Preethika and I are off to Taiwan in less than 2 weeks from now and we are super excited about it. We picked Taiwan because we found a good deal during the Air Asia Big Sale last August (yes, 9 months ago!) and it is almost time for us to start packing our bags. Given our weak Indian Passport, we started looking at the Taiwan visa process for Indian passport holders last month 50 days in advance. To our surprise, we found that the Taiwan visa for Indians is actually free for up to 14 days, under certain circumstances. Here’s some more information.

Taiwan visa process for Indians

The official Taiwan website states that Nationals of Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam can apply online for a ROC Travel Authorization Certificate assuming they fulfil one of the following two requirements.

Requirement 1: If you have at least one of the following documents issued by Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, any of the Schengen countries, the United Kingdom, or the United States: Valid resident or permanent resident card or status Valid entry visa (electronic visa must be printed out) Resident card or visa that has expired less than 10 years prior to the date of arrival in Taiwan

Now, if you read the above requirement correctly, you will realize that almost every Indian passport holder may be able to travel to Taiwan visa-free.

Why?

In simple English, this requirement states that if you have travelled to Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, any Schengen country, UK or the US in the last 10 years (even if that visa isn’t valid currently, especially in cases like the Schengen visa where the visa duration is rather short), you are eligible to enter Taiwan for 14 days once (single entry) without paying any fee!

This is awesome, isn’t it? 🙂

Assuming you aren’t eligible under Requirement 1, here’s the next condition.

Requirement 2: This is for people who’ve been to Taiwan (also called the Republic of China) in the last 10 years. If you’ve received a visa to enter Taiwan or have held a resident card at any point in the last 10 years without any record of immigration irregularities or law violations in Taiwan, you are eligible for the Travel Authorization Certificate.

This worked out beautifully for us since our trip duration is only for 8 days and I hold a valid US visa and both Preethika and I have travelled to Europe multiple times in the past 10 years.

If you haven’t travelled to any of the above-listed countries, or your trip is going to last longer than 14 days, you will have to go through the full-fledged visa process.

You will have to submit a Taiwan online visa application, pay the visa fees (₹3,300 for single entry and ₹6,600 for multiple entry visa) and submit documents such as a covering letter stating purpose of travel, financial documents, a No Objection Certificate or NOC from your employer, that you are allowed to go on this trip amongst others.

Please find here the full list of documents required for Taiwan visa processing.

Given that Taiwan is visa-free for Indians and Air Asia runs their Big Sale often, we are surprised that us Indians don’t consider Taiwan as a vacation destination, say, like Cambodia for example (Planning a trip to Cambodia? Check out the Cambodia visa process for Indian passport holders).

Check out how we enjoyed our seven days in this country. Read more about Taichung and where we stayed in Taipei.

If you have your reasons, we’d love to hear your side of the story! Do let us know in the comments below.

Pin Taiwan visa for Indians for later!

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