I’m moving to Taipei in a few months to join my girlfriend who has moved here for a job. I had planned on entering with my US Passport and then getting a work permit/ARC once I was here, but now I have been reading that you need an exiting plane ticket to get the 90-day exemption? Since I plan on living here for the duration of her job (~2 years), I was planning on just buying a one-way ticket but now I’m worried I won’t get the exemption…
Immigration does not give a hoot if you have an onward ticket or not. You will be let in.
The issue is with the airline. If they notice that you do not have an onward ticket, they may refuse you boarding the plane. This is because they get huge fines if you overstay, so they want proof that you can leave.
That said, I have never bought a two way ticket coming to Taiwan (this is my third time) and I have never been challenged by the airline for boarding.
YMMV…
American’s will receive a 90-day stamp on entry into Taiwan.
It is the airline that is supposed to check for an onward ticket before allowing you to board for Taiwan. Most of the time the check or ask, sometimes they don’t.
Ok, thanks a lot. If the airline does ask, do they need proof? Or can I just say that I’m travelling around SE Asia and going to the Philippines in a month or some made up story like that?
Some people have printed off an itinerary showing you will leave and they accept this.
Or you could book a refundable ticket with a travel agent just in case. Usually you lose a bit of money in refunding the ticket.
Out of about 20 flights into and out of Taiwan I have been asked for an exiting flight twice by the airline at the time of check in. Both times I had an outgoing flight (but not always the other times). If I didn’t I would have been expected to buy a ticket on the spot with that airline or I would have been bumped from the flight until I purchased one. They of course need to see a printed ticket (some have forged these) so you can’t just explain away an itinerary.
I usually check in online and get my boarding passes in advance, failing this ill ask at the check in at Taoyuan if im coming back the same day, they usually oblige no questions asked. On my last visa run I couldn’t do either the website was down and there were some disruptions to flights out of Hong Kong so the check in staff couldn’t guarantee whether my flight would get changed. So I had to check in at Hong Kong I had no onward flight booked, the check in girl was training somebody up I expected to be asked and sure enough I was. I told her I normally book my flight a few days before I leave , I told her Ive done this a few times before so she checked the stamps in my passport to confirm it, then I told her I was married which gave me the reason I was in and out of Taiwan, she was completely satisfied and gave me my boarding pass. I even said at one point “don’t worry im not going to overstay”. I am sure if she wasn’t training somebody up she wouldn’t have asked me anything, but if you can print off your boarding passes online beforehand you don’t need to go anywhere near a check in desk, I cant say what I did last time is going to work for everybody but having a good record for not overstaying helps and being married clinches it.
I’m flying from France to Taipei next week. I have a job offer but will be applying for a work permit and ARC from Taiwan.
I have been told by China Airlines that I must have a return ticket or a ticket to another destination to be allowed to board; and this other ticket must be within 1 month from my date of arrival despite the visa-exempted permit being 90 days!
As far as I know (and have read on this board), I’m left with two options:
Forging a proof of booking from another company. Past travels suggest me they never check if a seat is really booked on your name, but I’d rather not use this option, just in case.
Get a ticket to another destination and cancel it later. I found a few Airlines than have very reasonable refund policies (HK Airlines fees are 1000 TWD, Xiamen are 700TWD, Spring Airlines are 30% of ticket’s price if you choose one which is refundable, etc.).
I’ve noticed people on this board tend to always choose to do their visa run in Hong-Kong. But tickets to Shanghai seem cheaper and you can get a stay permit for 48h if you are just transiting.
If I book a ticket to Shanghai in a month, will I encounter any problem when boarding to Taipei or when crossing the Taiwanese boarder if they notice I don’t have any visa for China? Might they ask if I have a flight out of Shanghai booked within 48h? Or is HK safer because it’s visa-exempted?
[quote=“double-g”]I’ve noticed people on this board tend to always choose to do their visa run in Hong-Kong. But tickets to Shanghai seem cheaper and you can get a stay permit for 48h if you are just transiting.
If I book a ticket to Shanghai in a month, will I encounter any problem when boarding to Taipei or when crossing the Taiwanese boarder if they notice I don’t have any visa for China? Might they ask if I have a flight out of Shanghai booked within 48h? Or is HK safer because it’s visa-exempted?[/quote]
(1) The reason why people on this forum choose Hong Kong is because there is Taipei Economic and Cultural Office to process visa applications for Taiwan whereas in Shanghai no such service exists for foreigners.
