Taiwan will fully switch to online arrival cards for visitors from Oct. 1

Starting from Oct. 1, foreign visitors to Taiwan will need to fill out the online Taiwan Arrival Card (TWAC) before passing airport immigration.

Taiwan will be phasing out all paper arrival cards in order to streamline the immigration process at airports, Taiwan's National Immigration Agency (NIA) announced on Sep. 21.

An NIA official told Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) that around 70 per cent of people who visit Taiwan have already been submitting their personal and trip information online.

The TWAC must be completed for visitors to pass immigration clearance.

Foreign nationals, including Singaporeans, entering Taiwan with a visitor visa or under the visa-exemption program will need to fill out the form.

It also applies to Hong Kong and Macao residents holding a multiple-entry permit, Mainland Chinese residents holding a multiple-entry tourist permit, and Taiwanese citizens without household registration or without a residence certificate.

Submitting the arrival card

Travellers can visit the official TWAC website to complete the free online form in either English and traditional Chinese.

The NIA advises visitors to submit the form within three days before their arrival in Taiwan, but they can also do so on the day at the airport.

There will be free wi-fi and QR codes connecting them to the TWAC website displayed at Taiwan's airports, according to CNA.

To save time when filling out the form, visitors may upload a photo of their passport data page to have their personal information automatically imported.

Those travelling in groups can also have one person fill out the form on behalf of up to 16 people. After submission, travelers may review and edit the submitted data online at any time.

After submitting the form, visitors will need to present just their passport to the officer at the immigration counters, and the officer will be able to automatically retrieve all the TWAC data by scanning the passport.

For people without mobile phones, devices will be installed at Taoyuan International Airport, allowing them to use and fill out the required information online before going through immigration, CNA reported.

The NIA official told CNA that paper arrival cards will still be available, but only for exceptional situations.

Top images from Dr.Thavorn Born2Travel/YouTube & Taiwan's NIA