you WILL be considered OVERSTAY if you overstay by even one day. NO matter the reason. Force Majeure or not. And NO the airlines can’t help you there.
That is why you do not delay your departure to the very last day. I overstayed by one day simply by miscalculation (math is not my strong suit…) and I could NOT leave. Even could not pay a fine on the spot. Had to truck back to Taipei and go to the immigration and sort things out and get an exit permit before I could leave.
Disagree.
Neighbor is a Brit here for his Taiwanese gf, no ARC. He’d entered Taiwan sometime in March 2018, and booked a flight with EVA Airlines for June, thinking that was 90 days. Turns out it was 92 days. According to him, when he was at the EVA counter at TPE the EVA agent told him he was one day late, but to hang on during his stay there had been a national holiday and she would check with Immigration. EVA couldn’t issue a boarding pass until this was cleared up, she said.
She came back and said everything was ok, please do more careful math next time. He got his boarding pass.
However, he was pulled out of Immigration by a supervisor and advised that he was 2 days late, not one, and that he would have to go back into the airport to pay an overstay fine.
When he left Immigration he lucked out and ran smack into the EVA agent. He explained the problem, and she said “Follow me.”
He said that the agent marched him through the line (they both had to go through the scans, again for him), and she went straight to the supervisor. They spoke briefly, he got on the phone and made a very short call … and stamped his passport. No fine, no problem. He didn’t even miss his flight.
Maybe he was lucky, but in any case the EVA agent pulled it off for him.
He was lucky …its certainly not the norm
Best behave and not overstay
That’s not true. I went to the airport on Monday to inquire about the situation. I spoke to the immigration and asked them what happens in case of a typhoon. The lady said that there’s a five days no-consequences grace period to sort out your situation. After that there’s another period in which you will pay the fine - but also get a “notice” and will have to apply for proper visa on your next visit. After that period…I did not ask, but things probably get hairy.
Of course it’s in general not a good idea to overstay or book a flight for the same day your visa expires (which is why I always leave ~5 days early). But, there clearly are exemptions. It’d be quite ridiculous if they did not care for natural disasters (or other serious stuff like accidents perhaps) as a reason you could not leave.
As for my ticket situation: my flight to Tokyo got predictably delayed (Wed 9 am to 11 am) meaning I would miss my Tokyo-Frankfurt flight with Lufthansa. I’ve anticipated that and that’s why I made the trip to the airport. You can call the 1-800 number but I did not have much credit on my phone.
The airline girls (CA) initially said they can’t do anything in this case since these are non-changeable tickets. But they were nice enough and let me use their phone to talk to Expedia. The agent there said he can’t do nothing unless the flight will be officially canceled (it was still Monday). So I had to wait till Tue afternoon when the flight got delayed. Then I had to spend couple of hours on the phone to sort this mess out - eventually succeeded and got it all rebooked for the 12th (same route).
The trick here is to be polite but forceful and keep the “it’s not my fault, it’s the typhoon” ace ready. My initial Expedia agent was a bit clueless and directing me the “change your itinerary” route which costs money. 2nd agent was better but left it hanging saying she’ll call me back. Eventually my 3rd agent was very helpful and sorted it out in no time. You can also ask them to call you back (I was using friend’s phone) and they do not mind.
In the meantime I also had a call from China Airlines to inform me about the delay, when asked if they can help with rebooking they initially said no, to call Expedia & Lufthansa, but when I put on my sad panda voice the lady said that if that does not work to call them back and they will try to help me. Funny.
Overall I’m quite pleased with Expedia and how it all turned out.
Happy the Taiwan authority seems to have softened.
I had to reschedule my flight and come back to the city and visit the immigration office to get a stamp in my passport in order to leave.
Curious as to how much you saved using expedia.
I always buy direct from the airline because I don’t want to deal with any third party stuff especially the past couple years as I have had to be real flexible and change flights a lot. Plus the airlines (eva /usa) prices are often, but not always, on par with the “agents”.