The Taichung City Government on Thursday began offering online translation via video calls to help immigrants with household registration and other civic administrative processes across its 26 municipal districts.
In August, 56,000 foreign spouses were registered in Taichung, the Taichung Civil Affairs Bureau said, adding that their many backgrounds — with most hailing from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand — pose a problem for household registration office employees.
Some immigrants come alone to apply for marriage registration, register newborn children or apply for naturalization, the bureau said,.
Employees have thus far relied on Internet resources or mobile phone applications to translate foreign languages, which are not reliable, resulting in multiple trips for the applicant, often due to a failure to present suitable identification or required documents, the bureau said.
The bureau in April began a trial with the National Immigration’s Agency’s (NIA) Taichung branch to provide cross-agency video conference services, the bureau said.
NIA translators are available online and help provide translations for foreigners at the household registration offices, the bureau said, adding that the service has received good reviews.
The municipality this week made the collaboration official, the bureau said, adding that translation services can be reserved online or requested on the spot.
Local household registration office personnel assist migrants with technical matters, while the agency provides translators for the languages requested, the bureau said.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
The Grand Hotel Taipei has rejected media reports claiming that the hotel had prevented CBS from broadcasting coverage of the Beijing summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on its premises. Media reports alleging that the hotel owner, dissatisfied with CBS’s coverage, prohibited the network from broadcasting political content on the hotel premises, are not true, the hotel said in a statement issued last night. The reports were “inconsistent with how the hotel actually handled the matter,” it said. The hotel said it received a refund request from a
RSS