The Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (hereafter referred to as “the Foreign Professionals Act”) was formulated by the National Development Council (NDC) in collaboration with related central government agencies, for the purposes of strengthening the recruitment of foreign professional talent, simplifying work and residency application procedures, increasing incentives for the long-term stay of those targeted, keeping their families together and meeting their social security needs. The Act was promulgated on November 22, 2017, and went into effect on February 8, 2018.
To bolster the dynamics of talent recruitment, the NDC actively set to work on promoting the Foreign Professionals Act’s amendment, which passed its third reading in the Legislative Yuan on June 18, 2021, was promulgated by the President on July 7 the same year, and was approved by the Executive Yuan to take effect from October 25 the same year.
The main points of the Foreign Professionals Act are as follows:
1. Regulations Pertaining to Work Permits
(1) Foreign professionals：
A. Allows the hiring of foreign subject teachers to teach “special classes for the children of foreign talent” as approved by the Ministry of Education. (Article 4)
B. Brings experimental education workers within the application of the Act, in line with the previous easing of restrictions on such employment. (Article 4)
C. Allows short-term tutorial schools (buxibans) to employ foreign teachers who possess specialized knowledge or skills as well as to teach foreign languages. (Article 4)
D. Provides for foreign school teachers and experimental education workers to submit work permit applications to the Ministry of Education. (Article 5)
E. Stipulates that graduates of the world’s top universities as announced by the Ministry of Education may engage in professional or technical work in Taiwan without being required to have two years’ work experience. (Article 6)
F. Provides for freelance arts sector workers to submit a work permit application directly to the Ministry of Labor without being required to apply through an employer. (Article 10)
G. Provides for foreign professionals who plan to come to Taiwan to engage in professional work and who need a lengthy period of time to seek employment, to be issued with an employment-seeking visa, allowing them to stay for a total of up to six months. (Article 11)
(2) Foreign special professionals:
A. Defines foreign special professionals as those who possess special expertise needed by Taiwan in science & technology, the economy, education, culture & the arts, sports, finance, law, architectural design, national defense, and other fields, matching the eligibility conditions announced by the respective central competent authorities, or whom the NDC, in consultation with the relevant central competent authorities, recognizes as possessing special expertise. (Article 4)
B. Provides that a work permit for an employer to hire a foreign special professional to engage in professional work shall have a duration of up to five years, extendable at expiration. (Article 8)
C. Provides for foreign special professionals to apply to the NIA for a four-in-one Employment Gold Card (personal work permit) that combines work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate and re-entry permit, valid for a period of one to three years, giving holders the convenience of freely seeking, taking up, and changing employment. Those who meet specified conditions may apply for an extension of the card before its period of validity expires. (Article 9)
(3) Family dependents of foreign professionals, foreign special professionals and foreign senior professionals:
A. Provides that foreign professionals, foreign special professionals and foreign senior professionals, plus their spouses, children under the age of majority, and children over the age of majority who are unable to live independently due to physical or mental disability, having been granted permanent residency, do not need to apply for work permits. (Article 7)
B. Provides that the adult children of permanent resident foreign professionals, foreign special professionals and foreign senior professionals may apply for personal work permits upon meeting specified conditions as to their length of residence in Taiwan. (Article 15)
2. Regulations Pertaining to Visas and Residence of Family Members
(1) Provides that foreign professionals and special professionals who enter Taiwan with a visa exemption or holding a visitor visa, and who have obtained a work permit or are exempted from obtaining a work permit to engage in professional work in Taiwan, may apply direct to the NIA for an ARC without needing to apply for a resident visa, and the same applies to their dependent relatives. (Article 12)
(2) Provides that foreign professionals and special professionals may apply for 6+6-month extensions of residency before the validity period of their residency or Employment Gold Card expires, and the same applies to their dependent relatives. (Article 13)
(3) Shortens from five years to three years the period for which special foreign professionals must continuously reside in Taiwan before becoming eligible to apply for permanent residency, and allows one more year to be deducted from that period for those who have obtained a doctoral degree in Taiwan. Also, while (ordinary) foreign professionals are still required to continuously reside in Taiwan for five years before becoming eligible to apply for permanent residency, that period can be reduced by one year for those who have obtained a master’s degree in Taiwan or by two years for those who have obtained a doctoral degree in Taiwan. (Article 14)
(4) Provides that after a foreign professional or foreign special professional has obtained permanent residency, their spouse, children under the age of majority, and children over the age of majority who are unable to live independently due to physical or mental disability, having legally and continuously resided in Taiwan for five years (as dependents of a foreign professional) or three years (as dependents of a foreign special professional) may apply for permanent residency without needing to show proof of ability to be self-supporting. (Article 16)
(5) Provides that the dependent relatives of a foreign senior professional may apply for permanent residency together with the foreign senior professional. (Article 17)
(6) Provides that the lineal ascendants of foreign special and senior professionals and their spouses may apply for a visitor visa for visiting relatives, permitting them to stay for a total period of up to one year. (Article 18)
(7) Stipulates that a permanent resident may leave and not re-enter Taiwan for up to five years before their APRC will be canceled. (Article 19)
3. Social Security and Tax Preference Measures
(1) Provides preferential tax treatment for foreign special professionals who are approved to work in Taiwan for the first time, with income tax to be assessed on only half of such part of their salary as exceeds NT$3 million within their first five years in Taiwan, and also their overseas income to be excluded from the assessment of income basic tax. (Article 20)。
(2) Provides that foreign professionals who are employed to engage in professional work, foreign special and senior professionals who are employers or self-employed business owners, and their dependent relatives, can directly join the National Health Insurance system without having to wait six months for inclusion. (Article 21)
(3) Provides for foreign professionals and foreign special professionals to be included in the retirement pension system under the Labor Pension Act once they have been granted permanent residency. (Article 22)
(4) Provides that foreign professionals (all types) who are employed as full-time teachers in public schools or as full-time researchers in government institutions (including subsidiary academic research institutes) shall have their retirement governed, mutatis mutandis, by the regulations applicable to public school teachers, and that those who have been granted permanent residency may opt for either a one-time lump-sum pension payment or a monthly pension. (Article 23)
4. Others
(1) Specifies the provisions of the Act that apply mutatis mutandis to residents of Hong Kong or Macau who engage in professional work or seek employment in the Taiwan Area. (Article 24)
(2) Specifies the provisions of the Act that apply mutatis mutandis to the dependent relatives of foreign professionals (all types) who naturalize as ROC nationals (including applications for permanent residency, adult children’s personal work permits, and lineal ascendants’ visitor visas).
