In order to effectively stop Mainland people from using fake marriages to come to Taiwan, the Immigration Office National Police Agency, Ministry of the Interior, has implemented an interview mechanism for Mainland spouses starting on September 1, 2003, in accordance with the Executive Yuan resolution dated August 27, 2003. In coordination to this, Article 10-1 has also been supplemented in the amendment of the “Act Governing Relations Between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area,” clearly stipulating that Mainland people applying to enter the Taiwan area for family reunion, temporary residence, or permanent stay shall go through an interview process. The Ministry of the Interior thereupon formulated the “Regulations Governing the Interview Management Regarding Mainland People’s Application to Enter the Taiwan Area,” which took effect on March 1 this year, hoping that fake marriages would be screened through the implementation of separate interviews of Taiwanese people and their Mainland spouses, that genuine cross-Strait marriages would be ensured, and that the further safeguarding of the rights and interests of the legal Mainland spouses in Taiwan would be ascertained.
The implementation of the interview procedures by the Immigration Office consists of three stages. In the first stage, the Taiwanese spouse is interviewed within Taiwan first. Another interview is conducted at Taiwan’s border crossings right before the Mainland spouse enters Taiwan. If there are remaining doubts after this interview at Taiwan’s border crossings, within one month after the Mainland spouse has entered Taiwan, both husband and wife should proceed to the Immigration Office for a second interview. The results of the implementation are as follows:
1. Interview with the Taiwanese spouse before the entry of the Mainland spouse into Taiwan: a total of 6,174 Taiwanese spouses were interviewed between December 1, 2003 and May 16, 2004, among which 592 are discovered to be involved in fake marriages. In these instances, the Mainland spouses were not issued entry permits to Taiwan.
2. Interview with the Mainland spouse at Taiwan’s border crossings: a total of 27,414 Mainland spouses were interviewed as of May 16, 2004, and 1,574 interviewees were discovered to be involved in fake marriages and were not issued entry permits into Taiwan.
3. Second-time interviews with Mainland spouses that were suspected to be involved in fake marriages: a total of 2,214 interviews were conducted, and 290 Mainland spouses were discovered to be involved in fake marriages and were imposed compulsory deportation in accordance with the law.
The Immigration Office started to comprehensively conduct the interview mechanism on September 1, 2003. From July 1, 2003 to June 2004, the Immigration Office has released nearly 15,000 entry permits to Mainland spouses who have not yet entered Taiwan. Having exceeded the two-month period wherein they were allowed by the Mainland’s public security authorities to exit the country, these Mainland spouses seemed to have taken a wait-and-see attitude and hesitated to enter Taiwan. The aforementioned number of confirmed fake marriages does not include these approximately 15,000 Mainland spouses who have waited until now and have not dared to enter Taiwan.
Most of the aforementioned confirmed cases of fake marriages have not applied for administrative relief as of May 2, 2004, except for 355 cases, which make up only 19% of the total number of cases. Among these cases, 142 are being handled by the Immigration Office, 85 are being reviewed by the Ministry of the Interior, 17 penalty cases have been revoked, 93 appeals were turned down, 15 were not entertained, and one administrative appeal was filed. The penalty cases revoked make up 13% of the total number of administrative relief cases; the cases turned down and not entertained make up approximately 84% of the total number of administrative relief cases, showing that the penalties imposed during the interview right before entry into Taiwan have a significantly high accuracy rate. A set of standardized procedures for the conduct of the interview has been studied and formulated, to serve as a basis for conducting the interviews. The fake marriages determined by the Immigration Office through the interviews were identified after a rigorous process of careful review. Moreover, the Immigration Office has reinforced the holding of seminars and forums, and has invited specialists and experts to talk about the actual business of conducting an interview and the related skills required. Pre-interview workshops are being conducted to enhance the quality and the interview skills of the officials responsible for conducting interviews, to ensure that the interviews are being conducted prudently and properly and to achieve the goal of effectively screening fake marriages.