Draft Bill Titled “New Economic Immigration Act” Expected to Be Enacted during Current Legislative Session

  Draft Bill Titled “New Economic Immigration Act” Expected to Be Enacted during Current Legislative Session

Source: United Daily News

October 17, 2018

In a bid to resolve the shortage of manpower and industrial white-collar workers in Taiwan, the National Development Council (NDC) under the Cabinet has completed a draft bill titled “New Economic Immigration Act” to attract foreign technical workers, foreign mid-level skilled workers, investment-based immigrants and overseas Chinese who have so far not acquired domiciles in Taiwan . The NDC is slated to submit the draft bill to the Cabinet for discussions and approval next week. If approved by the Cabinet, the draft bill will subsequently be submitted to the Legislative Yuan for review in a bid to complete the legislative action during the current legislative session.

According to the draft bill, the regulations concerning entry or residence permissions for overseas Chinese and their children would be eased. In addition, in order to fill the gap of mid-level skilled workers in Taiwan, the draft bill would stipulate that overseas Chinese and foreign students studying in Taiwan as well as mid-level skilled foreigners shall have priority to stay in Taiwan on the premise that their monthly wages reach a certain level and their work qualifications are authenticated. Furthermore, the granting of permanent residency for foreign mid-level skilled workers would be eased, being applicable after 5 instead of 7 years of continuous work-related residence.

According to the draft bill, the government would have total control over the number of foreign skilled workers in Taiwan to ensure that employment opportunities for locals would not be affected.

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