The nation’s application to participate in the US’ visa-waiver program is entering the final stages, Taiwan’s Deputy Representative to the US Leo Lee (李澄然) said on Thursday.
Lee said Taiwan would likely be listed as a candidate country by the end of this year, but he cautioned that once that happened there was no set timetable on how long it would take to obtain visa-free status.
He said once the list of candidates has been announced, the US Department of Homeland Security could send an inspection team to Taiwan to survey the country’s immigration situation and passport issuance process. Once the department completes its assessment, it then notifies Congress, and once both are satisfied with the arrangements, the US then announces its approval, Lee said.
In the case of South Korea, it only took a month to gain visa-waiver program approval after being announced as a candidate in October 2008, Lee said. Prior to its fast-track entry, the country had signed an anti-terrorism pact with the US in April 2008.
The deputy representative also said that the visa-waiver negotiations between the two countries were not based on any special conditions. If Taiwan were to obtain visa-free status, it would be granted the same conditions as other countries participating in the program, Lee said.
The 36 countries currently participating in the US visa-waiver program are mostly European. The only Asian countries in the program are Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Brunei.
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,”
RSS