Three Steps, "Inspect, Verify, and Enquire" for Hiring Foreigners for Upcoming Spring Festival

The Lunar New Year is approaching, and many new immigrants and foreign students may take advantage of the time to work part-time to cover living expenses. The Labor Affairs Department of the New Taipei City Government encourages all industries to remember the three steps of "inspect, verify, and enquire" for personnel when confronting a labor shortage at the beginning and end of the year, and to be careful not to hire illegal foreigners and break the law.

• Three steps of "inspect, verify, and enquire" when hiring foreigners

The first step: Inspect whether the original resident certificate or work permit provided by the foreigner is a fraudulent document by visiting the "National Immigration Agency Validation of Resident Certificate Website," and please remember to take a photo and retain it.

The second step: To prevent the fraudulent use of other people's certificates to apply for jobs, remember to immediately verify that the certificate's photo matches the applicant's foreign identity.

The third step: Never hire "foreigners who come to Taiwan for sightseeing" or "migrant workers hired by others"; always verify the identification of the foreigner immediately. Although new immigrants are exempt from applying for work permits, they still need to check the originals of residence permits, passports, and dependent household registration information to truly verify their identity. Foreign students are also required to check their alien residence permits, student IDs, and work permits.

The Labor Affairs Department of the New Taipei City Government reminds people not to assume that just because you don't pay a foreign employee a wage, they aren't considered to be employed. Whether it's some help between friends or a mistaken belief that work exchange won't be against the law, it still counts as illegal accommodation and is against the law. You can visit the website of Workforce Development Agency, Ministry of Labor to learn more about the regulations on hiring of foreigners. National Immigration Agency, Ministry of Interior can be contacted at (02) 2388-9393 if the public are uncertain about the validity of migrant workers' identifications.