(2) The 72-hour visa free transit in Shanghai (and various other Mainland cities) does not apply to a Taipei-Shanghai-Taipei routing. You need a routing like TPE-HKG-PVG-TPE or TPE-PVG-NRT-TPE.
(3) Hong Kong and Taiwan passport control do not care whether you have the required documents to enter Mainland China or not. Who cares are the airlines as they are held liable by the Mainland immigration bureau to take you back.
The real reason why people choose Hong Kong over Shanghai is that HK has a TECRO office and using a direct flight Shanghai would require a visa. In-direct routings to shanghai are usually more expensive than direct flights to Hong Kong. And as most of the in-direct routings involve a stop over in Hong Kong anyways why not just take care of everything in Hong Kong in the first place?
I use a Visitor Visa, which allows me 60 days each time. I have found that Cathay Pacific (Irrespective of whether I check in Online or not) always want to see the onward ticket (it just needs to be out of Taiwan, not back to where you came from). I always have my trips planned for months in advance, so its not an issue. Immigration have never wanted to see an onward ticket, means of support etc, though financial details are provided at the time of the Visa application.
Cathay Pacific seem to be in a league of their own. When I checked in at Fukuoka the other day, they asked to see the onward ticket, which has me departing 59 days later…then the check in girl tried to tell me that was no good, as the Visa Free limit for Australians is 30 days…had to make her read the Visa. No other airline, and there have been many over the past few years, has asked to see any exit details. For some stupid reason, Cathay also wanted to see the details when I departed Touyuan to Fukuoka too - can’t figure that out, never happened before.
Just be careful with bookings that you intend to cancel, most charge cancellation fees.
Thanks for correcting me on the Shanghai & Beijing visa-free transit policy. I guess it answers to my questions whether it’s a viable option when willing to enter in Taiwan on a visa exempted permit.
And thanks for the insight on Cathay Pacific and else. Much appreciated.
About cancellation fees, if that might be of any help to someone else, I have an easy way to find the refund policy of any flight. You’ve got to use this great flight comparator: http://matrix.itasoftware.com/. Simply search for your flight, and then click on “rules” (next to the fares details) when on the itinerary details web page.
HK Airlines seems to generally charges 1000NT$, doesn’t seem like much to me.
I always use Cathay Pacific and ive never had any problems, maybe its a nationality thing and the check in staff are more relaxed with travellers from countries who get the 90 days visa free, Ive never had any problems at Taoyuan either, maybe ive just been lucky who knows.
I found that when I am booked on business class no questions are asked - regardless of the airline (usually I take CX and China Eastern). Business class comes at a low cancellation fee as well. If you have the extra 7,000 NT$ on a flight to Hong Kong or Shanghai to spare you should take business class.
Had a 90-day exempt visa run to HK 2 weeks ago, and while I didn’t have a ticket to leave Taiwan, I was only asked the ‘sufficient funds’ question on check-in. No proof was needed though and just my assurance that funds wouldn’t be an issue was enough. The airline was Hong Kong Airlines (HX) and this was at in-town check-in.
I was asked for a return ticket at LAX; I had already gone ahead and bought an ~$90 ticket to Okinawa via Peach Air and showed it to her on my phone. With their Peach Plus option, you can keep rescheduling the ticket as much as you’d like so I plan on continuing to reschedule so I always have an exit ticket.
With China Airlines, I had to provide a proof of booking for a return ticket when I got my boarding pass for Taipei printed in Rome (Nice -> Rome -> Taipei).
I had printed a proof of booking for a return ticket with another company beforehand (flight was scheduled 20 days later) and no further verification was done.
Maybe some other form of document would have been sufficient, but I can’t say for sure…
Airline officials always ask me for proof of onward voyage. On my last run (to Okinawa) staff checked my screen captured and printed itinerary mercilessly and held me up for 15 minutes to sign a waiver absolving the airline (Peach) of any wrongdoing. I guess they weren’t able to verify that my ticket was really a ticket!
Taiwanese immigration never asks me about an onward ticket.