Starting on Oct. 1, foreign nationals visiting Taiwan have to fill out an online arrival card three days before entering the nation’s borders, as paper forms are being phased out, the National Immigration Agency announced yesterday.
The policy would expedite foreigners’ passage through immigration while reducing waste, the agency said.
Introduced on May 5, the online arrival card, whose format aligns with international trends, has been well-received, it said.
Photo courtesy of the National Immigration Agency
The arrival card is available in Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese and Indonesian, it said.
Travelers can opt to upload a basic information page from their passport, which the system would reference, reducing the time needed to complete the form, it added.
One person can fill out forms for up to 16 people, including tour groups or families visiting Taiwan, which further reduces the customs clearance process, the agency said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Immigration officials can access information on the online arrival card once the traveler is standing at the gate awaiting clearance to expedite the process, it said.
Airline companies are to receive QR codes that are to be displayed at airports and harbors, allowing travelers who have not completed their form in advance to scan them, ideally before their passport is checked at immigration, to facilitate the clearance process, it added.
In other developments, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) yesterday said that passenger traffic at Kaohsiung International Airport has recovered to 89 percent of the volume before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The figure is higher than that of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, which has only reported a 76 percent recovery rate, he said.
There are 33 routes flying from Kaohsiung International Airport this summer, with 362 flights flying out of the airport per week, Hsu said.
Citing Civil Aviation Administration data, he said that Kaohsiung saw 1.8 million travelers passing through the airport from January to April this year, which is about 92 percent of pre-pandemic traveler volume.
With the onset of summer, the airport could return to about 98 percent of pre-pandemic traveler volume, he added.
Commenting on flights to Europe, the US and Australia, Hsu said he had visited United Airlines, which said that it was assessing the possibility of flying from Kaohsiung to San Francisco with a stopover in Tokyo, starting on July 11.
Most trans-Pacific flights from the US to Taiwan usually arrive before 9pm and there should not be a curfew issue, he said.
With the exception of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, every other airport in Taiwan has a curfew to prevent noise affecting nearby residents.
Hsu said he is working with airlines to develop new routes to Vietnam, Japan and Malaysia, which would link southern Taiwan to the rest of the world.
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