UK eases working holiday application process for Taiwan

2016/12/08

The U.K. government recently announced its decision to grant Deemed Sponsorship Status to Taiwan applicants for its Youth Mobility Scheme, easing the requirements for local youth to take part in the working holiday program.

Taiwan signed up to the YMS in 2011. Under the arrangement, up to 1,000 local citizens aged 18 to 30 are chosen each year to travel to the U.K. for working holidays. They can remain for a maximum of two years.

Before the latest development, applicants had to obtain a certificate of sponsorship issued by the Youth Development Administration under the Ministry of Education. Beginning Jan. 1, 2017, this will no longer be a requirement.

“The new status indicates Taiwanese pose a low risk of overstaying their visas and reflects the U.K.’s recognition of the high quality of our citizens,” an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs said. “It also speaks volumes about the ever-improving substantial relations between the two sides.”

People from eight countries and territories can apply for the YMS. At present, citizens from five nations, namely Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Monaco, are eligible for Deemed Sponsorship Status.

The U.K. extended visa-waiver privileges to Taiwan in March 2009, becoming the first Western nation to do so. It included Taiwan in its Registered Traveller Service program in January 2016, giving eligible visitors speedy customs clearance at 10 major airports in the country as well as at Eurostar terminals at Paris, Brussels and northern France’s Lille.

Travelers from Taiwan made nearly 55,000 visits to the U.K. in 2015, a 15.5 percent increase from the previous year. The country attracted US$1.7 billion in investment from Taiwan last year, more than any other European nation, according to the Investment Commission of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=250130&ctNode=2194&mp=9)