[quote=“llary”]Here is what you can do with or without an ARC - personally confirmed […]:
[…] set up a basic bank account with ATM card and passbook: you need an ID number from the NIA which takes 5 minutes, your passport and preferably some kind of secondary photo ID (foreign drivers license etc). CONFIRMED within the last month at TaiShin bank.[/quote]
Confirmed again in December, as follows:
Post Office - wasn’t asked for any secondary ID but had to fill in an application form (written in Chinese), including a local address (address of the guest house was OK). Needed my hanko (signature stamp - don’t know the Chinese term yet) which was at first deemed insufficient since it and shows only two kanji (Japanese hankos usually only have the kanji for the family name); but they accepted it after some internal discussion.
Taishin Bank - took a while, since at first they wanted to see an ARC and needed to be convinced that the form from the NIA would do; after that they wanted to see some other document (work contract or work permit - didn’t quite get the meaning) but were eventually satisfied when they understood that, although i was here on business, i was not receiving any employment related payments in Taiwan. They also wanted a secondary picture ID but accepted my explanation that i did not have any. (^^). No application form to fill in - they created the paperwork via computer; i just had to sign and put my stamp in a few places. My two-kanji hanko was no issue here…
( For reference, a related thread: Banking in taiwan )