Visa-Free Entry of Filipinos to Taiwan: Extended another Year if Approved by Cabinet

According to CNA, Taiwan is expected to extend visa-free entry of Filipinos to Taiwan for another year. Thailand, Brunei, and Russia will also enjoy the Privilege.

If approved, the visa-free entry to Taiwan for the four countries’ citizens will last until July 31, 2020.
The extension of the visa-free entry to Taiwan by the citizens of the Philippines, Brunei, Thailand, and Russia is yet to be approved by the Cabinet.





Initially, the visa-free entry program for the four countries is scheduled to expire at the end of July 2019.

It allows foreigners from the four countries to enjoy visa-free entry to Taiwan. They are allowed a total of 14 days to enjoy Taiwan. It is part of the government’s initiative to increase its foreign visitors.

The proposed extension was announced during a meeting made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was attended by the officials from agencies overseeing national security, the police, immigration, investigations, tourism, and the economy and trade.





Chang Ching-sen (張景森) told CNA that the final decision for the extension of visa-free entry to Taiwan by the citizen of the said countries will still have to be approved by the Cabinet.

The initial program of the visa-free entry to Taiwan for the four countries had positively affected the total number of foreign visitors to Taiwan.

Based on statistics from the Tourism Bureau, people from the 18 New southbound Policy partner countries made a total of 2.28 million visits to Taiwan for the year 2017 (an additional of 27.65 % from the 1.79 million number of visits to Taiwan by foreigners on 2016).

The increase in the number of foreign visitors had remained slow. Arrivals from Southeast Asian countries had reached up to 5.27 % in the first four months of the year 2019.





According to the Tourism Bureau, arrivals of foreign nationals from Philippines and Thailand increased by 12.46 % and 25.46 %, respectively, during the same duration.


Source: Focus Taiwan