The Ministry of the Interior will amend regulations and establish a new committee to help foreigners gain permanent residency visas more easily, Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) said during a visit to the Bureau of Immigration (入出境管理局) yesterday.
While details of the amendment are not clear, the ministry emphasized that the revisions would move toward relaxing the current rules.
Foreigners who have lived in Taiwan for decades have fought to receive permanent residency visas, but most have failed in their bids because of frequent trips taking them out of the country -- this despite the significant contributions some have made to the nation.
At least five well-known for-eigners who have lived in Taiwan for decades have appealed to the government to grant them permanent residency.
Yu highlighted the cases of Bjarne Gislefoss (
Yu visited the couple in Puli last Thursday.
The couple has lived in Taiwan for more than 40 years but has failed to gain permanent-residency status. Puli citizens, legislators and President Chen Shui-bian (
Under the Immigration Law (入出國及移民法), foreigners who apply for permanent residency must be present in Taiwan for at least 270 consecutive days per year for seven years.
Prior to Yu's appointment as minister, the issue attracted attention from the former minister and legislators. KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) appealed in January for government approval to amend laws for foreigners who have dedicated themselves to Taiwan for extended periods of time.
Former minister of the Interior Chang Po-ya (張博雅), before she stepped aside last month, asked the ministry to support Chen's proposal and called for regulations to be changed so that foreigners who have been in Taiwan for at least 183 consecutive days per year for 10 years could apply for permanent-residency status.
There are more than 800 for-eigners who qualify for Chen's proposal, a number the Bureau of Immigration worries might "unbalance" Taiwan's population.
The Immigration Bureau started reconsidering Chen's proposal and looked at setting up a committee to examine foreigners' contributions and specialties to Taiwan as criteria for residency status rather than basing the decision on time spent in Taiwan.
The bureau believes that the committee would be able to control the number of foreigners receiving permanent residency.
To hear more opinions on the issue, the ministry will hold a public hearing on the amendments on March 8.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Immigration relaxed regulations to extend the period of time Chinese high-tech professionals can stay in Taiwan from three years to six and allowing their families move to Taiwan more easily.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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