A former Indonesian national who has lived in Taiwan without any form of identification for more than two decades was given a resident certificate on Friday, allowing him to register his marriage to a Taiwanese woman.
The National Immigration Agency issued a resident permit to the Chinese-Indonesian man surnamed Cheng (成), who came to Taiwan on a tourist visa 23 years ago, but did not return to his home country and never extended or renewed his visa.
His visa status did not become a problem until 2000, when he fell in love with a Taiwanese woman he wanted to marry. They were unable to legally register their marriage because of Cheng’s unresolved visa status.
To resolve the problem, Cheng reported to the immigration agency’s Specialized Operation Corp in Hsinchu to get permission to return to Indonesia to renew his visa for Taiwan.
However, he soon found out his Indonesian citizenship had been automatically revoked, because he had been abroad for more than 20 years without returning to the country, according to the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office to Taipei, the country’s de-facto embassy in Taiwan.
This left him without any nationality. Immigration authorities treated him as a dependent and finally granted him legal residency after confirming his relationship with his daughter, who was born in Taiwan in 2006.
Cheng said the first thing he wanted to do after being granted residence was to register his marriage because he had long felt he had let down his partner by not being able to legalize their union.
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
Starlux Airlines on Tuesday announced it is to launch new direct flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Ontario, California, on June 2. The carrier said it plans to deploy the new-generation Airbus A350 on the Taipei-Ontario route. The Airbus A350 features a total of 306 seats, including four in first class, 26 in business class, 36 in premium economy and 240 in economy. According to Starlux’s initial schedule, four flights would run between Taoyuan and Ontario per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flights are to depart from Taoyuan at 8:05pm and arrive in California at 5:05pm (local time), while return flights
Nearly 800 Indian tourists are to arrive this week on an incentive tour organized by Indian company Asian Painted Ltd, making it the largest tour group from the South Asian nation to visit since the COVID-19 pandemic. The travelers are scheduled to arrive in six batches from Sunday to Feb. 25 for five-day tours, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The tour would take the travelers, most of whom are visiting Taiwan for the first time, to several tourist sites in Taipei and Yilan County, including tea houses in Taipei’s Maokong (貓空), Dadaocheng (大稻埕) and Ximending (西門町) areas. They would also visit
HOSPITAL VISITS: Shin Kong Mitsukoshi pledged to give the families of the four people who died NT$11m each and provide support for staff working at the time The central government would assist local governments to enhance public safety, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday as he visited people in hospital who were injured in an explosion at a department store in Taichung on Thursday. A suspected gas explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang department store in Taichung at 11:33am on Thursday, killing four people and injuring 36. Of the 40 casualties, 39 were hospitalized, Ministry of Health and Welfare data showed. Three died after out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, the data showed. As of 6am yesterday, 25 of those injured had been discharged from hospital, leaving 11