According to the Bureau of Consular Affairs’s website, foreign nationals can enter Taiwan without a visa if:
s/he has a passport valid for at least six months
s/he has a confimed return air ticket or an air ticket and a visa for the next destination, and a confirmed seat reservation for departure
s/he has no criminal record, and
his/her duration of stay will be no longer than 30 days.
Has anyone ever tried this?
If I can do this, it would be great. After my current contract is up, and my ARC is cancelled, I may be travelling in Asia for 4-6 weeks in July and early August. Between my return-to-Taiwan date and my intended date of departure to go back to the States, it’d be less than 30 days for sure.
How would it work? Which stern-faced official(s) at which dusty booth would I have to consult at CKS upon my return from my travels?
I think it depends on which country you hold a passport from. Most North American and European countries qualify. Unfortunately, I was not able to find the list.
Don’t be Naughty!! :no-no: That’s a spanking offence on Forumosa.
I got a visa-excempt entry once in the old days when it was just for 14 days. Now it is for 30 days.
There are no forms to fill out. You write in your landing (arrival) card that you will be staying for a month and tell the immigration chap/chappess as you pass through passport control that you want a 30-day visa excempt entry. You’ll get a stamp in your passport. And it’s free.
I’ve done the visa exemption thing loads of times, and nobody ever asked for anything, I would just walk right up to immigration and get the visa exemption stamp in the passport. You might get in trouble if your passport is not valid for at least another 6 months or you don’t have many empty pages left. For whatever reason, they’ll have you process (and pay for) a landing visa at the visa office right next to immigration in such a case. Don’t bother about a criminal record. Of course, you need a confirmed onward or return flight (you probably won’t get on the plane otherwise anyway).
In case you hold an American passport, I’d check if there are any special requirements for USA citizens right now. Taiwan wouldn’t be the only country to have changed their visa rules for USA citizens lately.
