Taiwan Opens Hotel Jobs to Foreign Workers as the First 35 Indonesians Arrive

Taiwan has let its hotels hire skilled workers from abroad for the first time, and the first recruits are already starting work. Reporting at Focus Taiwan says the 35 Indonesians recruited by Regent Taipei arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Monday, Sept. 14, under a government program launched in January. At Metaintro we follow hiring from the worker's side, so here is the short answer. Taiwan's hospitality sector is now open to foreign skilled workers in housekeeping, cleaning, front desk and food service roles, and the government rules set a regular monthly salary of at least NT$32,000 per foreign skilled worker. Indonesia's trade office in Taipei says the program is "zero cost" for its workers, with recruitment-related expenses borne by employers.

What happened

The arrivals came under what the Focus Taiwan arrival report calls the Multinational Skilled Worker Enhancement Program, which Taiwan launched in January to allow hospitality businesses to recruit foreign skilled workers. At a welcoming ceremony at the airport, a deputy director of the Ministry of Labor's cross-border recruitment center spoke to CNA about the new category of worker. The new hires are mostly in their 20s, and every one of them had previously spent at least a year interning in Taiwan. That history is the reason a single hotel could move from approval to arrival in about a month.

The approval itself was announced in August. An earlier Focus Taiwan report says Regent Taipei received approval on Aug. 13 and was the first business in the hospitality sector to recruit foreign intermediate skilled workers under the new initiative. The Taipei Times account of the same announcement adds that the hotel obtained employment permits for 37 Indonesian workers and that the recruits already had hospitality service experience and knew the local working environment, so they could begin work immediately. The hotel chose former students who had trained on site during an internship program launched by the government in 2024.

Not everyone approved made the first flight. The Indonesian trade representative told CNA that two did not pass the required medical examinations and are expected to arrive with a later group. Regent's human resources director said the workers will mainly return to the departments where they previously worked as interns, including food and beverage and housekeeping. He described the shift in status in one line to the reporter. They were interns before, and now, as he put it in the Focus Taiwan interview, they are becoming full-time employees.

Indonesia's trade office representative said the program is "zero cost" for Indonesian workers, with recruitment-related expenses borne by employers, according to Focus Taiwan.

The program was approved well before it launched. Reporting in the Taipei Times on the Cabinet decision says the Executive Yuan approved a proposal by the Ministry of Labor that let hotels recruit mid-level foreign staff for housekeeping and three other lines of work. The Taiwan News summary of that decision lists the permitted jobs as room service, cleaning, service-desk, and restaurant work. A broadcast report from Formosa TV described the same four areas as housekeeping, cleaning, reception and food service, with salaries starting at NT$32,000.

The reason hotels pushed for the change is a shortage that local hiring never closed. The Taipei Times reported that a 2023 survey conducted by the Tourism Administration found that Taiwan's lodging industry was short of about 6,600 housekeeping and cleaning workers. Earlier fixes helped but fell short. Hotels that hired Taiwanese staff for cleaning received subsidies, and the agency also opened hotel work to international graduates of Taiwanese colleges, measures that together helped recruit 3,964 people for the industry.

The deeper cause is demographic. The Taipei Times August report says the ministry widened foreign hiring to address shortages tied to Taiwan's declining birthrate and transition into a super-aged society. BusinessWorld's reporting from Manila cites the Ministry of the Interior, which reported that Taiwan reached the super-aged threshold, where 20% of the population is aged 65 or older, at the end of 2025. The same Taipei Times report says the scheme also extends to cargo handling and distribution at commercial ports, so hotels are one part of a wider push to bring in workers from abroad.

The hotel industry welcomed the opening. One hotelier told the Formosa TV broadcast that some Taiwanese people might not want to do these jobs. Hsiao Ching-tien of the Taiwan Tourist Hotel Association said new mid-level staff will all have to undergo training for about six months, a reminder that arrival is the start of the process, not the end of it.

