Financial requirements for foreign spouses eased

Lin told a press conference yesterday afternoon that besides offering tax payment documents and bank deposit statements when applying for an ID, foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens can now also apply for IDs by producing five other kinds of document proving their financial ability or condition.

These documents include papers issued by the foreign spouse’s Taiwanese employer stating the amount of income and date of employment; a document proving that their household owns assets worth at least 24 times the minimum monthly wage; a document proving that their household owns real estate worth more than 24 times the minimum monthly wage; a document issued by public agencies proving the foreign spouse’s vocational skills; and vocational skill certificates owned by the foreign spouse’s husband or parents with an attached document proving that their household is financially capable of supporting the foreign spouse living in Taiwan, according to Lin.

She continued that around 78,000 foreign spouses living in Taiwan but having yet to get an ID card of the Republic China are expected to benefit from the relaxation of the rules.

The relaxed rules will be put into practice after they are approved by the Cabinet, estimated at the end of this year.

As of the end of October, there were 136,500 foreign spouses in Taiwan, but only 58,356 of them have been naturalized.

On the same occasion, Hsieh Ai-ling, director of the Department of Population Administration under the Ministry of the Interior, said that after the rules are eased, it will take four years, at the earliest, for any new foreign spouse to get an Taiwan ID card.

In the beginning of November, an alliance aimed at promoting the rights of foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens took to the streets to call for the abrogation of the regulation requiring a financial statement from spouses when they apply for naturalization.

The “No Money, No Status” Alliance,” comprising 37 civic groups, said there are 400,000 foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens, many of whom can hardly get an ID because they cannot meet the minimum financial requirement.

Alliance representatives said foreign spouses from Southeast Asia and China are required to provide a financial statement showing that their household has at least NT$410,000 (US$12,693) when they apply for an ID, adding that many of these immigrants are from low-income or disadvantaged families and are unable to meet this requirement.

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