I guess it depends where you are located. For Miami, it was required to go in person, and could NOT be mailed in.
It’s different than a visa where they need it to attach the visa. The passport submission for me was literally show them my passport and the passport form you needed to download, and pull down my mask so they can verify it was me. One minute later they handed back the passport and said I was good to go.
So most likely cannot have someone else go on your behalf as they need to verify it is you applying.
Thanks. And then you have to go back a few days later to retrieve your passport, right? Maybe I can outsource just that part, or have them mail it to me?
(My nearest one is Houston btw)
11/20 Submission date
12/14 Passport Submission
12/23 Mailed the Application to D.C. TECO
12/31 Notified that I need to go in person to properly do the passport validation. The office is now figuring out if I need to either a) submit/mail more documents to D.C. or b) I can do it in NY instead.
Unfortunately I chose the TECO in USA (which is in D.C.) but I live in NY. So when trying to get it validated, it took ~3-4 days back and forth to find a solution that would ship my passport and application to D.C to be validated.
Seems like experiences vary depending on office location, but my experience has been quite frustrating and a huge hassle to get things sorted.
There’s more availability in hotels outside of Taipei, especially Kaohsiung. You need to call the phone numbers for the city listed on the right hand column at https://taiwan.taiwanstay.net.tw/covhotel/ and ask for English. They’ll put someone on the phone who speaks English. Give them your dates and preferences (like price range and windows), and they’ll give you a list of hotels that are available.
Awesome, thanks. Long drive to Kaohsiung haha. Strange they don’t list any hotels in Taichung. But they do have a phone number for that city, so I’ll call them when the time comes. (I guess the ones in Taichung are just staying anonymous.)
Yeah, it’s supposed to be a 4 hour drive to Kaohsiung (per Google Maps), but my taxi driver did it in about 3 hours (at night)! And the taxi price is subsidized by the government for quarantine, so instead of 10,000 NTD, it’s just 2,660 NTD.
I was able to get a much bigger hotel room (with separate living room) in Kaohsiung for a low price (2,500 NTD/nt). The pickings in Taipei were really slim and undesirable as I booked on short notice.
Thanks for sharing this update. How does it compare to the previous policy? Does this imply they will now recognise a 160k tech salary alone as a sufficient qualification, without requiring such candidates to additionally meet other requirements such as holding patents/awards/etc?
My understanding is the text of the salary criteria has been updated to make it clear that you also need to attach evidence that you have tech related experience.
Before it may have been misleading that attaching salary evidence alone was sufficient.
I would guess that if you don’t have your physical gold card yet, it is still fine to enter with the confirmation letter, but you may meet resistance from airlines who don’t understand the rules. I’m sure that in the next few days, users will post their experience entering on here.
Yup. Just got GC and was planning on heading out this week. Seems like Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung quarentine hotels are pretty much sold out till end of January as lots of taiwanese are returning home for Chinese New year.
I did email aloft Taipei Beitou. Although the spreadsheet website shows many rooms, they are booked until Feb.
There are rumors some governments may add more quarentine hotels, but it seems almost impossible to find one right now.
There may be some available, but they won’t tell you which they are for you to look up photos and view quality. They don’t want people to know that the hotels are also used for quarantining.
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