American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Stephen Young said yesterday that the administration of US president-elect Barack Obama would give careful consideration to including Taiwan in the US Visa Waiver Program if it meets the requirements.
During a speech at an American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei luncheon, Young said that he would not rule out the possibility that Taiwanese would eventually get visa-free treatment when they travel to the US.
However, Young said that there were a number of issues that needed to be resolved before Taiwan could be considered for the program, which was granted last month to citizens of seven countries, including South Korea.
Under the program, citizens of member countries may travel to the US without a visa for up to 90 days for business or pleasure.
Young said that the US remained a favorite destination for study, business and leisure for Taiwanese, but too often the US has found instances where people who were not Taiwanese have been able to obtain genuine Republic of China passports.
“We applaud Taiwan’s efforts to introduce a new passport,” Young said, referring to the “ePassports” that Taiwan plans to roll out at the end of the month.
The electronic passports are embedded with a chip that contains the biometric data and the facial image of the passport bearer. They are difficult to forge.
Young said the US hoped that the new passports and other measures including the strengthening of passport application procedures would help reduce passport fraud.
Young said that the US recognized that Taiwanese travelers to the US had a strong reputation for abiding by the country’s immigration laws and for spending generously while in the US, which was why he thinks that the new administration would look favorably upon Taiwan.
“People-to-people exchange is a critical component of our relationship,” Young said, adding that many Taiwanese government officials obtained their degrees in the US.
The US Department of Homeland Security has said there were 36,000 students from Taiwan in the US, making Taiwan second only to South Korea worldwide in terms of the portion of its overall population studying in the US.
Young said that he was glad to see that the number of Taiwanese students in the US remained strong.
On the other hand, he said there had been a drop in applications for visitor visas, a trend he blamed on the current economic downturn.
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