Beset by a lack of talent like much of East Asia, Taiwan has followed Hong Kong in relaxing visa rules to allow foreign university students to stay longer after graduation to search for a job – a process that could hand the island as many as 200,000 new white-collar employees by 2032.
On New Year’s Day, the world’s 21st-largest economy and one of Asia’s earliest industrialised nations, extended the limit to two years, a National Immigration Agency spokeswoman said. The previous rule allowed graduates to stay for just six months to a year.
The change is aimed at plugging a talent shortage that has surged with Taiwan’s declining and ageing population.
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Hong Kong already allows international students to stay up to two years after graduation, while Japan created a “visa framework” in 2023 that could eventually allow foreign graduates to stay up to two years.
Singapore, meanwhile, allows graduates to stay for just three months.
During their deliberations in May, Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency said increasing the limit to two years “would quickly solve the labour shortage issue”.
Taiwan is particularly short of workers in manufacturing, semiconductors, retail, food services, hospitality and construction, according to Sherry Chiang, an associate with the 104 Job Bank in Taipei.
The number of open jobs in Taiwan had grown from 555,000 since early 2020 to just over 1 million in December, she said, although there is on average only one local applicant for every two positions.
A recent study found that 86 per cent of foreign students in Taiwan were willing to seek work on the island after they graduate, the government’s Overseas Community Affairs Council said this month on its website.
National Development Council head Kung Ming-hsin said in September 2022 that Taiwan would try to attract 400,000 mostly white-collar foreign workers by 2032, with about half expected to come through the island’s universities.
“It’s not easy to get a job, but once you get it, it’s smooth sailing,” said 33-year-old Malaysian national Loh Yiheng, who already had a law degree from Malaysia before moving to Taiwan to study.
Loh needed six months after graduating from the Taipei-based National Chengchi University in 2022 with a master’s degree in communications to land a job assisting a National Taiwan University of Science and Technology professor with research on consumer data protection.
He said he decided to stay in Taiwan largely due to the convenient public transport network.
Taiwan’s 148 universities are weighted heavily toward science and technology in line with the island’s 50-year-old legacy as a tech hardware manufacturer.
Most international students come from Southeast Asia due to Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy, which is aimed at building closer economic ties with a group of 18 countries, including the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Taiwan’s foreign student population reached a record high of 130,000 in 2019, with 63,000 pursuing degrees. New international student arrivals hit about 17,000 in 2021 and 19,000 in 2022.
Taiwanese companies are keen to pick up Southeast Asian talent, who can later be deployed to work in Thailand and Vietnam, said Kent Chong, a partner with professional services firm PwC in Taipei.
Hong Kong extended its limit for non-local graduates from 12 to 24 months in 2022 “to further attract quality talent and enhance Hong Kong’s competitiveness”, an Education Bureau spokesman said.
In 2022, Hong Kong processed 9,126 cases involving mainland Chinese graduates who wanted to stay in the city for work, up from 6,105 a year earlier.
It also handled 1,265 applications from students from other countries and regions in 2022, up from 1,154 a year earlier, according to Hong Kong’s Immigration Department.
A 2023 survey by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce found that 74 per cent of employers were facing talent shortages, while in Japan, the job-to-application ratio had risen from 1.13 in 2021 to 1.28 as of 2022, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
For Taiwan, extending visas for foreign graduates builds on other measures to attract overseas workers to the island.
Seeking new avenues in talent hunt, Taiwan studies Asia’s first digital nomad visa
Foreign students in manufacturing and construction, among other fields, can obtain two-year scholarships, while two counties in Taiwan are seeking to make life easier for digital nomads – a term usually meaning white-collar workers without fixed offices.
In November, the National Development Council also opened a “one-stop services” talent office to help foreign professionals and their dependents. The office employs bilingual agents to answer questions about becoming established in Taiwan and draws on the expertise of law and accounting firms.
But while visa extensions would provide graduates time to obtain work, they would not necessarily ensure good matches with employers, said David Chang, general secretary of Crossroads, a non-profit organisation that promotes Taiwan’s internationalisation.
He said employers may prefer to hire domestic talent and that the “work culture” in Taiwan could baffle foreigners.
And only the most skilful and highly-paid foreign students are likely to land jobs that allow them stay in Taiwan long term, said Hu Jin-li, a professor with the Institute of Business and Management at the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taipei.
He cited tough rules on hiring foreign nationals.
Taipei should instead follow Singapore’s lead in allowing increased hiring of skilful foreigners directly from overseas, Hu added.
“If you close the door, you’re going to just shrink down yourself, so you should leave it open,” he said.
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