The Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) said on Monday that the US State Department has said passport applicants can write “Taiwan” as their place of birth on their application forms.
Since 2006, US immigration officials in several states had requested that some FAPA members change their birthplace on official documents from “Taiwan” to “the People’s Republic of China” (PRC).
The Washington-based FAPA raised the issue with the State Department, which said “Public Law 103-415 provided that the secretary of state may write ‘Taiwan’ as place of birth in a passport when requested to do so by applicants born there,” FAPA said.
Taiwanese had previously been forced to write “China” instead of “Taiwan” on their passport applications, the group said. It won congressional support and assistance in amending the law and since 1994, Taiwanese have been able to write “Taiwan” as birthplace on their US passports, birth certificates and other official documents.
FAPA said a member in Oregon had been told by an immigration official during a citizenship interview that he had to change his birthplace from Taiwan to the PRC on his naturalization certificate.
FAPA also found that Department of Homeland Security officials had changed “Taiwan” to “China” on some documents.
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