NEW CRITERIA FOR EMPLOY-MENT OF FOREIGN MANAGERS

03/01/2004

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According to Article 36 of the Standards for Reviewing the Eligibility of Foreign Nationals to Perform Types of Work Permitted under Para-graph 1, Subparagraphs 1 to 6, Article 46 of the Employment and Service Act, a foreign national employed as an executive of an enterprise in-vested in or established by overseas Chinese or foreign investors with the ROC government's approval, as referred to in Paragraph 2, Article 46 of the Employment and Service Act, must be a manager of a company invested in or estab-lished in accordance with the Act for Investment by Overseas Chinese or the Act for Investment by Foreign Nationals, or a manager of a branch of a foreign company.

Article 37 of the standards further requires that the employer meets one of the following condi-tions:

In the case of a company that is newly estab-lished or has been operating for less than one year, if it is an ROC company, its paid-in capital must be at least NT$5 million, or if it is an ROC branch of a foreign company, its op-erating funds within Taiwan must be at least NT$5 million.

Its turnover in the most recent year, or its av-erage annual turnover over the last three years, was at least NT$10 million.

Its total import and export volume in the most recent year, or its average annual import and export volume over the last three years, was at least US$1 million, or its average agency commission over the last three years was at least US$400,000.
The standards impose the above qualifying con-ditions for the employment of both general manager and branch office managers. Therefore a foreign company employing a foreign national to manage its branch office should also have operating funds of at least NT$5 million within Taiwan.

However, in response to the negative reaction that this requirement has provoked, the Council of Labor Affairs has reportedly expressed that it would hold internal meetings to discuss whether the threshold should be lowered.