The number of Taiwanese nationals applying for electronic passports has grown by 25 percent this month from a year earlier, boosted by Taiwan’s inclusion in the US Visa Waiver Program, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs Official said on Sunday.
Bureau of Consular Affairs Director-General Thomas Chen (陳經銓) said the bureau issued 96,047 e-passports between Oct. 1 and last Wednesday, a 25.48 percent increase from the same period last year.
According to the bureau, the e-passports are machine-readable and feature an International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)-compliant chip. This is required to travel to the US under the visa-waiver program.
Approximately 5 million ICAO-compliant passports have been issued by the ministry since e-passports were introduced in Taiwan in 2008, accounting for 46.09 percent of all Taiwanese passports in use.
Under the program eligible passport holders will be granted visa-free stays of up to 90 days in the US.
Meanwhile, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Seattle said Taiwanese nationals on a Seattle-bound EVA Airways flight on Friday will be greeted by a welcome banner at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Representatives of Taiwanese expatriate groups, political figures from the state of Washington and airport officials are set to welcome the flight’s passengers to celebrate the new visa-free policy.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
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