The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ (MOFA) Bureau of Consular Affairs (BOCA) Director-General Calvin Ho (何震寰) has reminded Taiwanese of the services the nation’s consular offices can offer at home and abroad during the peak Lunar New Year travel season.
The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday started yesterday.
One problem some travelers face is realizing only when they get to the airport that their passports do not have the six months of validity required by many countries for entry, he said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
“You’d be surprised just how many emergency calls we receive from travelers who forget to check their passport’s expiration date,” he said.
The BOCA offers emergency passport renewal services at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, he said, adding that renewing a Taiwanese passport normally costs NT$1,300, but an emergency passport renewal at the airport costs NT$4,900 and requires two to three hours.
Taiwan’s 111 overseas offices around the world also offer emergency services to Taiwanese.
There are around-the-clock emergency hotlines available to all these offices and for MOFA headquarters in Taipei, Ho said.
The most commonly used emergency service for Taiwanese overseas is issuing a new emergency passport after the original was lost or stolen, comprising 40 percent of emergency service requests made to MOFA last year, BOCA data showed.
The second-highest number of requests were for government assistance in dealing with traffic incidents or health emergencies (9.15 percent), the data showed.
What most Taiwanese do not know is that MOFA’s foreign offices can even offer them loans of up to US$800 (or the equivalent in the local currency) to cover expenses abroad before returning home, Ho said.
The service is available only to Taiwan nationals who have an emergency while traveling abroad and urgently need to return home, but cannot immediately get financial help from their families and friends.
Those who get a loan must sign an emergency loan contract, stating that they would return the borrowed amount to MOFA within 60 days after the signing of the contract.
Ho also said there are certain things Taiwan’s overseas offices cannot do in terms of offering assistance to Taiwanese, mostly involving situations where they were suspected of breaking laws or were involved in judicial processes overseas.
BOCA data showed that 5.71 percent of people asking for emergency assistance from MOFA last month contacted the ministry for such reasons.
Based on the ministry’s “Directions for Handling Emergencies Involving ROC [Republic of China] Nationals Traveling Abroad,” diplomatic missions cannot interfere in the judicial or administrative decisions of a foreign government, provide a legal opinion regarding a judicial case, or act as legal agent filing a suit or an appeal on someone’s behalf, Ho said.
What Taiwanese diplomats can do is provide contact information for local organizations or professionals offering legal services, he said.
Ho said it is important for Taiwanese to be aware of what kind of services the nation’s overseas offices can provide when emergencies occur, given the growing number of “so-called influencers who make videos accusing Taiwan’s government of providing little help.”
It has nothing to do with whether Taiwan has diplomatic relations with a certain country, he said.
Taiwanese traveling abroad should log onto a BOCA online registration system, which could help the government quickly locate them in a foreign country in case of an emergency, he added.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and