New Economic Immigration Bill

Awesome, thanks to you both! I’m excited.

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That’s all well and good, but the fact still remains that many industries are closed off to foreigners in general. Obviously there are exceptions, but most of the large financial firms for example don’t have any foreigners working there. Still its good that the government is trying, now will industry cooperate?

From what I understand, there are 3 very important parts to this new law:

Two for “Special Professionals”:
(Which includes Gold Card holders and I don’t know who else?)
1) The APRC residency requirements changing from 5 years down to 3 for Special Professionals.
2) The waiver of the 6 month waiting time for NHI for applicant and their family.

This is nice, but really only for Gold Card holders.

And for everyone (well, not quite everyone):
3) Now when a professional of any type gets their APRC, and Open Work Permit, their dependents (spouse and children) also get the Open Work Permit, which previously they had to wait ten years(?) after their family member got their APRC to get the Open work permit.

Number 3 is a very big deal for many people I think.

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For foreign families it is a big deal for sure.

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What is a ‘special professional?’

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Thanks @Tando!

Someone on my facebook mentioned that the amendment is required to go into effect by Jan 1, 2023, though of course it might be implemented sooner.

didn’t followup on his source

I think those specific amendments are related to Taiwan changing the age of adulthood from 20 to 18 which will take effect on January 1, 2023.
Amendments to the Act are related to the likes of dependent visas.

The amended Articles 7 and 14-17 are promulgated by President Order Hua-Tsung (1)-Yi-Tzu No. 11000006231 on Jan. 27, 2021; the effective date shall be set by the Executive Yuan.
The amendment was set to be effective since Jan. 1, 2023 by the Executive Yuan Order Yuan-Tai-Jiao-Zi No. 1100004559 on Feb. 23, 2021.

https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawHistory.aspx?pcode=A0030295

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A recent press release by the NDC states:

“NDC will cooperate with related ministries to complete relevant regulations and measures as soon as possible, and report to the Executive Yuan for designating the implementation date, so foreign professionals and their relatives can apply this Act before long.”

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So, as you’ll remember the New Economic Immigration Bill was not proposed during the last session of the legislature. Instead several of its elements were inserted into a significant amendment to the Foreign Talent Act, which did pass.

However, at least for one legislator, the New Economic Immigration Act is not dead. Taiwan People’s Party legislator Chiu Chen-Yuan was in the news this week talking about proposing it again:

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These updates are much appreciated. Thanks for providing them!

Guy

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The Executive Yuan announced that the amendments to the Law on the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals promulgated on July 7, 2021 will become effective on October 25, 2021

Also the updated version of the law is available in English:

https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=A0030295

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Wow! Any comment on this, @fifieldt ?

Guy

And all the Goldies waiting to know whether the (in)famous 6-month extension will work to apply for an APRC, considering that we will be eligible basically from the day after the 3-year Gold Card expires :grimacing:

In theory this means that those gold card holders who are eligible can go apply for APRC on Monday …

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News coverage


Websites:

https://foreigntalentact.ndc.gov.tw

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It’s great that this passed, but the issue still remains that Taiwan has few industries that actually hire foreigners, outside of specific engineering teams and foreign package expats. A lot of industries wouldn’t appreciate a foreigner in their ranks. For example, finding a foreigner working in the banking or insurance sector would be rarer than hens teeth.

That makes sense, not all professions are truly “universal”, they require language proficiency and local certification. My hunch is that a TW CPA will not be able to do someone’s taxes in France without speaking French or knowing the local rules and regulations.

I would say the biggest issue by far is a lack of dual citizenship laws.