Are borders in Taiwan reopening? Yes, in parts.

A lot has been announced by the government during the past two weeks, especially in the past few days. This is the big update many of you have been hoping for. The multiple announcements have however made it difficult to have a clear understanding of what is happening, as well as to confirm and check the details of every decision.

We have spent close to a dozen of hours confirming each announcement directly from its source, rather than from reposts. It turns out that some of the information previous published online is wrong. Our goal here is to give you the most accurate summary of the recent changes in visa policy and to allow you to find the correct references through each link, should you need clarification. This explains why you will find links to sources in Mandarin when the information hasn't yet been translated.

Weekly arrival cap lifted up

While only 25 000 people were allowed to come into the country every week until recently, the CDC (Center for Disease Control) announced on July 7th that the limit will now be lifted up to 40 000 people. 

PCR test requirement waived for residents

In the same July 7th announcement, the CDC announced that:

R.O.C. nationals, Alien Resident Certificate holders, and transit passengers will be exempt from providing a result of a PCR test taken within two days of flight schedule time

Beware that this DOES NOT apply to other visa categories such as students or working holidays.

International exchange students to be allowed in

This is the big news many of you have been waiting for. There are multiple categories outlined in the announcement from the Ministry of Education (MOE) dating from July 16th, but the main one concerns exchanges between Foreign and Taiwanese universities.

The main points are:

• Visas for exchange students can be applied for immediately
• Entries will be allowed from August 1st
• Conditions for quarantine stay the same (more on that later)
• This does not apply to exchange students from Hong Kong and Macau

Language students allowed in on shorter programs

Language students coming in for programs as short as two months will now be allowed into the country. Prior to this, the minimum duration was 6 months. 

Hong Kong and Macau language students to be allowed in

The MOE also announced that HK and Macao students will now be allowed to come in for Mandarin language studies.

While this category of visa had been reopened since February 14th for the rest of the world, HK and Macao students have been excluded from this decision. The conditions for entry are the same as that for exchange students.

MOFA scholarship recipients, and other categories, to be allowed in

The MOE further announced that MOFA (Ministry of Foreign Affair) scholarship recipients and multiple other categories will be allowed in as well. Due to the specialized vocabulary used here (Rooms.Taipei is mostly staffed by long-term foreign residents with varying levels of Mandarin), and the fact that the press release has not yet been translated to English, we prefer to provide the details in Mandarin first and offer a google translation afterwards

Original text: 雙邊互惠及特殊外交考量、優華語計畫、教育部獎補助

Google translation: Bilateral Reciprocity and Special Diplomatic Considerations, Excellent Chinese Language Program, Ministry of Education Award and Subsidy

It has been kindly pointed to us by an NTU staff that "優華語計畫" means "Taiwan Huayu Bilingual Exchange Select Talent (BEST) Program.

The conditions for entry are the same as that for exchange students.

Working holiday visa to be available again

This is another news that was dearly expected by many of you: The CDC announced on July 19th that the working holiday visa will restart immediately. Their announcement is unfortunately short on details. We have been able to confirm with the Taipei Representative Office in France that this applies to French nationals. So far, journalists seem to suggest it applies to all 17 countries that have already reopened WH visas to Taiwanese citizens. This seems consistent with the wording of the CDC announcement in Mandarin. WH visa holders will need to fill an online declaration 48h before departure, as well as present a PCR test before boarding their flight. Their quarantine conditions are the same as that of the general public.

Multiple other categories of Visas are reopening

These visa categories tend to be more confidential, but in the same announcement, the CDC mentioned that "volunteering, religious proselytization, studying religious doctrines, internships" categories will also be reopened.

What about Tourist Visas?

This is the final big category many of you have reached out to ask us about. Unfortunately, short of recent declarations from President Tsai and the Tourism Bureau encouraging the reopening of Taiwan's borders to international tourists, nothing concrete has been proposed. When asked to take a guess as to when the borders will be reopened to international tourists, most analysts and journalists suggest November or December 2022.

What does this mean for you?

Expect cheaper flights

Due to the strict zero-covid policy the ROC government has implemented since early 2020, numerous airline companies have canceled service to and from Taiwan. When demand finally came back recently, prices rose significantly. One of Rooms.Taipei's members reports that for the same flight, he paid 25 000 NTD for a ticket to Europe in February, and 39 000 NTD in July. We believe this raise of the weekly arrival caps will means more flights and cheaper prices.

You will still have to quarantine

As a new arrival you will still be subject to the regular 3+4 quarantine process if you are vaccinated. Here is the CDC's own summary of the rules you will have to follow. 

A few things to keep in mind: Quarantine in Taiwan is a serious affair, your movements will be tracked for the duration of the quarantine, and disrespecting the quarantine regulations is punished with fines up to 1 500 000 NTD.

Expect to wait at the airport for at least an hour while your PCR test is being processed, expect to receive a daily text message on your mobile phone at around 10AM that you will need to answer immediately if you do not want to receive a phone call from the local police branch. Expect potential surprise inspections from your local police officers.

