It seems I will get a visa to visit my fiancé to marry her in Taichung.
I made a reservation for a quarantine hotel in Taichung. However I understand I need a Taiwanese phone number. How can I get this? Can you go to the Chunghwa desk when you need to go in quarantine?
I will be staying 60 days and the eSims I see online are mostly only valid a couple days. I do have an iPhone11, so an eSim would be cool but a sim card for 60 days also, if no other way. Thanks
Congrats and have your wife to be mail you a Taiwan SIM card with a number and all that
She should be able to do that
Thanks. Yea that would be the best normally, however the mail to Europe from Taiwan sometimes takes too long, I will leave in 3 weeks. Perhaps a letter goes faster then a package, we could try…
True things are weird in these covid times
Maybe she can meet you at the airport being careful not to violate any rules and had the sim to you or hand it to someone to hand to you ?
Or she can hand it to someone at the quarantine hotel who can give it to you
They will sell it right when you get off the flight. You need a local number, they won’t let you in if they don’t have a local number to contact you and track you with. When I came in, they sold it right when you get off before they even let you go to customs.
Ah okay cool, thanks. Do you know by chance which company that is? Via Klook I ordered last time a Chungwa card which worked pretty good.
There will be a few companies set up right at your gate. They keep you at the gate until you get one to fill out documents to have your contact before they let you go in customs. I believe Chunghwa is one you can pick. They are all about the same in terms of pricing.
2 Likes
There’s no need to order a Taiwanese SIM ahead of time. They’re available for purchase at the airport right as you leave the plane to account for this exact situation. There are several different telecom companies and validity durations available, between 14 days and 3 months if I remember correctly.
Source: I bought and used one for quarantine
1 Like
Not possible, you need the SIM to even complete the quarantine paperwork. They’re available for purchase at the airport, no need to do it ahead of time.
1 Like
I’m a bit worried about this. My mom is 80 and this part of the process scares me as I won’t be able to help her in any way, of course. My questions are:
a) Do they install the SIM card for you?
b) Does the brand of the phone matter?
(a) they can
(b) Probably, since some phones don’t work with the type of SIM card that Taiwan uses, and of course some phones are carrier-locked anyway and can’t be changed.
If her phone is incompatible, she can rent one from them. They will install the app at the airport and fill in the information, or at least that’s how it worked when I came back (there have probably been changes since then). Unfortunately, someone will have to take the phone back to the airport to return it at the end of the rental period. You can ask if there are other drop-off locations.
She will have to put down a deposit on the phone in addition to paying the rental fee. A US$100 bill is acceptable. They clip it to the rental form, put it in a folder, and return the exact same bill to you when you return the phone.
They misplaced mine and it took the girl half an hour and several phone calls to figure out where someone had put it. I saw yen notes, rupiah notes, other hundred dollar bils, 1000NT bills, and other random currencies.
Note, I didn’t realize it but even though you’re only “quarantined” for two weeks, they expect you to keep answering their SMSes for three weeks. Oh well. Funny, the CDC contractors at the airport didn’t realize it either when they helped me get a two-week SIM and to rent the phone for only two weeks. Also, the guy who kept calling me to verify that I was still in quarantine expected me to stay for 14 full calendar days, not 14 days from my 6:23AM arrival time – no credit for partial days!!! So really it was 15, and then you’re still not really supposed to go out in public for a week (remember the hotpot girl who got fined for celebrating the end of her quarantine with friends), so why do they even pretend it’s two weeks?
1 Like
That is a huge help. Thank you.
In addition to what @OliviaLinToo said, I’ll add that your mother is definitely not the first older person having to navigate this. They’ll take care of her and explain everything she needs to do, I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
1 Like
That’s good to know. I’ll pass that info along to her.
One thing: If you need to talk to someone use LINE if you can. Don’t go chatting away on the phone because you will use up all your minutes and unable to send text messages. My dad did that. You won’t be able to add value to the SIM card the airport gives you… This could affect your ability to answer required text messages.