In order to celebrate the Lantern Festival with new immigrants, Taoyuan City Service Center of the National Immigration Agency held a family education and legal course for new immigrants and invited their families to participate on February 22, 2024. During the course, people made paper lanterns and solved riddles to celebrate the Lantern Festival. Meanwhile, Taoyuan City Service Center also promoted the new penalties related to Taiwan's Immigration Act.
Taoyuan City Service Center stated that amendments to Taiwan's Immigration Act and related regulations will take effect on March 1, 2024. For example, the fines for foreigners and nationals without household registration in the Taiwan Area who overstay will be increased. They will be fined between NT$10,000 and NT$50,000. Besides, foreigners who overstay will face an entry ban of up to seven years. New immigrants were reminded to pay attention to the validity period of their stay and residency to avoid the loss of their own rights. If new immigrants want to know the detailed information, they can visit the National Immigration Agency’s global website (website: https://www.immigration.gov.tw/) or call Taoyuan City Service Center (TEL: 03-3310409).
In the lantern DIY activity, Ms. Kuan, an immigrant from Indonesia, was invited to introduce Taiwanese traditional folk culture to participants and led them to use brushes to paint on the brightly colored lanterns with their creativity to create a unique one. In the riddle solving activity, the riddles also included the new regulations of the Immigration Act to allow new immigrants to understand in a relaxed and lively way. In addition to winning exquisite prizes, those who solved the riddles would also deepen their understanding of the new immigration law.
Huang Ying-Kuei (黃英貴), director of Taoyuan City Service Center, said that the service center holds a family education and legal course for new immigrants monthly. The content of the course is diverse and entertaining, and new immigrants can obtain the proof of class hours required for naturalization. In addition, applications for the “Empowerment and Scholarship Program for New Immigrants and Their Children for the 2023 Academic Year " are open on February 22, 2024. All application requirements must be submitted to the scholarship system (website: https://sp.immigration.gov.tw) to complete the application online before March 22, 2024.