As the situation in Hong Kong changes, Taiwan’s immigration policy should be adjusted, including lengthening residency requirements for naturalization, to avoid national security loopholes, a group of Hong Kongers living in Taiwan said on Sunday.
Taiwanese law allows skilled professionals from Hong Kong who reside in Taiwan continuously for one year to apply for permanent residency. Once they obtain permanent residency, they can apply to be naturalized and receive an ID card.
Taiwan-Hong Kong Association director-general Sang Pu (桑普) said that Hong Kongers who immigrate to the UK can apply for permanent residency after five years and citizenship a year later.
Photo: Bloomberg
Those immigrating to Canada must live there for 10 years before they can apply for citizenship, Sang said.
Taiwan’s regulations are comparatively relaxed and should be stricter to protect national security, he said.
Immigration policy could be divided into three categories, he said.
Regulations can be more relaxed toward democratic countries such as the US and Japan, places with an authoritarian environment like Hong Kong should be ranked in the middle and the most stringent regulations should be toward China, he said.
As long as the regulations are transparent, Hong Kongers would accept more stringent immigration requirements, he added.
Wang Chih-sheng (王智盛), a professor at Central Police University’s Department of Border Police, said that most Hong Kongers immigrate to Taiwan based on investment or marriage requirements.
Those with a valid marriage must reside for three years to apply for permanent residency, while those who follow the investment rules must employ at least two Taiwanese and reside for three years before applying, Wang said.
The government has extended the time required for permanent residency, although the criteria are still more lenient than for other foreign nationals, he said.
Skilled white-collar professionals from Hong Kong, including lawyers, accountants and professors, need only reside for one year to apply for permanent residency, he said.
Hong Kong residents should be subject to the same four-year residency requirement as other foreigners to ensure fairness and prevent Chinese nationals from using Hong Kong as a loophole to immigrate to Taiwan, he said.
Meanwhile, National Immigration Agency data showed that only 5,368 Hong Kongers were granted temporary residency last year, down 1,258 from 2023.
However, the number of Hong Kongers granted permanent residency last year was 1,880, an increase of 448, or 31.3 percent, compared with 2023, the data showed.
An official familiar with Hong Kong and Macau affairs last week said that there was a wave of Hong Kongers migrating to Taiwan after a new national security law took effect in 2020.
It is relatively easy for Hong Kongers to apply for temporary residency in Taiwan, but a permanent residency application might take years, the official said.
There was a backlog of permanent residency applications that passed last year, which is why the number went up drastically, they said.
The number of Hong Kongers moving to Taiwan has decreased in the past few years because those who wanted to immigrate mostly did so around 2020, not because the process has become stricter, they added.
There was a spike in Hong Kongers immigrating in 2020 and 2021, and most of those who wanted to leave the territory have already done so, Sang said.
Hong Kongers primarily immigrate to the UK or Canada, because those countries have clear immigration pathways and standards, reports said.
Although they also like immigrating to Taiwan, it has stricter and less transparent requirements due to national security considerations, the reports said, adding that this affects their confidence of moving to Taiwan, so people tend not to move here.
The number of Hong Kongers granted permanent residency is very low, with some still being rejected despite a 30 percent increase last year, Sang said.
This reflects Taiwan’s strict immigration control, as it balances national security concerns with society’s capacity to accommodate newcomers, he said, adding that this was “very reasonable.”
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