The employment of civil service personnel shall be undertaken in accordance with the provisions of this Act by means of examinations to determine qualifications.

Examinations for civil service personnel shall be conducted in open competition; calculation of candidate scores may not be made subject to any special regulations connected to personal identity or status. In the event of any discrepancies between the Act and other laws, this Act shall prevail.

Examination quotas shall be determined by the annual needs of employing agencies. The agencies also determine the number of in-quota qualifiers, who shall be employed and allocated to positions in order of achievement. Examination scores are also used to identify a number of runner-ups who are listed on a reserve list that employing agencies may, with the approval of the allocating agencies, draw upon once the initial quota has been fully allocated.
Examinees who are simultaneously accepted as in-quota qualifiers for different levels or categories must select one for acceptance. Should the candidate fail to make the selection, the employing agency or examining organization will allocate them for training by the highest level or grade attained in the examination.

Any qualifier from the initial quota who is unable to accept the allocation of a post immediately may present evidence to that effect and make application to preserve his or her qualified status. Such extensions are subject to the following conditions and time limits:
a. For qualifiers currently performing their compulsory military service, extension is permitted only until the legal term of said service.
b. For qualifiers currently studying towards a Master's Degree, a maximum extension of three years is permitted; qualifiers preparing a Doctoral Degree are permitted a maximum extension of five years.
c. For qualifiers who are impeded in their freedom of action by circumstances beyond their immediate control, such as illness, pregnancy, childbirth, parental illness et cetera, a maximum extension of two years may be granted.
d. Qualifiers rearing children under three years, shall have their position retained for no more than three years. However, qualifiers whose partners are civil servants and currently on parental leave without pay are not eligible.

With the exception of those receiving extensions under Article 4 above, in-quota qualifiers should report to their particular training institution within the stipulated time. Persons who fail to meet this condition lose their qualifier status.
Qualifiers receiving an extension under the above listed conditions should, within a period of three months of the circumstances permitting the extension being terminated, apply to the Civil Service Protection and Training Commission for training. The Commission will inform the allocating agencies that said qualifier is available for posting. Persons who fail to apply within the stipulated period or who do not report to their designated training institution within the allotted time lose their qualifier status.
Persons on the reserve list who are unable to accept allocation due to military status or rearing children under three years of age may apply for deferred training within the stipulated time. Persons who have been placed on a reserve list but fail to attend the allocated training within the stipulated time or who have not been allocated training or a post before the results of the next such examination are published lose their qualifier status.

Examinations for civil service personnel are divided into Elementary, Junior and Senior levels, among which Senior Examinations are again divided into three levels by academic achievements. Successful candidates must remain at their allocated organization or school for three years of service before they may apply for transfer.
In order to meet staffing needs of institutions of a special nature, as well as to provide for the employment rights of indigenous peoples and the disabled, Special Examinations are held at grades 1 through 5 in accordance with the above said levels and grades. Except where this Act stipulates otherwise, persons qualifying under Special Examinations are not permitted to transfer outside the originally allocated agencies for a period of six years. Regulations regarding this six year restriction vary by the nature and scope of the examining organization and are stipulated in the respective examination regulations.
Persons qualifying under the above paragraph 2 or Article 24 and who are transferred to other agencies due to organizational restructuring, down-sizing, merger, changes in the chain of command or system, dissolving of the organization, or adjustments of duty are not bound by the above transfer restrictions. However, re-transfers within the time limit are restricted to the original organization, the transfer organization and sub-organizations thereof.

The regulations governing the Elementary, Junior, Senior and Special Examinations are determined by the Examination Yuan.
The above regulations include the eligible age, examination level, category and subject, criteria for the physical examinations, examination subjects, grade calculation and transfer restrictions.

The Ministry of Examination may apply with the Examination Yuan to set up specific regulations for special examinations for technical personnel working in high-technology occupations or occupations requiring unusual skills.
The standards for such high-technology positions or for occupations requiring unusual skills as in paragraph 1 above are determined by the Examination Yuan in conjunction with the Executive Yuan.
Persons who qualify under this provision obtain only a qualification to work in the functions designated by the agency requesting the examination; they may not transfer to another position.

