The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) yesterday announced that foreigners and Chinese hoping to gain residency through marriage to a Taiwanese national would have to be interviewed by a new immigration council, which is expected to be set up in the coming months.
The MOI is in the planning phase of establishing the new council and has yet to determine its structure. In its meeting yesterday, however, it concluded that a mechanism of interviewing foreign and Chinese spouses of Taiwan nationals should be required.
The MOI's vice minister, Chien Tai-lang (
The MOI began planning the council's establishment last week. The council's task will be to coordinate various duties that are currently handled by several different ministries.
No extra personnel would be required for the council, since the ministry would reassign existing staff currently scattered among other offices, including the foreign affairs department of the National Police Administration, the nationality department of the MOI's Population Administration Department, the MOI's Immigration Bureau, and several departments under the Mainland Affairs Council.
As the differing backgrounds and varying demands between foreign and Chinese spouses require different skills, the council would be divided into at least two main departments.
Currently, foreign spouses from Southeast Asian countries are regulated by the Immigration Law (
Spouses from China are governed by the Statute Governing the Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (
Although the Immigration Law requires the establishment of an immigration bureau, the question of setting up a dedicated agency to handle immigration has been debated for some time between those who wish to see the development of a formal immigration policy and opponents of immigration.
Tsai Ing-wen (
Official figures have shown that about 12 percent of marriages in Taiwan involve a foreign bride. In addition, of the babies born in this country each year, one-eighth have a mother that is not Taiwanese.
According to official statistics from the Ministry of the Interior, 87,000 women from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Singapore came to Taiwan between 1994 and the end of last year to marry Taiwanese men.
The Straits Exchange Foundation says that another 148,000 brides arrived from China between 1993 and the end of last year.
According to Chien, the proposal for the immigration council will be submitted to the Cabinet by the end of April.
Chien said that this council would also deal with international refugees.
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