A government online work permit application system for foreign nationals has been expanded to cover cram schools, art-related jobs, and the adult children of work permit-holding foreign professionals, the Workforce Development Agency (WDA) under the Ministry of Labor (MOL) announced on Thursday.
The WDA EZ Work Permit website has been handling applications from local companies to employ foreign nationals for managerial positions and from foreign legal persons to dispatch employees to Taiwan, as well as from sports and art related agencies to hire international talents, said the MOL.
Now, cram schools may also create an account on the EZ Work Permit website to apply for work permits and to renew the permits of their foreign employees online.
To create an account, cram schools will need to provide the website with their organization certificate.
Meanwhile, those who want to apply for work permits relating to art-related jobs and for adult children of foreign professionals may also create personal accounts on the website to apply.
As the accounts will be for personal applications, permit applicants will only need to submit their name, nationality and passport number to create one.
The MOL said that unlike offices which have regular government business hours, the online service is operational 24/7.
As long as the necessary documents are in order, it will only take seven working days at the most to process and issue permit applications, said the MOL.
However, during power outages or site maintenance emergencies, applications can be submitted on paper to the WDA.
The MOL went on to explain that the decision to expand the online service was made after its statistics showed that work permit applications for the three categories remained stable during the COVID-19 pandemic.
MOL figures show that the ministry consistently processes an average of 6,800 applications from cram schools annually, as well as around 450 applications for art-related job permits and approximately 75 work permit applications from the adult children of foreign professionals.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel