Questions regarding 2 year work requirement

Legal Legal - Work
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Hello all, new to the forum and this is my first post. I’ve lived in Taiwan for about one year studying Chinese, and have absolutely fallen in love with the country, the people, the food, language, etc. and am determined to stay here. This post is a bit long, because I want to give anybody answering it all the information they might need, so TLDR is at the bottom.

I’ve been recently doing a lot of job applying, and believed everything would go smoothly as I have been called for some interviews in the coming days that look promising. However, I was surprised to discover this morning during some online research that Taiwan has a 2-year work requirement for foreign white-collar workers. I say “surprised” not because the rule is unreasonable, but because I’m surprised I’ve gotten this far into the process of the job search and only now discovered it (by contrast, China has a similar requirement that they make no exceptions to, and this information is plastered everywhere for any foreigner looking to work there).

I’m a bit confused about the requirement, as there’s conflicting information on the internet, and it looks like there hasn’t been any forum posts about it in this calendar year, so I thought I’d ask:

  1. Is the rule no longer in effect? This article from 2015 says so, but I can’t find a Chinese source, and I find records of people asking about the requirement since then.
  2. This website (which post-dates the above article) says you can apply for exceptions to this rule, and suggests the approval rates are very high. Has anybody here successfully applied for that exception?

Some relevant info for my case: I went to a good university (world-wide top 30), since my sophomore year worked for a finance firm part-time (20+ hours/week) during school and full time during summers, and worked there full time for one year after university. The jobs I’m applying to here are mostly related to finance (probably does not count as high-skilled labor Taiwan is lacking in). I am a native speaker of English, speak decent Chinese (TOCFL5), and another Asian language (albeit not well, and I doubt I will ever use it in a job anywhere, but it seems this could be relevant in an application for an exemption).

TLDR: I’m applying for jobs, discovered there’s a two year work requirement; I only have one year post-graduation work experience, but roughly two-years part-time work experience in my industry from when I was a student. I’m curious if the rule is still in effect, and how I might go about getting an exemption if it is. (I realize this will be handled professionally by the HR of a company that would later hire me, but I’m asking now so I’m not too blindsided later on.)

Thank you, and I appreciate any help or guidance forum members can provide.

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My understanding was that it was 2 years experience and/or Master’s or Master’s equivalent. But it didn’t seem to matter much, as the first job I took in TW was a white-collar position, and although I had a Master’s equivalent, the majority of my co-workers didn’t have the two years or a Master’s, and most had just attended regular state schools. So at least from my experience it wasn’t much of an issue

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You may want to check this info on the site of Workforce development Agency.

Consultation Mechanism
https://ezworktaiwan.wda.gov.tw/ezworken/home.jsp?pageno=201609200001

Foreigners with a bachelor’s degree, exempted from two years of relevant work experience after receiving the bachelor’s degree (Paragraph 1, Article 6 of the Qualifications and Criteria Standards for Foreigners Undertaking the Jobs Specified under Subparagraphs 1 through 6, Paragraph 1, Article 46 of the Employment Service Act)

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Thank you both for the responses.

Stebbins, was your personal experience you’re referring to was in the recent past or some time ago? And, do you mind me asking, what qualified as a master’s equivalent?

tando, thank you, this is the exemption procedure referenced here; I am curious if anyone knows if the success rate is really as high as they claim, or if it was only that high because nobody was aware that this procedure existed, and thus the sample set was very low.

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I came to Taiwan in 2014, so not sure if the same laws apply now. The degree they considered to be a Master’s equivalent (according to my employer) was a JD, although I remember there being some confusion initially about that. In fact I’m not 100% sure if they got me in by saying I had a Master’s equivalent or by using whatever method they had used to get in my co-workers with only bachelor’s degrees (and without the 2 years experience).