Visas

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For other travel information, see Travel.

If you are having difficulties obtaining a visa, please consult Visa On Arrival page immediately

Who needs a visa to enter the Republic of China (Taiwan)?

If you are not a resident of the Republic of China (Taiwan), you may need a visa to enter or must be eligible for the visa-waiver program. If you already have a visa and need to enter the ROC, make sure it will not expire before you use it to apply for admission (entry) at the port.

Visa waiver program

Citizens of the following 31 countries do not need a visa to enter the ROC for tourism or business for stays up to 30 days:

Australia Iceland The Netherlands
Austria Ireland New Zealand
Belgium Italy Norway
Canada Japan Portugal
Costa Rica Republic of Korea Singapore
Denmark Liechtenstein Spain
Finland Luxembourg Sweden
France Malaysia Switzerland
Germany Malta United Kingdom
Greece Monaco United States of America

Additional conditions:

  • The 30 day duration starts on the next day of arrival and is not extensible.
  • Your passport must not expire within six months. However, Japanese citizens may enter if their passports do not expire within three months.
  • You must show a confirmed return or onward ticket and visa to a third country.
  • You must not have a criminal record.
  • Holders of British National (Overseas) passports and Portuguese passports issued in Macau before 1999 are ineligible. They need a special entry permit.

Related information

Getting a visa

If you need a visa to enter Taiwan, you could consider one of the following visas:

Landing visa

Citizens of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland may apply for a landing visa provided that their passport is valid for at least six months. US citizens may also apply for a landing visa if their passport expires within six months.

Method

After you enter the ROC by air, please following the methods below to apply for the visa:

  • If you enter the ROC at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport: please contact the Visa Office of the Consular Affair Bureau in the airport.
  • If you enter the ROC at Kaohsiung International Airport: you need to apply for a "temporary entry permit" at the Kaohsiung Aviation Police Station in the airport and then convert the permit to a visa at the Consular Affair Bureau or its Kaohsiung Office within three days. If you do not convert the permit to a visa on time, you will be subject to administrative penalty for overstaying.

Additional requirements

  • Application with 2 photos. You can download the application form in the following links:
  • US$36 (NT$1,200) for visa fee plus US$24 (NT$800) for handling; US$100 (NT$3,600) for US applicants. Citizens of countries with reciprocal agreements shall be issued visas gratis.
  • Your passport must not expire within six months. However, for Japanese citizens they may enter if their passports do not expire within three months.
  • You must show a confirmed return or onward ticket and visa to a third country.
  • You must not have a criminal record.

Additional information

Visitor’s visa

A sixty-day visa with an emergency extension of up to six months may be applied at any of the ROC’s embassies, consulates, and Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Offices; the visa application process may take from 5 to 45 days or longer. Please see this list for the nearest representative offices of the ROC (Taiwan). For countries which do not have a formal relationship with the ROC, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office will be the de-facto official representative of the ROC government. If you cannot find any representative office near you, contact the Wikimania stuff, Mr. Wang, Chong-Ming, at mingwangx at gmail dot com for further assistance.

Please note that you should not apply the visa at any embassies or representative offices of the People's Republic of China because you may not use a PRC visa to enter the ROC (Taiwan). And citizens from certain countries seeking to apply for the visitor's visa might need some special documents and/or sponsors.

For more information, you may check the following links:

Visitors from the PRC, Hong Kong and Macao

Visitors from the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong and Macao will need a special travel document in addition to their passport (HKSAR, MSAR, BN(O), pre-handover Portuguese). Although their passports will be scanned, their entry and exit records will be stamped on the special document only. For more information, see Visas for people from the Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao (in Chinese) and the article on Wikipedia. British Citizens are eligible for the visa waiver program.

Guidelines for painless visa processing

  • Ask us for a letter of invitation during registration (it's a checkbox on the form). We have informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and ask for providing more convenience to visa applicants who will join Wikimania 2007.
  • Start applying for a visa early, ideally 4+ months in advance. The basic visa process will not take this long, but you will want time to resubmit the application if necessary, and to buy your tickets after the visa has been granted.
  • Prepare for your visa interview/application. You should have:
    1. Your entire travel itinerary, from when you leave your country to when you return.
      Note that your travel plans depend upon early approval of the visa application.
    2. Your invitation, and printed information about the conference.
      If you are getting financial support to attend the conference, make sure you have printed documentation of this as well.
    3. Proof of association with Wikimania (information about you as a researcher, wiki-developer, Wikipedian, etc.)
    4. Evidence that you will return home -- that is, of "binding or sufficient" ties to your home country (normally your country of residence). Useful examples include:
      • evidence of family ties in your home country.
      • evidence of property ownership.
      • evidence/statements of bank accounts.
      • an employment contract or letter from an employer demonstrating you have employment beyond the end of your trip.
      • evidence of attending school, or a letter from a school official demonstrating you will be a student there beyond the end of your trip.

Getting visa help

A letter of invitation alone does not guarantee you will be issued a visa. If you have followed the above steps, and your visa application is rejected, please let us know.

If you cannot afford the cost of visas or related fees, let us know. Financial assistance may be available.

Additional information

Ports of entry

You can enter Taiwan via the following airports:

Flights

There are direct flights to Taiwan from Canada, the United States, most of Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Japan, India, South Korea, and few European cities including Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. Many travelers may find that they need to make a connecting flight from Bangkok, Hong Kong, or Japan.

You can take the following airways to enter Taiwan (this list only contains Taiwanese airlines, there are other airlines also serve Taiwan.):

Airport entry procedures

Immigration

When entering the ROC, citizens of the ROC should go to the “Citizens” line, while non-citizens should go to the “Non-citizens” line.

Health check

Passengers will be subject to an infrared temperature check and be required to walk on a disinfectant carpet. People with fevers or flus should fill in a questionnaire form to the Taiwan Center for Disease Control (CDC).

Customs
  • Passengers with items to declare must use the red line. Other passengers may use the green line.
  • Passengers are forbidden from bringing in plants, fresh meat, and fresh fruits and vegetables.
  • Passengers may be warned on the flight to Taiwan and will certainly be warned at the airport that bringing non-prescription/non-over-the-counter drugs into the ROC is punishable to the maximum penalty of death. Please do not bring marijuana: recently there were politicians who had to make public apologies for smoking pot.
  • Poppy seeds for baking purposes is strictly prohibited even though such seeds have been processed to make them unable to germinate.
  • See Local information regarding regulations for bringing pets to Taiwan.
  • Map of Arrival Hall, TTIA T1
    Map of Arrival Hall, TTIA T1
  • Map of Arrival Hall, TTIA T2
    Map of Arrival Hall, TTIA T2

Others

Additional visa-related information not listed here can be found at the Bureau of Consular Affairs Republic of China (Taiwan) website.

External Links

Visa and Embassy Details

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