Foreign Professionals Act amended

IMPACT – MEDIUM

The Taiwanese government has approved amendments to the Foreign Professionals Act, effectively reducing many residence and work permit requirements.

Key Points:

• Foreign professionals, foreign special professionals and their dependents who enter Taiwan with a visa exemption or visitor visa can now apply for an Alien Residence Certificate without applying for a residence visa.
• Foreign professionals and their dependents no longer have to apply for work permits once they have permanent residency.
• Gold Card holders can now apply for up to two, six-month validity extensions before their card expires.
• Authorities relaxed the requirements for applying for permanent residency:
  • Foreign special professionals can now apply for permanent residence after three years instead of five years; up to two years of advanced degree studies in Taiwan can now be counted towards the three year requirement.
  • Foreign professionals can now apply for permanent residence if they have resided in Taiwan for an average of 183 days per year continuously for five years instead of an average of 183 days each year continuously for five years.

Additional Information: Other amendments expanded the scope of the act to help more foreign professionals’ families, extended preexisting tax concessions and relaxed eligibility requirements for recent graduates. A full list of the amendments to the Foreign Professionals Act can be found here.

BAL Analysis: The amendments are intended to build a more complete legal framework for recruiting foreign talent. More relaxations of work requirements are expected in the coming months. BAL will continue to monitor the expected changes and will provide more information as it becomes available.

This alert has been provided by the BAL Global Practice group. For additional information, please contact berryapplemanleiden@bal.com.

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