range of government services online rather than in person.
More than 5 million cards have been issued since 2003, but foreign residents were previously barred from applying.
“Today we are opening applications to allow foreign residents to apply,” National Immigration Agency (NIA) information department head Shih Ming-te (施明德) said. “Foreigners will be able to immediately use the card to apply for entry and exit documents, with other functions to be added gradually.”
The National Health Insurance Administration and the Bureau of Labor Insurance are in the process of updating their systems to allow foreign residents to use the cards to look up information filed with the government, Shih said.
There are also plans to allow foreign university professors to use the cards to submit applications to apply for government subsidies, he said.
The additional functions are scheduled to come online by the end of June, he said.
“People care most about paying taxes, but it is already too late this year,” he said, adding that foreign residents should be able to use the cards to pay taxes starting next year.
Shih said the NIA would consider whether to integrate the card’s functions into a new generation of Alien Resident Cards (ARC) after the introduction of the new national ID card with integrated functions next year.
Foreign holders of ARCs embedded with advanced anti-forgery microchips can apply for the citizen digital certificates at NIA offices. Holders of short-term, temporary paper ARCs are excluded.
The first two F-16V Bock 70 jets purchased from the US are expected to arrive in Taiwan around Double Ten National Day, which is on Oct. 10, a military source said yesterday. Of the 66 F-16V Block 70 jets purchased from the US, the first completed production in March, the source said, adding that since then three jets have been produced per month. Although there were reports of engine defects, the issue has been resolved, they said. After the jets arrive in Taiwan, they must first pass testing by the air force before they would officially become Taiwan’s property, they said. The air force
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
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