The Cabinet yesterday approved a draft amendment that it said would make it easier for foreign nationals to live and work in Taiwan, with proposed rules including expanding work experience exemptions and extending the digital nomad visa period to two years.
Hsieh Chia-yi (謝佳宜), director-general of the National Development Council’s Department of Human Resources Development, told a news conference that the revisions would allow foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within five years to enter Taiwan to look for work without first having to acquire a job offer.
However, eligible people would still need to apply for a work permit from the Ministry of Labor before arriving, Hsieh said.
Photo: Hsu Li-chuan, Taipei Times
The proposed changes to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) are part of broader efforts to loosen regulations and make Taiwan more attractive to highly skilled professionals from abroad, amid intensifying global competition for talent, she said.
Since the act was promulgated on Feb. 8, 2018, the number of foreign professionals in Taiwan has risen to more than 73,000, she said.
Another proposed revision would expand a rule that waives the two-year work experience requirement for foreign graduates of top-ranked universities, Hsieh said.
Under the proposed new rule, graduates of the world’s top 1,000 universities — up from the current top 500 — would be allowed to seek employment in Taiwan without work experience.
The Ministry of Education is to determine the list of eligible universities based on international rankings published by globally recognized organizations, the council said.
In addition, the government would also extend the duration of Taiwan’s digital nomad visa, which was introduced at the start of this year to attract remote workers from overseas, enabling them to stay in the country for up to two years, Hsieh said.
The digital nomad visa is valid for three months and can be renewed once, for a maximum stay of six months.
The bill would also allow some foreign professionals, including those earning more than NT$6 million (US$200,474) a year, to obtain permanent residency after one uninterrupted year in Taiwan.
Overseas Taiwanese with a bachelor’s degree or above from a Taiwanese institution may subtract one to two years from the required residency period, depending on the degree, the proposal says.
Foreign nationals in some professions would qualify for labor insurance pensions without obtaining permanent residency, more permanent residents would qualify for employment insurance, and all permanent residents who have resided in the nation for more than 10 years would qualify for long-term care and subsidies for some types of mental or physical disabilities, the bill says.
The draft amendment must now await legislative approval.
Additional reporting by Chung Li-hua
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