Employer demand is real but still modest. Ministry data in the Taipei Times August report showed more than 50 hospitality operators have initiated domestic recruitment procedures, seeking more than 500 workers. Recruitment lines are open in several countries, and the ministry has established recruitment channels for foreign technical workers from Indonesia and Thailand and reached a preliminary agreement with Vietnam, while an agreement with the Philippines is still being prepared. The Indonesian trade office, for its part, has already received several job orders from other hotels in Taiwan and is checking them now.

Where the coverage agrees, and where it splits

The reports that spell out the rules agree on the basic bargain. Hotels get access to foreign staff, and in exchange they must protect local pay. The Taiwan News summary says employers must raise the monthly salary of one Taiwanese worker by NT$2,000 (US$65) for each migrant worker hired. The Taipei Times August report describes the same rule as a NT$2,000 monthly raise to one domestic worker for every foreign technical worker recruited from abroad.

Coverage also lines up on the hiring cap. The same Taiwan News piece explains that a hotel with 100 employees covered by labor insurance may employ up to 10 foreign intermediate-skilled staff, which matches the limit of 10 percent of its employees covered by the Labor Insurance program reported in the Taipei Times. For workers, that cap matters. A small guesthouse cannot hire a large foreign team, so most openings will sit at bigger hotels.

The size of the shortage is where the numbers drift. At the airport, a labor official cited Tourism Administration figures showing an annual labor shortage of around 6,000 workers. The Taipei Times put the gap at about 6,600 housekeeping and cleaning workers based on a 2023 Tourism Administration survey. A diplomat speaking to BusinessWorld turned a similar figure into a forecast, saying the hospitality sector is expected to need approximately 6,600 workers in 2026. A count of missing cleaners is not the same thing as a hiring forecast for the whole sector, so treat any of these figures as a rough sense of scale rather than a count of open jobs.

The coverage also split on where workers would come from. The Taipei Times October report quoted an official saying recruits are most likely to be recruited from the Philippines. BusinessWorld goes further and says Taiwan has selected the Philippines as its primary partner for the program, having established its first overseas recruitment center in Manila. Yet the first workers to arrive were Indonesian. The explanation is the pipeline, not the policy. Regent did not recruit strangers. It rehired interns it already knew, a route that moves faster than any new government channel.

The recruitment system with the Philippines is designed to bypass third-party brokers and reduce the financial burden on workers, according to BusinessWorld.

The label itself is contested. Most early coverage called these recruits migrant workers. The ministry rejects that framing. At the airport, the deputy director of its recruitment center said the category is different from general migrant workers because the jobs require a certain level of technical skill. Lawmakers were not unanimous either. A Taiwan People's Party legislator criticized the one-to-one wage ratio, pointing out in the October Taipei Times report that the construction industry is required to hire five Taiwanese before they can hire a foreign worker.

What most coverage glossed over is the actual eligibility test, and the primary document is far more detailed than a line about basic Mandarin. The eligibility page from the Workforce Development Agency sets out separate paths for people already in Taiwan and people recruited from overseas. A worker hired from abroad must have an associate degree or higher from a foreign university or college, or must have graduated from a foreign senior high school or higher, and has at least two years of relevant work experience recognized by the authorities.

Language is a real test. Overseas recruits must pass at least the Basic Level A2 in the speaking or listening sections of the Chinese or English language proficiency test, and anyone who qualifies with an English certificate must pass a Chinese test at that level within three years, per the same agency page. On skills, overseas recruits need one qualifying credential. The page lists passing an overseas skills test, designated hospitality training of at least 40 hours, or an internship of six months or longer in hospitality services in Taiwan within the three years prior to the application date. Another option is at least two years of work or internship experience at an international hotel chain. For anyone who has already interned at a hotel in Taiwan, that clause is the detail worth reading most closely.

