When the Specialized Operation Corps of National Immigration Agency conducted an online inspection recently, they found on a Facebook Vietnam fanpage that there are new residents who intended to make money posting messages about “fee-based” services for nationalization and Alien Residence Certificate applications in Vietnamese language. They provided recommendations from old customers as examples of successful cases to attract new customers. This is a violation of the Immigration Act and the responsible parties have been penalized by the National Immigration Agency based on the regulations.
According to the National Immigration Agency, immigration affairs, including residency, permanent residency, and naturalization, are all the business categories. Therefore, an agency has to be registered to be a “company” according to the law. After acquiring a permit from the National Immigration Agency, the agency may provide immigration services. This is regulated, chartered industry, and without permission from the authority, posting ads for providing immigration services or recruiting sales for certificate application services is prohibited. Those who violate the regulations may be fined between NTD$200,000 and NTD$1 million per violation.
The National Immigration Agency would like to remind new residents that there are service stations set up in municipalities, counties, and cities island-wide to provide foreigners with residency and permanent residency applications. There is also a hotline service. New residents can apply for all the required certificates under a family member’s accompaniment or in person after they come to Taiwan. If new residents from Southern Asia need a language interpretation service, there are also interpreters available onsite providing consultancy and guidance services in Vietnamese, Indonesian, and other languages. In addition, if new residents don’t have time to apply for certificates themselves and look for an agency, they can go to the official website of the National Immigration Agency to find one from the list of legal immigration agencies. We also remind new residents that, before signing the contract, ask questions and compare agencies to protect your own consumer rights.
Telephone of the Miaoli Service Station of the National Immigration Agency, Ministry of the Interior: 037-322350
Online Application Zone of the National Immigration Agency, Ministry of the Interior: https://ncp.immigration.gov.tw/GlobalQA/