Working in Taiwan
The employer’s work permit, the Employment Gold Card, the 2026 reform of the foreign professionals law, and the tax incentive
Taiwan has two doors, and they are not variants of each other. The ordinary work permit is applied for by a Taiwanese employer that already exists; the Employment Gold Card is applied for by the individual and needs no employer at all. Since 1 January 2026 a third, narrower door has opened for recent graduates of leading universities. Which door is used depends on whether the company is there yet — which is why a founder and a first employee follow different routes.
The ordinary route: the employer applies
A foreign national engaged in specialised or technical work needs a work permit from the Ministry of Labor, applied for by the employing company under the Employment Service Act and the Regulations on the Permission and Administration of the Employment of Foreign Workers. The permit then supports the resident visa, and the resident visa leads to the Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) issued by the National Immigration Agency.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Work permit | The Taiwanese employer applies online to the Ministry of Labor. A complete online file is normally decided within about seven working days; count several weeks from the start of document collection to the permit in hand. Validity is up to three years, renewable by the employer within the four months before expiry. |
| Resident visa | Applied for by the individual at a Taiwanese representative office abroad, on production of the permit approval. |
| Alien Resident Certificate | Registered with the National Immigration Agency after arrival, within the period stated on the visa — roughly a month — and a late filing is fined. The permit approval letter is presented at the counter, so the ARC cannot be filed before the permit exists. The ARC, not the visa, is what the person lives on. |
What the candidate has to satisfy
The Ministry of Labor accepts one of four qualifications:
- a professional qualification obtained by examination — the route for doctors, lawyers, architects and the other regulated professions; or
- a master’s degree or above in a related field, from a Taiwanese or foreign university, or a bachelor’s degree in a related field with at least two years of related experience; or
- at least one year of employment in a multinational group, followed by assignment to a post in Taiwan; or
- professional training or self-taught practice, at least five years of related experience, and an original idea or special skill — the route that needs no degree and the most evidence. A consultation procedure can exempt outstanding professionals from the five years, and innovative start-ups recognised as such are not held to the experience limit.
Above the qualification sits a salary floor. The monthly average remuneration of a foreign professional must be at least NT$47,971 (about US$1,470, at NT$32.6 to the US dollar, 22 October 2026), the figure published by the Workforce Development Agency, unless a specific regulation sets another amount. A foreign graduate of a Taiwanese university may be hired at a lower floor, NT$37,619 (about US$1,150), and without the two-year experience requirement. The floor is a minimum, not a target: a package at the floor for a senior post invites the question whether the work is genuinely specialised.
The application tests the company as much as the candidate. Under Article 36 of the Regulations, the employer must show a minimum size by one of several alternatives. For a company less than a year old, the paid-in capital alternative is NT$5 million (about US$153,000); for an older company, average annual turnover of NT$10 million (about US$307,000) is the usual test; import-export volume, agency commissions, an approved representative office with a record of activity, or a recognised research and development centre are the other routes. A branch of a foreign company under a year old is assessed on its operating funds instead of paid-in capital. A permit filed too soon after incorporation, on a company that has not yet reached these levels, is the most common reason an otherwise sound application fails.
The Employment Gold Card
The Gold Card exists to solve a specific problem: the ordinary permit requires an employer, and a founder has no employer yet. It is applied for by the individual, on the National Immigration Agency’s online platform, and it combines four documents in one card — work permit, resident visa, alien resident certificate and re-entry permit. It is issued under the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals and administered by the National Development Council and the Gold Card Office.
It is an open work permit. The holder is not sponsored by, or tied to, any employer: they may found a company, be employed, consult, hold several posts, or none. It is issued for one to three years, at the applicant’s choice, and can be applied for again. The applicant chooses one field among twelve and is assessed on the criteria of that field alone; since the 2026 reform, environment and biotechnology are among them. A case that fits no field can be reviewed by the National Development Council as a special case. Choosing the wrong field is a frequent reason for refusal. The statutory review period is thirty working days, but applications as a whole commonly take two months or more once passport inspection and requests for further documents are counted. On the Gold Card Office’s count, 8,526 cards were valid on 31 March 2026, out of 16,316 approved since the card was introduced in February 2018.
