A valid national passport is required for all aliens who wish to enter Taiwan. The passport must be valid for at least six months after your intended date of departure. If you are traveling to Taiwan for less than 30 days you will be required to show your passport to the immigration officer at the Taiwanese port of entry before being allowed entry. If you intend to stay in Taiwan for more than 30 days you will be required to hand over your original passport to the visa immigration officials before you leave the United States so they can process your paperwork. No photocopies of the passport will be accepted. If you are granted the visa you will also be required to show the passport as well as the visa to the immigration officer at the port of entry. It will take anywhere between two to 15 days to process the visa application. Once the visa application has been processed they will mail you your passport and visa if an interview was not requested. Make sure to supply a postage paid return envelope so the Taiwanese Embassy/ Consulate can mail the passport back to you.
You will be required to submit two additional passport photos along with the passport application package. These pictures can be purchased at any certified passport photo shop. These photos must be in color and against a plain, preferably white, background.
You will be required to submit a copy of your itinerary along with your application package. The copy of your itinerary is either a form that is issued by the tour group that you are traveling with or an itinerary that you outlined yourself. In most cases where you have completed your own itinerary you will also be required to show a photocopy of your round trip tickets that will ensure a return flight. This is to help prove that you will be leaving the country on or before the expiration date of the visa.
Taiwanese regulations require that you must have sufficient funds before you are allowed to enter the county. You must be able to prove that you will have sufficient funds on your trip to support yourself as well as any dependents traveling with you. Proof of sufficient funds can be shown through bank statements. A copy of these bank statements must be submitted along with the visa application form. Other acceptable means of showing proof of sufficient funds can be an affidavit from another person, such as a spouse or a parent, that states that they will be supporting the fiscal end of the trip.
The traveler will be required to include a letter of personal intent along with the application package. This letter is a personal letter that states the reason for the trip, a brief itinerary including your arrival and departure dates and where you will be staying while you are in Taiwan.
You are required to complete the visa application form. The visa application form will ask questions regarding your passport, citizenship, contact information and questions regarding your planned stay in Taiwan. The visa application along with the letter, proof of sufficient funds, itinerary, passport, and passport photos must be submitted to the Republic of China Diplomatic Missions (Taiwan) nearest you. You do not have to submit the visa application in person, and visa filing can even be completed through a third party. However, the Taiwanese Bureau of Consular Affairs reserves the right to request an in-person interview before they grant the visa.
