I’m will be taking a trip to Taiwan for two weeks this spring. I bought an e-ticket online, but I just realized that I need to show a confirmed onward or return ticket in order to gain entry.
My question: does anyone know if a simple printout of my itinerary is enough? Or do I need to change my e-ticket to a paper ticket?
Thanks in advance.
I was asked to show my ticket on entering the US, and they accepted my e-ticket itinerary which showed my return reservation. I would assume it’s the same in Taiwan. I have never been asked for my return ticket here though.
scuse me, but what’s an e ticket? where can you buy it and what can you do with it?
tnx
rits
It stands for electronic ticket, when the airlines/travel agencies decide to save money by not issuing any paper. All the information is on their computers, and you check in by giving the airport counter a reservation number.
The good thing is that you can never lose your ticket, and you could theoretically order your ticket from anywhere in the world as they don’t actually need to send you a paper ticket.
The bad thing is that you don’t have a paper record of your itinerary and customs officers may choose not to believe that you have one.
Most air tickets ordered off the Internet are e-tickets, but you could probably ask your travel agent for one.
I once used an e-ticket to show the Taiwan visa office in HK my flight out of Taiwan. I didn’t have a flight and the visa office was closing in an hour, so I called an airline, and got an e-ticket which I cancelled (with charges) after arriving back in Taiwan.
Brian
What’s the worst they could do if I fly into Taiwan and, for whatever reason, they don’t accept my e-ticket itinerary as evidence of an onward or return ticket? Would they send me back to the States?
I’ve been trying hard to find out how they handle e-tickets. So far, I’ve called the Taiwan consular’s office in Washington D.C. (twice), spoke to three different people, called the airline at least three times, maybe four, spoke to various customer service reps, including the floor manager, and sent an e-mail to the customer service manager. In nearly every case, they either say, “Good question… I don’t know” or, “Well… e-tickets are everywhere, so a printed itinerary should be okay.”
“Should be okay…” wasn’t really the kind of answer I was looking for. So I decided to cough up the 20 bucks for a paper ticket. Oops! I bought it from expedia.com, and now United says they won’t/can’t print a paper ticket for me since I went through expedia. Grrr… I guess I’ll just take my chances.
So again, what’s the worst they could do if I fly into Taiwan and they don’t accept my e-ticket itinerary as evidence of an onward or return ticket?
What kind of visa do you have or will you apply for?
With a landing visa (only certain nationalities are entitled) you definetely need a return ticket, and that must state that the flight back is dated before the visa will expire. That’s the official policy at least and when I tried to enter Taiwan they insisted on that (local airline counter at the airport was so kind to issue me with a sticker for my ticket so that I eventually could enter).
As for the e-ticket why not call the local Taiwan representative office whereever you are and ask?
You will have zero problems getting into Taiwan with an e-ticket. I’ve done it since January, leaving every 30 days. I’ve never been asked and if I were I would have the receipt of the ticket to show them. If they didn’t believe me they could go check with the airline. No problems.
Depending on your nationality, if you’re only here for two weeks, you won’t need a landing visa anyway, just a visa-free entry. That means that you don’t bother with the visa office at the airport and instead just go through immigration. I’ve done that many times before and have never been asked for a return ticket by the immigration officers. I think that’s what Grasshopper is referring to. If you have to apply for a Landing visa (because due to your nationality you might not be entitled to visa-free entry for as long as you need it), as Rascal said, you will have to show a ticket. I don’t know for sure. But I would think that in the age of E-tickets, they’d probably just call up the airline to confirm that your print-out isn’t false - however, that’s what I would think…
Check here if you’re elligible to a 30 day visa-free entry:
boca.gov.tw/~boca2000/en/exempte.htm
You might also want to check this thread:
forumosa.com/3/viewtopic.php?t=11018
Though the link in the thread gives wrong information: They obviously didn’t update it after extending the 14-day visa-free stay to 30 days.
Would anybody please correct me if I got that wrong?
HTH
Iris
You’re right. I am from Canada so I can get 30 days no questions asked…
I never needed a return ticket for a landing visa. Only for getting ont he plane in the first place, (and the airlines definitely accept and e-ticket), and for applying for a visitor’s visa (in an ‘embassy’ in another country). Who said they won’t give you a landing visa at CKS Airport without a return ticket anyway - I got one 3 times. (Was about 3 years ago though).
Brian
Everybody I’ve talked to said that the people at the visa office ask for a confirmed return flight before issuing a landing visa. The only time I ever applied for a Landing Visa, the grumpies at the visa office had somebody from the airline come and confirm a flight for me because I had an open return ticket. The girl from the airline winked at me and whispered that the confirmation was just for the visa office and I needn’t bother rescheduling my flight.
That was about 2 years ago…
Iris
Officially you need it and as I just said above they did NOT let me in without it. That was about 2.5 years back.
Wow. Thanks for all of your replies.
I