Hsinchu County Police News-HsinChu County Police Bureau

Considering Taiwan’s border control measures remain in place, also to reduce the risks of infection from international travel, NIA has decided to provide an additional automatic extension to foreigners who entered Taiwan before or on MAR/21/2020, and have not overstayed their allowed duration of stay (including their initial visa and all previous extensions).

NIA stresses that, in order to prevent international movement of population leading to further outbreaks, as well as to reduce the burden of local epidemic prevention efforts, while also considering family unification, foreigners who had been allowed to stay for 180 days or more were previously granted 27 automatic 30-day extensions, since JUL/17/2020. The 28th extension has now been applied to eligible foreigners.

In accordance with the CECC’s latest announcement to steadily ease Taiwan’s border control measures and end quarantine, NIA is also considering the termination of automatics extension and other pandemic-related extension policies to resume normal operations in immigration management. Detailed policy updates will be announced at a later time, and NIA advises foreigners to make travel arrangements.

NIA further explains that upcoming extension policies will be reviewed and timely adjusted, in accordance with the CECC’s assessment on the COVID-19 pandemic.


Q&A

Q1: On OCT/5/2022, NIA announced the latest automatic 30-day extension for foreigners. Am I eligible for this policy?
A1: The automatic 30-day extensions are granted to foreigners who entered Taiwan before or on MAR/21/2020 and are currently staying within their allowed duration of stay (starting from MAR/21/2020 or earlier, including all previous MOFA and NIA extensions).
*Foreigners who have violated laws or regulations, or have been ordered to leave due to irregular actions are no longer eligible for automatic extensions, and must depart before exceeding their allowed duration of stay.

Q2: Does this policy applies to foreigners who have already exceeded their allowed duration of stay?
A2: This policy only applies to foreigners who have not exceeded the number of days allowed to remain in Taiwan under their initial entry visa and previously announced MOFA and NIA automatic extensions. Therefore, this policy is NOT applicable to those who already exceeded (overstayed), and any overstaying foreigners should depart immediately.

Q3: How can I verify this automatic 30-day extension, if my passport is not stamped the extended date?
A3: This extension is automatically registered on NIA systems, thus no application is required. For those who would like a formal documentation as proof, please submit your passport and relevant documents to NIA services stations. Our officers will stamp the passport to prove this extension.

Q4: Upon my departure, would I be considered overstaying and fined by NIA, given I don’t have the documents to prove these extensions?
A4: At airport checkpoints, NIA officers will carefully verify and check for all previous extensions. If you are eligible for this automatic extension, and you are still within the extended duration of stay, there will be NO fines due to overstaying.

Resource：NIA