Where the Gold Card is the right answer
A founder who must be in Taiwan before the company exists. A consultant serving several clients. A senior person testing the market before committing a group to an establishment. Anyone whose qualifying evidence — income, publications, a recognised record — is stronger than the post on offer.
Where the ordinary permit is the right answer
A group transferring a manager into an existing Taiwanese subsidiary or branch. A local hire onto a defined post. Any case where the employer is solid, the salary is comfortably above the floor, and tying the person to the company is not a problem.
The Gold Card is a personal permission. If it expires or its renewal is refused, the right to work ends with it, whereas an employer-sponsored permit can be moved to a new application. A founder who holds the card and later sponsors themselves through their own company should plan the changeover before the card expires, not after.
The 2026 reform of the foreign professionals law
The Legislative Yuan passed the second comprehensive amendment of the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals on 29 August 2025, and it was promulgated on 24 September 2025. Most provisions took effect on 1 January 2026; the remaining provisions, on long-term care and disability services for permanent residents, followed on 30 June 2026. The changes that matter to a company are these.
| Change | In practice |
|---|---|
| Wider experience waiver | Graduates of universities on the Ministry of Education’s list are exempt from the two years of work experience. The list now covers the world’s top 1,500 universities instead of the top 500. |
| Open work period for graduates | A foreign student who earns an associate degree or higher in Taiwan may work during an extended post-graduation stay without a work permit; the stay can be extended by one year, and once more if needed, up to two years in all. |
| Direct application for top graduates | A bachelor’s degree or higher earned within the past five years at a top-200 university allows the person to apply to the Ministry of Labor without an employer. The permit lasts up to two years and cannot be extended; staying longer needs an employer’s application. |
| Spouses | The spouse of a foreign professional or special professional, granted dependent residence, may apply to the Ministry of Labor for a work permit directly. The permit cannot run beyond the dependent residence. |
| Pension | Foreign professionals are brought into the labour pension system with individual accounts, to which the employer contributes at least 6 percent of monthly wages. Employees hired before 1 January 2026 who stay with the same employer could keep the old scheme by written request made by 30 June 2026; the choice cannot be reversed. |
| Permanent residence | Foreign professionals still need five years’ residence, special professionals three, at 183 days a year; time spent obtaining a degree in Taiwan now counts toward the period. |
| Digital nomads | Nationals of visa-exempt countries may stay up to two years instead of six months, in extensions of up to six months. |
Being an employee in Taiwan
Income tax
Presence of 183 days or more in a calendar year makes the person a tax resident, taxed on a progressive scale from 5 percent to 40 percent; for income of 2025, the top rate applies above NT$4,980,000 (about US$153,000), and the annual return is filed in May. A non-resident present for fewer than 183 days pays a flat 18 percent on Taiwan-sourced salary; in a stay of under 90 days, salary paid by a foreign entity is outside the Taiwanese tax. The year of arrival deserves planning rather than discovery.
Insurance and pension
An employee is enrolled by the employer in labour insurance, employment insurance and National Health Insurance, with contributions shared between employer, employee and the state, and the employer’s pension contribution described above. Special professionals and senior professionals who run their own business, and their dependants, may join National Health Insurance without the usual six-month wait.
Under Article 20 of the Act, a foreign special professional who is resident for at least 183 days and has salary income above NT$3 million (about US$92,000) pays tax on only NT$3 million plus half of the salary above it, for five years counted from the first tax year in which both conditions are met; the 2021 amendment extended the period from three years to five. Qualifying foreign-source income is also left out of the basic income tax computation over the same period. The incentive is claimed in the return, not granted with the card, and eligibility should be confirmed before the first filing rather than after.
What we do, and what we do not
We have no Taiwanese establishment, and we say so. What we do is the work around the Taiwanese file: deciding, before costs are committed, whether a person should come on a Gold Card or wait for a subsidiary or branch to be able to sponsor; the group’s corporate documents that a Taiwanese application asks for — certificates, board resolutions, signed attestations, notarised and legalised for use in Taiwan; the sequence between company, permit and arrival; and the coordination of Taiwanese counsel and accountants, whose filings remain theirs. Where a founder is deciding between a Gold Card and waiting, that is a structuring question before it is an immigration one, and it is one we answer.