The Examination Yuan may, depending on the actual requirements of the employing organizations, set physical examinations and limitations on age, military status and gender as part of the Civil Service Examination requirements.
Persons unable to pass or failing to take the above physical examinations within the stipulated time, may not sit the examination, and will not be accepted, trained or issued certificates of qualification.
The list of recogzised medical organizations, the content of the physical examinations, procedures thereof and other relevant matters shall be determined by the Examination Yuan.

A Civil Service Examination may consist of a written examination, an oral examination, mental or physical tests, on-site examinations, scrutiny of the candidate's published works or inventions, scrutiny of the evidence of the candidate's academic or work history, or other such methods. Unless a written examination is stipulated, at least two of these other examination methods shall be used. Unless another format is specifically stipulated, the written examinations are to be conducted and written in the character script of the national language.
Persons unable to participate in the physical examination due to pregnancy or childbirth, may apply for a retainment of their written examinations results until the date when they are able to attend another session of the physical examination of the same category of examination. Relevant regulations shall be drawn up by the Ministry of Examination pending the approval by the Examination Yuan.

The Civil Service Senior Examination, Junior Examination and Elementary Examination may, as circumstances may require, be administered in combination or separately, according to their respective levels, grades and categories.

Citizens of the Republic of China of eighteen years of age or older and holding the required qualifications for examination candidacy under this Act may sit examinations in accordance with this Act. Persons under any one of the categories below, however, may not sit an examination:
a. Any person convicted of offences against internal or external security since the end of the period of mobilization for the suppression of Communist rebellion, or whose lawsuits of such remain open;
b. Any person convicted of graft or corruption-related offences while in civil service position, or whose lawsuits of such remain open;
c. Any persons with active attainders;
d. Any persons who are under a judicial interdiction that has not yet been lifted.
Any person whose employment in the civil service has been suspended, and who subsequently qualifies in a civil service examination, may not be allocated or assigned to a civil service position during the period of said suspension.

The following qualifications are required of candidates for the Senior Examination:
a. Candidates holding a doctoral degree from a graduate school of a public or an accredited private university, or from a graduate school of an overseas university recognized by the Ministry of Education, or who have held for at least four years a Senior Examination Level 2 qualification in the same category obtained through a Civil Service examination, may apply for Level 1 Senior Examinations.
b. Candidates holding a master's degree from a graduate school of a public or an accredited private university, or from a graduate school of an overseas university recognized by the Ministry of Education, or who have held for at least two years a Level 3 Senior Examination qualification in the same category, may apply for Level 2 Senior Examinations.
c. Candidates who are graduates of a public or an accredited private institution of college grade or above, or of an overseas institution of college grade or above recognized by the Ministry of Education, or who have held for at least three years a Junior Examination qualification in the relevant category, may apply for Level 3 Senior Examinations.

Graduates from public or accredited private vocational schools or of corresponding departments of overseas vocational schools, or persons having passed junior examinations or above in corresponding subjects, or having passed elementary examinations in corresponding subjects for over three years may apply to sit the Civil Service Junior Examinations.

All citizens of the Republic of China of eighteen years of age or older may apply for the Civil Service Elementary Examination.

The requisite qualifications for candidates for Civil Service Special Examinations of all grades may be fixed in accordance with the provisions for candidate qualifications for the Senior Examination, Junior Examination and Elementary Examination as set out in Articles 15 through 17 of this Act.

The qualifications requirements for the various categories and subjects of Civil Service examinations are determined by the Ministry of Examination pending approval by the Examination Yuan.
Except where provided for in Articles 15 through 18 of this Act, qualification requirements for the various Civil Service Examinations may be extended to include the following, if deemed necessary for the level or category:
a. Increased academic requirements;
b. Related work or training experiences which can be documented;
c. Certified language skills of corresponding levels.
Where professional or legal regulations require, or where the nature of the employing organization necessitates, applicants for Civil Service Examinations must hold all related professional qualifications before they may participate in the examinations. The criteria shall be set by the Ministry of Examination pending approval of the Examination Yuan.
The scrutiny and verification of candidate qualifications are to be carried out by the Ministry of Examination or by an institution appointed to this ffect by the Ministry. The regulations for such scrutiny and verification are to be set by the Examination Yuan.

