National Immigration Agency or (NIA) (Traditional Chinese:內政部入出國及移民署) is the statutory agency under the Ministry of Interior which is responsible for immigration, entry and exit security, border services, citizenship, visas, and registration of foreigners transiting the Free Area of the Republic of China. The agency is headed by the Director General. The current Director General is Hsieh, Li-Kung.[1]
The agency does not manage customs which is managed by the Ministry of Finance.
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The agency was established in early 2007 to deal with immigration and border control. This include the care and guidance of new immigrants, t exit and entry control, the inspection on illegal immigrants, the forcible deportation, and the prevention of trafficking in persons.[2] The agency also deals with persons from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau who do not hold household registration in Taiwan.
Prior to that it was known as the Taiwan Province Garrison Headquarters and Taiwan Province Police Department. It was initially in charge of Taiwan’s border control for both military personnel and civilians respectively. In 1952, Military Personnel and Civilians Exit and Entry United Scrutiny Department was established and became the authority for border control.
In March 1957, the department’s name was changed to Entry and Exit Control Department, subordinated to Taiwan Vigilance Headquarters and then to Taiwan Garrison Headquarters created in July 1958. In 1972, the government delegated border control, originally under the defense establishment, to a common administrative agency in response to the needs for social development and consequently the Immigration Bureau under the National Police Agency was established. [3]
For years, Taiwan’s border control and immigration had been separately administered by various agencies, resulting in the administrative inefficiency. The Immigration Act was promulgated on 21 May 1999, which proposed the National Immigration Agency or NIA, shall be established under the Ministry of the Interior to be responsible of border control and immigration. Subsequently, other statutes related to the NIA were also drafted and then passed by the Legislature Yuan on 8 November 2005 and promulgated by the President on 11 November 2005. Therefore, the NIA has been officially established since 2 January 2007. [4]
The National Immigration Agency is organised in the following structure. [5]
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