Has anyone ever applied for one of these instead of a regular taibaozheng?
The Travel Document is issued to Chinese nationals in situations when it is inconvenient or unnecessary to be issued a People’s Republic of China passport.
Some cases include:
Chinese citizens who are residents of Taiwan intending to enter Mainland China, Hong Kong, or/and Macao without a Mainland Travel Permit for Taiwan Residents;
Chinese citizens who are residents of Taiwan intending to visit United Nations offices or countries which do not recognize the passports issued by Taiwan authority as legal travel documents
This is what my partner has. Actually ‘had’ as its the old passport size version, now expired. New ones are apparently the size of a Credit Card as the PRC does not recognize Taiwan passports.
Taiwanese can choose from either the 旅行證 (Travel Document) which is a book or 台胞證 (Mainland Travel Permit for Taiwan Residents) which is a card. At least that’s how it used to be, I’m not sure if China still issues the book style Travel Document, anybody know? I guess the main difference is that you can use the Travel Document to visit the UN (which you cannot do with a Taiwan passport), as well as entering China, so it is slightly more useful. Downside would be that it is big and bulky compared to the lightweight card they issue.
From another users thread, it sounds like you can apply for the Travel Document at a Chinese overseas mission, whereas the card can only be applied for from Taiwan.
This user suggests that the Travel Document is used by overseas Taiwanese as they cannot apply for a Mainland Travel Permit for Taiwan Residents without household registration. Has anyone ever done this?
Do they just give them to any Taiwanese national who applies or do you need a specific reason? I feel like they would just tell you to get the taibaozheng instead. Can the taibaozheng be applied for at any Chinese diplomatic mission?
The Taiwanese businessman bluntly said that if there is an emergency abroad, the mainland embassy will be more able to provide assistance and he will definitely seek assistance. “In Taiwan, there will be a distinction between Taiwanese and mainlanders. When abroad, everyone is Chinese.”
It seems a big benefit is consular support from China in countries without a big Taiwan presence.
Yes, Chinese embassies/consulates still issue the 旅行證. They’re issued because they you can’t apply for a 臺胞證 from outside of Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau. Any ROC national (with or without household registration) can apply for it, so long as they don’t have a foreign passport (or a passport of the country you’re applying in, at least).
Not a condition for the 臺胞證; they ask to see your foreign passport in the application process and will still issue it to you. With the 旅行證 (in my experience), there’s a field in the application where they ask you if you have a foreign passport, and will refuse to issue it if you check ‘yes’.
They didn’t mention it. I doubt the travel agency even knew my daughter had a foreign passport unless they guessed based on the fact I’m white. But, makes sense not to show it.
In my experience that is not the case. They have infact asked to see the foreign passport when applying for the travel doc, and then issued it, three times. Fourth time around they agreed to a visa instead.
Oh interesting, where did you get it processed? For what it’s worth, I went to a pretty out of the way embassy where they likely have never run into people from Taiwan applying for it.