Many professional workers from Hong Kong and Macau are to be able to apply for permanent residence starting on May 1, after new criteria received Cabinet approval, an official said.
Under the new regulations, professionals from the territories who have resided in Taiwan for at least five years with a work visa, and earned at least double the minimum wage in the past year, can apply for permanent residency as of next month, an official said ahead of an expected formal announcement next month.
The applicant must also have been present in Taiwan for at least 183 days in each of the five years.
Photo: Tyrone Siu , Reuters
Not all people engaged in professional work from the territories are currently able to obtain permanent residency in Taiwan under the Regulations Governing Residency or Permanent Residency for People of the Hong Kong Area and the Macau Area (香港澳門居民進入臺灣地區及居留定居許可辦法).
The amendment was drafted to comply with changes to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法), promulgated in July last year, which specifies that professionals from Hong Kong and Macau should be included.
A “professional” is defined as someone who has been issued a work permit or employment gold card by the Ministry of Labor or other authority.
It also includes “specialized or technical” positions such as civil engineers, financial and real-estate brokers, and veterinarians.
The changes would also allow professionals and their households to apply for two six-month-long “jobseeking” residency extensions, the official said.
Under the current law, professionals from the territories are required to leave the country when their contracts end.
Those who obtain a master’s or doctorate degree in Taiwan could have their waiting time reduced by one and two years respectively, the same as allowed under the new criteria of the foreign talent act, the official said.
Regarding concerns that the changes could reduce opportunities for local talent or create a loophole for Chinese infiltration, the official said that the rules require a five-year observation period, while a national security review mechanism would be implemented.
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS