Amendments easing naturalization rules clear legislative floor

Taipei, May 7 (CNA) Taiwan’s Legislature on Tuesday approved amendments to the Nationality Act to ease residency requirements for foreign professionals applying for naturalization and to allow social welfare institutions to apply for naturalization on behalf of stateless children residing in Taiwan.

According to the Cabinet, the amendments it proposed were designed to help improve professional talent retention by cutting the required period of residence for high-level foreign professionals and allowing them to retain their original nationality.

Under the amendments, the required period of residence for high-level foreign professionals applying for citizenship will be cut from the current three continuous years — defined as being present in the country for at least 183 days each year — to two continuous years, or a legal stay of more than five consecutive years for those who do not meet the 183-day-per-year requirement.

Also, a new provision was added to the Act that stipulates foreign nationals who have made substantial contributions in the fields of medicine, social welfare, or education in Taiwan, or have significantly contributed to remote areas of the country, will be exempt from paying the NT$1,200 (US$37.06) fee for their Republic of China (Taiwan) nationality documents.

Furthermore, to better protect children’s rights, the revised Act includes another new provision that allows social welfare authorities or institutions that act as guardians of stateless children to apply for ROC nationality on their behalf.

Under the existing law, only adoptive parents of stateless and unmarried minors can apply for ROC naturalization on their behalf, if at least one of the adoptive parents is an ROC citizen.

In addition, as Taiwan has amended its Civil Code to lower the legal age of majority — the threshold of adulthood — from 20 to 18, the amended law also altered the “unmarried minors” wording in the existing Nationality Act to “unmarried and under the age of 18.”

Ministry of the Interior Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) said in a statement Tuesday that the amendments will help improve the retention of professional talent by providing incentives that include cutting the required period of residence for professionals and waiving document fees.

The amended law will also enshrine the right of stateless children to acquire the ROC nationality, Lin added.