All Civil Service Examinations may be conducted in two or more stages and in separate locations. The categories, locations, dates and other pertinent details of each examination are to be published by the Ministry of Examination two months prior to the date of examination. Examinations conducted under the terms of Article 4 of this Act are not subject to these restrictions.
Candidates for all examinations shall pay an application fee, the amount of which is to be fixed by the Ministry of Examination. Disabled people and indigenous people enjoy a discount on the examination fees.
An examination fund may be set up to facilitate the administration of examination affairs, regulations regarding the collection, expenditure and safeguarding of the funds shall be determined by the Ministry of Examination.

The regulations governing the computation of and eventual restrictions to the overall scores obtained by all examination candidates are to be fixed by the Examination Yuan.

Subsequent to the publication of examination results, should it be discovered that, for reasons attributable to negligence in examination affairs or the administration of the examination, a candidate did not qualify who should have qualified, the Examination Yuan shall implement an additional qualification.

The in-quota qualifiers of Civil Service examinations at any grade or level shall attend training according to the category and discipline of their examination. Candidates who achieve the required grade at the end of their training will be certificated and appointed to a post. Training procedures for extra-quota qualifiers on the reserve list who may later be called upon by an employing agency are to be the same as for in-quota qualifiers.
All provisions governing training periods, implementation methods, remuneration, leaves of absence, scores evaluation, rewards and penalties, suspension and resumption of training, maintenance of trained status, nullification of training eligibility, training fees et cetera of the trainings described above in paragraph 1 are to be determined by the Examination Yuan in concordance with the pertinent Yuan. However, ratification or inspection should be obtained from the Civil Service Protection and Training Commission for trainings of a special nature where the examination requesting organizations have specific regulations that differ from those stated above.
The fees for certificates issued to examination qualifiers are to be set by the Examination Yuan.

The application status will be canceled of any examination candidate of whom it is discovered prior to the examination that any of the conditions below are true. Should any such condition become known at the time of the examination, the candidate will be denied examination. Should any such condition become known prior to the publication of examination results, the candidate will not be accepted as a qualifier. Should any such condition become known between the time of publication of examination results and the beginning of training, the candidate's qualifier status will be revoked. Should any such condition become known after a person is certificated, that person's qualified status will be revoked and any certificates issued will be canceled. A candidate who has incurred criminal responsibility will be referred to investigating authorities. These injunctions apply to:
a. any person liable under the terms of paragraph 1 of Article 7 of this Act;
b. any person who uses a false or assumed name;
c. any person who counterfeits or alters examinee ID documents;
d. any person who is not qualified to take the examination;
e. any person who, whether through fraud or other malpractice, causes an inaccurate result of the examination.

Unless otherwise stipulated by law, the rank promotion of civil servants is subject to their passing a qualifying examination.
The Civil Service Promotion Examinations Act shall be promulgated separately.

As of 1999, persons qualifying in the Special Civil Service Transfer Examinations for Veterans may only be appointed to posts within the Ministry of Defense the Veterans Affairs Commission of the Executive Yuan or the Coast Guard Administration of the Executive Yuan and affiliates thereof. Qualifiers are not permitted to transfer outside their original agencies of allocation or their affiliates for a period of six years. Military officers of the rank of colonel and above who have left the military and transfered to Civil Services, and who are deemed to possess the necessary qualifications, may only transfer to the National Security Council, the National Security Bureau, the Ministry of Defense, the Veterans Affairs Commission of the Executive Yuan, the Coast Guard Administration of the Executive Yuan and their affiliates, the military affairs administrations of the central government or the government of a municipality directly under the jurisdiction of the Executive Yuan, or to military training institutions.
The preferential grade premium available to military reserve personnel who take the Senior or Junior Examinations, and to veterans taking the Special Civil Service Transfer Examination for Veterans, is limited in its availability to persons who have been awarded the Order of National Glory with Grand Cordon, the Order of Blue Sky and White Sun with Grand Cordon, the Order of Precious Tripod, the Order of Loyalty and Valour, the Order of Resplendent Banner, the Datong Medal or higher distinctions, or who have legally left the military subsequent to injuries received in war or in the performance of public service.

The procedures for examination affairs are stipulated in the Examinations Affairs Act.

Procedures regarding Public Service Examination invigilation affairs shall be stipulated in the Public Service Examination Invigilation Act.

The Enforcement Rules of this Act shall be formulated and promulgated by the Examination Yuan.

This Act enters into effect as law on its date of promulgation. Article 7 of the Act was amended on 7 January, 2010, and has been promulgated on 23 November, 2009.