Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/01/06
By: Joseph Yeh

Image courtesy of the National Immigration Agency

Taipei, Jan. 6 (CNA) Taiwan will soon introduce a five-month amnesty program for foreign nationals who have overstayed their visas, allowing them to pay smaller fines once they report to immigration authorities during the grace period, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said Sunday.

At a press conference, NIA Director General Chiu Feng-kuang (邱豐光) said the number of overstays has been on the increase and had reached 88,000 as of October 2018.

In a bid to deal with the situation, he said, the NIA has decided to give overstaying foreign nationals a five-month period of amnesty, from February to June, during which they will be subject to a reduced fine and shortened reentry ban if they report to the relevant authorities.

In such circumstances, there will be no mandatory detention, while the maximum penalty will be NT$2,000 and an reentry ban compared with detention, a maximum fine of NT$10,000 and an entry ban of eight years for those who do not voluntarily contact immigration authorities, Chiu said.    [FULL  STORY]