The government of Taiwan recently requested additional requirements for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who want to work in their country making the processing and deployment of OFWs bound to Taiwan more tedious. The new guidelines ordered by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Manila are the result of a recent rift that transpired between the Philippines and Taiwan.

The TECO in Manila now require all Taiwan-bound OFWs to submit the following before they will be issued a work visa: DFA- and TECO-authenticated birth certificate, NBI clearance, and original and photocopies of ID cards issued by the SSS, Philhealth and Comelec.

To cope with these new guidelines and to help OFWs who are seeking employment in Taiwan, the Philippine government ordered five government agencies to set up special lanes for OFWs bound to Taiwan. Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. said in a press statement that the special lanes was stated in the in a memorandum issued on Feb. 14. The government agencies with special lanes that are exclusively for the processing and authentication or issuance of documents of Taiwan-bound OFWs are the following:

·         Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA),

·         National Bureau of Investigation (NBI),

·         National Statistics Office

·         Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth),

·         Social Security System (SSS)

The government is hoping that this move would expedite the processing of requirements of OFWs and would lessen the impact of the new guidelines issued by TECO.

Ochoa said, “Our priority here is the welfare of our citizens who have already obtained employment in Taiwan, but are now having difficulty getting their visas to Taiwan because of the new requirements issued by TECO."