I’m still trying to understand what the rules are, too. Nothing I’ve seen points to an end date, but given upticks globally (plus the UK strain) and recent quarantine leaks (foreigners seeming high profile) it makes sense to tighten and see what happens. Unfortunately, they might feel a political or epidemiological need to tighten again. As @bekeep points out vaccines and summer weather should make a positive difference.
My work permit is in the pipeline, residence visa application long since scheduled for second half of January; I was planning for a flight around Feb. 1st, with my employer sorting out the hotel end of things. New foreign workers (white collar or not) don’t seem specifically banned, so I’m hoping that I can still get -and get in on- a residence visa.
What they are doing is probably for the best, but I wish I understood what it means for me in the immediate future. But they haven’t shut out all foreigners, so depending on our specific processes for going in it might not make a difference?
Yeah I’m asking because I am in the process of applying for the job-seeking visa but I graduated last year in February, so to meet the ‘graduated within a year’ condition for the visa, I have to apply before February 1st. This wasn’t going to be a problem but now it’s far too uncertain because I don’t know if TECO is accepting any visa applications. I was planning to enter on March 15th, so I need to know if I’m still able to apply now for supposed entry in March or just have a visa approved for a certain date with the ability to enter once the country reopens. So knowing how long the policy might last would be helpful as I wait for a written response from my TECO office.
It’s now a bit of a mess in my case. I’m just hoping TECO is still accepting visa applications during this time or I have no hope for entering.
They specifically say white collar workers, migrant workers, and foreign students can still apply for visas to enter. It does not say they must have ARC.
Just arrived in Taipei today. At Vienna they discussed 5 minutes about wanting a reference number from the quarantine health information statement. Well there isn’t any. That was the easy part. Didn’t even really look at my gold card sheet with arc/gold card pick up in Taipei.
At Istanbul it got less funny. I got stranded at the gate because they didn’t want to let me board without Visa. Besides me where about 7 people stuck with coronavirus test from 24.12 from UK, some others with Antigen test only, two from italy/UK without a Test Result, claiming that they called in and got confirmed it’s enough if the test results arrive before entering Taiwan…
In the end I and the 24.12 test UK people got on. Not sure about the others. Getting tests done quickly in Italy and UK seems to be hindered by their stupidity, in wanting free test by government instead of going to private lab… besides me kinda all people with missing stuff where from UK and Italy (both failed states one could say…)
Taiwanese weren’t even asked for quarantine form while boarding, some Taiwanese not asked for test. But that’s Turkish airport handling…
At Taipei then everyone filled out the quarantine form, my Austrian SIM card roaming didnt work, so first had to get a SIM card (6 months chungwa for 4050ntd unlimited, seems best deal. FarEast and GT being cheaper of course).
Then everything was smooth, but at immigration they also asked me for Visa after I handed the gold card confirmation, but that took 30 seconds to explain). Had to take the foreigners line however unlike some who reported to have used Taiwan residency line
Good to see some people are still being let in with certain visas, does anyone have any idea if YMS (working holiday) visas which have already been issued are still allowed to enter the country?
The media reports on this story have been frustratingly misleading at best and flat-out incorrect at worse. Even the local English-language news sources have headlines saying something about a new ban on foreigners, but in the story itself specify the same ban on non-resident foreigners (tourists) that has already been in place since near the beginning of the pandemic. The only thing in the story that appears to be actual news (new information) is the change in the details of quarantine. An accurate headline would focus on that, but I guess that wouldn’t generate enough clicks.
Flights are booked for 10 days time, so fingers crossed. I haven’t read in any of the statements that already issued visas would be honored, only that of 49 students planning to enter this month.
Even in Europe people started traveling for Christmas and NY to ‘red’ zones. Now they have to quarantine on return which actually is troublesome for companies.
The incoming. No matter how many times they have been told to come earlier, there are the ones who “can’t leave the factory/company earlier or else they will go bankrupt”. Or simply ignore the warnings.
Just the amount of people in, with relatives who do not want to follow the rules as “they have always done things this way”.
personally i think they made this sound like new news on purpose, to give some sort of reaction to the negative news lately involving pilots ect. i’ve had like 5 taiwanese tell me about it!
If you mean incoming Taiwanese working in the mainland or elsewhere I doubt they’ll come back, they have to do two weeks quarantine then possibly another two weeks when they go back to their work country.
Last time I checked I didnt actually see this detailed info about students on the MOE, BOCA, CDC or Teco websites. It’s only in a few news articles. It sounds like it’s something the MOE apparently told schools but hasn’t made public yet. Some schools though have apparently told students
