TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Well-known American YouTuber Hailey Jane Richards (莫彩曦) has been granted an Employment Gold Card by the Taiwanese government for her promotion of Taiwan through online videos and foreign media.

In a released statement on Tuesday (Feb. 16), the National Immigration Agency (NIA) announced that it has approved Richards' application for an Employment Gold Card (就業金卡) filed last year. It said the 23-year-old San Francisco native has helped spread a positive image of Taiwan and increased the country's visibility on the global stage.

According to the NIA, Richards has shared her love for Taiwan through YouTube videos as well as on American television, such as on CBS News Bay Area. Recently, she also put together a video of foreign nationals thanking Taiwan for its assistance to the global community during the coronavirus pandemic.

The NIA said that the Employment Gold Card is issued across eight fields of expertise to foreign professionals interested in living and working in Taiwan. The Gold Card provides more flexible working conditions than other types of visas available to foreigners, as it is simultaneously a work permit, residency visa, alien resident certificate, and re-entry permit, it explained.

Since being assigned to Taiwan as a Mormon missionary in 2016, Richards has fallen in love with the country's beautiful scenery and friendly people. She has accumulated over one million subscribers on YouTube after catapulting to fame in 2019 with a video that compared the services and cultural differences between 7-11s in Taiwan and the U.S.

Hailey Jane Richards (right) and husband Adam wrote Chinese calligraphy to celebrate Lunar New Year holiday. (NIA photo)