Your movements will be tracked, and the system can sometimes make mistakes. One of our staff received a visit from the police after he was taken by a quarantine taxi to do a PCR test back in March, in spite of the taxi ride and test being part of the quarantine process. The police officers were insistent that he prove why he had been going out from his home.  They only relented when he showed them photos of the test location he had taken.

Quarantine for students will be different

You may have seen the following in local newspapers:

"International students arriving in Taiwan are required to follow the same quarantine rules as other arrivals and quarantine for three days, followed by four days of self-heath monitoring"

Unfortunately, this is wrong. Quarantine for students is not managed by the CDC but by the MOE which means the Ministry gets to apply its own rules. In the recent letter to universities announcing the reopening of the visa categories for international students that we were able to see, the Ministry detailed a regimen for quarantine that is just not the same as the quarantine rules for the general population.

More specifically:

1. Students will not be allowed to quarantine at home or at a friend's place.
2. Students will have to quarantine either in hotels, in quarantine dorms, or government centres.
3. Students will not be allowed to change location at the end of the 3 days quarantine, unlike everyone else.
4. Students will have to stay in the same location for an extra 4 days of self-health management.
5. Students will only be allowed to go out during the 4 days of self-health management period for absolutely necessary issues.

Here is a screenshot of the letter that we mentioned, in case you need to show the announcement to someone at your school:

There are other rules relevant to students arriving to Taiwan, such as filling a special declaration form on the government platform osas.moe.gov.tw five working days prior to arrival, and meeting your school representative at the airport. These rules will be communicated to you by your school.

Students may quarantine in dorms

Again from the recent letter addressed to universities, and from other sources, international students will be allowed to quarantine in their dorms if the dorms have been approved for quarantine by the local health administration.

Should too few beds be offered in dorms for the needs of the students, the local health administration will have to provide beds in central government quarantine facilities. Government quarantine facilities have a capped price that tends to be cheaper than hotels.

We were unfortunately unable to figure out what will be the mechanism for this process due to the lack of clarity from the official letter we reviewed, and thus it is likely that some students will be forced to quarantine in pricy quarantine hotels.

From our exchanges with students following these announcements, it seems that schools have not started offering quarantine in dorms. You may want to ask about it.

Rooms will be hard to come by

Taipei was already a difficult accommodation market before the pandemic. Accommodation in Taipei is expensive, often in poor condition, and hard to come by for people who look different and who are only looking for a contract under a year. 

Sadly, the pandemic has not improved this situation. The collapse in the number of arrivals from abroad, the fact that hotels and AirBNBs started doing monthly rentals to survive, and the absence of government support for the vast majority of our industry, means that many companies offering rooms for rent have closed.

This is going to create a serious issue for the next couple of waves of foreign students coming into the country. Expect difficulty to find rooms, high prices, and low standards. You should consider booking early and not waiting until the last minute.

Update July 29th: A conversation with 4 other coliving space operators confirmed that in the past week booking requests for September have exploded, and that prices are now back to pre-COVID level. Rooms.Taipei has rented about a dozen rooms in the past week alone. We have also heard that some hostels have been booked in their entirety by universities to be used as dorms for their international students.

If you decide to rent a room via social media, we recommend you ask for clear photos of the place, a video if possible, and legal proof of the identity of the company or person you are talking to. Ask for clarity and a minimum of proof before wiring money to a stranger online.

We have a strong belief in leading by example at Rooms.Taipei, so here is our own official info: Rooms.Taipei is registered with the Taiwanese tax authorities under the name Inari Hotels LTD and under the tax number 56605591. You will find the name in our rental contracts to be the same as the names in the government public registry.

We are teaming up with other coliving space operators to make your Taipei experience better

Due to the difficulty of keeping the company afloat during the pandemic crisis, Rooms.Taipei started talking to other coliving space operators. We met a lot of good people, each trying to do something better in their own way, and all suffering significantly because of the pandemic. It quickly made sense that, rather than competing head to head, we help each other out.

Relationships grew from this, and we started sharing info, suppliers, and eventually customers. Out of this group of coliving space operators, Rooms.Taipei had a lot more online tools, so it made sense for us to start listing everyone's rooms and apartments on the new booking engine we just launched at booking.rooms.taipei. Our booking engine now include a map to give you a better idea where each of our apartments and houses is located. It also allow you to search by date, price, and area.

This will eventually grow to 150+ units in the next few months. We hope you can be patient with us as we work the kinks out of the new system and as we list everyone's units onto the system. We also hope this will bring clarity and trust to the market, and give you the best experience of Taiwan you can get.

Sources and thanks

Most of the details in this post have been sourced from original sources, but also from staff members from the Chinese Language Division at the National Taiwan University, the International College at National Taiwan University, and Pagoda Projects, the intern placement agency.

Many thanks for their support over the past two years this newsletter has existed.