The number of people applying for passports nearly doubled after the Executive Yuan on Thursday last week announced that the nation’s borders would be reopened on Thursday next week, the Bureau of Consular Affairs said yesterday.
In addition to waiving the quarantine requirement for all inbound travelers, the new COVID-19 policy is to allow Taiwanese travel agencies to organize overseas tour groups, which have been banned since March 2020.
Airlines, including China Airlines, EVA Airways and Starlux Airlines, have announced that they are to resume flights to Japan and other destinations or launch new flight services after the borders are reopened.
Photo: Lo Pei-te, Taipei Times
Bureau deputy head Chen Shang-yu (陳尚友) told a weekly news conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei that about 1.74 million passports were issued in 2019.
That number plummeted to 316,000 in 2020 and to 233,000 last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chen said.
This year, 386,000 passports had been issued as of last month, he said.
Since the government announced that the borders would reopen on Thursday next week, the number of passport applications handled daily has nearly doubled, he added.
The bureau processed about 4,800 passport applications on Monday last week, up from an average of 3,000 per day over the past two years, Chen said, adding that the number jumped to 5,800 on Monday.
An average of 5,300 passport applications were handled per day in the past week, he said.
“We have prepared in advance, including increasing the number of personnel, opening more counters and ensuring that materials needed to produce passports are in place,” Chen said. “There is indeed a dramatic increase in applications for passports, but it is within our estimates.”
Some have complained about the long waiting times they have experienced while submitting their visa applications at the bureau and Chen said that statistics showed that as many as 180 people would be waiting during peak hours.
The bureau has 14 counters to process passport applications, which can handle 20 to 30 applications per hour, he said.
The peak time for passport applications is likely to fall at the end of December, in January and during the winter school break, Chen said, adding that people who are scheduled to travel overseas during this period should submit their applications ahead of time.
To shorten the waiting time, travelers are advised to fill application forms online and set up an appointment to complete applications at the bureau, he said.
Those who are filing passport applications for the first time can take advantage of the one-stop service at household registration offices nationwide or authorize relatives, colleagues, friends or travel agencies to file applications on their behalf, Chen said.
The bureau and its four other branch offices accept passport applications until 8pm every Wednesday.
The bureau also has a Line account (@boca.tw) where people can check travel alerts in other nations, and register their contact information with the nation’s embassies and representative offices while overseas.
EVA Air is prohibiting the use of portable chargers on board all flights starting from Saturday, while China Airlines is advising passengers not to use them, following the lead of South Korean airlines. Current regulations prohibit portable chargers and lithium batteries from check-in luggage and require them to be properly packed in carry-on baggage, EVA Air said. To improve onboard safety, portable chargers and spare lithium batteries would be prohibited from use on all fights starting on Saturday, it said. Passengers are advised to fully charge electronic devices before boarding and use the AC and USB charging outlets at their seat, it said. South
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
RSS