The first arrivals are required to obtain at least A2-level Mandarin speaking or listening proficiency within three years of starting work in Taiwan, according to Focus Taiwan.

What this means for your job search

Our take is that this is a narrow door, but a real one, and the people best placed to walk through it are the ones who already have a foot in Taiwan. The first hotel to use the program did not advertise abroad. It called back interns who had performed well during their time on site. If you are a hospitality student or early career hotel worker, the lesson is that a placement abroad can be a job interview that lasts months.

Start by checking which path you fit. If you studied at a Taiwanese college, the domestic route is simpler, because graduates of Taiwanese universities or colleges with an associate degree or higher qualify and are exempt from the overseas language and skills certificates. If you are applying from home, look hard at the credential list. An internship, hotel chain experience or a related degree can each open the door, so pick the one you can document fastest.

Know the pay floor before you sign anything. Rules published by the agency require a regular monthly salary of at least NT$32,000 per foreign skilled worker, a figure Focus Taiwan reported as roughly US$1,041.58 when the plan was first announced. That is a minimum, not a promise of what you will take home, so ask any employer for the full monthly salary, the shift pattern, housing terms and deductions in writing. Treat an offer below that floor as a warning sign, not a bargain.

Refuse to pay for a job. Indonesia's trade office told Focus Taiwan the program is "zero cost" for Indonesian workers, and Taiwan's diplomats in Manila described a government to government system meant to bypass third-party brokers. If a recruiter asks for a placement fee, a training deposit or a visa processing charge for a hotel job in Taiwan, check it with your own government's labor office or the Taiwanese recruitment office in your country before you pay anything. Keep every message and receipt.

Begin Mandarin now, even if your certificate is in English. The recruits who landed this week must reach A2-level Mandarin speaking or listening proficiency within three years, and front desk and restaurant work reward conversational skills from the first day. Housekeeping is the entry point, but language is what moves a worker toward reception, guest relations and supervisory roles.

Be realistic about competition. Early demand from employers came to more than 500 workers across dozens of hotels, far below the size of the shortage the Tourism Administration describes. Openings will grow as recruitment channels with more countries come online, but for now, a clean medical check, documented experience and a language score will separate applicants. Remember that two of Regent's approved recruits were held back after failing the required medical examinations, so book any health checks early.

If you already work in a Taiwanese hotel, this matters for you too. For every foreign worker a hotel brings in from abroad, the rules require a NT$2,000 monthly raise to one domestic worker. Ask your manager whether your property has applied, and whether that raise is coming to your team.

Taiwan is not alone in this. Ageing economies are competing for the same hotel and service workers, from Europe, where Germany is forecasting a deep shortage of skilled workers, to Britain, where young people are out of work while hospitality roles sit open and the fight is over training rather than visas. For a hospitality worker with a portable skill, that competition is leverage. Use it to compare contracts, not just destinations.

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People Also Asked

Q: Which hotel jobs can foreign workers do in Taiwan?

A: Four types of work are open. Taiwan News lists them as room service, cleaning, service desk and restaurant work, and the first recruits are mainly returning to food and beverage and housekeeping departments at Regent Taipei.

Q: How much do foreign hotel workers earn in Taiwan?

A: The floor is a regular monthly salary of at least NT$32,000 per foreign skilled worker, according to the Workforce Development Agency. Employers also have to give a NT$2,000 monthly raise to one domestic worker for each worker they hire from abroad.

Q: Do workers have to pay recruitment fees to get these jobs?

A: They should not. Indonesia's trade office in Taipei said the program is "zero cost" for Indonesian workers, with recruitment-related expenses borne by employers, and the government to government channel with the Philippines is designed to bypass third-party brokers. Treat any request for a placement fee as a red flag.

Ready to explore? Housekeepers, front desk agents, servers and hotel supervisors bring guest service, teamwork and language skills that hospitality employers around the world are hiring for right now. Metaintro matches service and hospitality talent to employers with open roles. Create a free profile and start your search today.