Two articles (links below) appeared in the newspapers yesterday saying that MOFA will offer 30-day visa free entry to residents of 20 countries starting from May 1st. It doesn’t mention the names of the countries. This is an extension of the current 14-day visa free entry.
Visa-free entry to be extended to 30 days, says MOFA
Foreign ministry extends visa-free entry to 30 days
Another related story from today’s Taiwan News:
MOFA grants easier visa restrictions to six more countries
And the funny thing is, that the announcement is still unofficial,
no MOFA/Boca English webpages changes have taken place.
It looks like, that only the people ON Taiwan are informed on this matter.
What was the reason for this change : oh yeah, attracting more tourists
, from abroad.
big grin…
Jan Willem
For those who were still posted :
Today I received this message from BOCA :
“Since the new visa-exempt program will not enter into force until 1 May 2003, before then, to avoid confusion our website will provide visitors with the current and effective regulations only.”
Sure, I travel my holiday just a few days day ahead…
In the mean time, the TPE Rep office in Berlin give me an answer,
which carried some ‘buts’ for which I am still asking to be enlightened on.
As you can imagine tbroc.gov.tw has been updated.
best r-eggs,
Jan Willem
Can someone confirm if these changes have been implemented? I know SARS may have thrown a bit of a spanner in the works, but can people arriving from non-SARS affected countries get the 30-day visa?
You are talking about the 30 day visa exemption, right?
A week ago, together with the announcement that travellers from certain countries would have to go on quarantine for 10 days, there was this note:
[quote] Also, in addition to not issuing visas to foreign residents of SARS-infected countries, the government is revoking visa-free entry privileges for the next two weeks for citizens of countries that previously had such rights, Yu added. Such countries include Singapore, Germany, the United States and Canada.
[/quote]
The whole article here
So, you better check before you try to enter under the 30-day visa exemption. Which, btw, isn’t to be confused with the 30-day landing visa. Anyone knows anything about those?
HTH
Iris
Tnx Iris,
first reaction to that press release :
“Do CDC, MOFA,BOCA and Mr Yu know of each other”
Keep it mind it might be poorly translated, as Germany (and other European countries) , I thought before they had a 14 day visafree period, alike the Netherlands.
For landing visa see BOCA regulations, however, if you read them twice : still very confusing.
I needed a landing visa one time, when I arrived at KHH, and found out there, that I needed to visit their local office in KHH. KHH was not my destination, Chiayi/Yun Lin was (in-laws), so it took another 2 hours, before we could hit the SunYatSen freeway up north.
I was hoping, that them new regulations were better, but if I read the small print, it says, I still need to go to that office, so no change in favour of European Countries (ao) there.
Still waiting for BOCA reply to my reaction to their new regulations, BTW.
And yes, there is the chance, that we go there, wife and daughters can go straight hui-jia, and I need to stay for 10 days in some hotel in Kaoshiung (hopefully Wufu 4th road) :>)
still, after I receive a lifesign of BOCA, I’ll post it.
best regs, Jan Willem
[quote=“jwr”]
Keep it mind it might be poorly translated, as Germany (and other European countries) , I thought before they had a 14 day visafree period, alike the Netherlands.[/quote]
Well, Germany is one of the countries that falls in the category of “14-day visa-exemption extended to 30-day visa-exemption from 1 May, 2003”, as mentioned in the links in the very first post in this thread. Certainly, the Netherlands fall in that category as well.
So, there’s nothing wrong with that. But then, you’re probably right with stating that in Taiwan, often enough, the right hand (MOFA) doesn’t know what the left hand (BOCA) is doing etc…
HTH
Iris
Has anyone heard anything about changes in the Visa policy in light of the SARS situation?
It DOES seem like extending visa’s for a while in order to eliminate the need to make a visa run would be a prudent policy.
TIA, Harold
As said before, here is the result of MOFA/BOCA,
a certain yy chiang wrote me following msg :
QUOTE
發文日期：中華民國九十二年五月八日
發文字號：領二字第09152173950號
Dear Mr. R…,
Thank you for your e-mail dated 2003.05.02. We would like to inform you that you may enter Taiwan without a visa﹙Visa-Exemption﹚for a stay up to 30 days. If you are planning to stay within 15 to 30 days, you do not have to visit BOCA office in Kaoshiung City. But if you intend to stay in Taiwan longer, you are advised to apply for a Visitor Visa at any of our overseas offices, whose contact numbers can be found on our web-site： www.boca.gov.tw. Please be reminded that if you are scheduled to enter Taiwan via China, Hong Kong, Singapore or other places announced by WHO as SARS affected areas, then you must apply for a Visitor Visa and boarding permit at our overseas offices in advance.
With best regards,.
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
UNQUOTE
best regs,
Jan Willem