The Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (“Foreign Professionals Act”), which came into effect on February 8, 2018, relaxes regulations for visas, employment and residency of foreign professionals coming to Taiwan, and enhances their insurance, tax, retirement and other treatment, in order to build a friendlier environment for foreign professionals to work and live in Taiwan. The implementation of this legislation has delivered substantial results. Among these, the issuance of Employment Gold Cards, offered to special professionals needed by Taiwan in various fields, has already topped the 500 mark.
Employment Gold Cards are issued for Taiwan’s recruitment of top specialist talent in eight fields of work, including science & technology, the economy, and finance. Foreign special professionals with appropriate expertise or a monthly salary upward of NT$160,000 can qualify for the card, which is a four-in-one visa, work permit, alien resident certificate, and re-entry permit.
The issuance of cards to date breaks down by field of specialization as follows: The highest proportion, 273 cards constituting 55% of the total, have been issued to specialists in the economic field; next is 94 cards (19%) in the science & technology field, followed by 57 (11%) in the cultural field, 39 (8%) in the financial field, and 33 (6%) in the educational field (see Figure 1). The breakdown by nationality of recipients is as follows: Top in number are 120 Americans, constituting 24% of the total, followed by 64 people from Hong Kong (13%), 41 from the UK (8%), 33 from Malaysia (7%), 30 from Denmark (6%), 23 from Singapore (5%), and 21 from Korea (4%) (see Figure 2).
To demonstrate the high importance that our government attaches to Employment Gold Card holders, the NDC has created a special Facebook group for them, to provide a platform where they can connect and communicate with one another. We have also set up a real-time advisory service online, to help card holders quickly integrate into work and life in Taiwan. In addition, to optimize the synergy of talent recruitment under the Foreign Professionals Act, the NDC is working with the global social media platform LinkedIn, to strengthen overseas publicity aimed at the target professionals. We hope these actions will help enable foreign talent to come to Taiwan and remain in Taiwan.
Contact person: Lin Gyh-mei, Director-General of the Department of Human Resources
Phone number: (02) 2316-5379
