How Indonesians Can Enter Taiwan Without a Visa, but with a Travel Authorization Certificate

If you’re an Indonesian citizen like me, and planning to visit Taiwan, now you don’t have to apply for a visa anymore! Taiwan offers a convenient and efficient online process called Travel Authorization Certificate (TAC) that allows Indonesian travelers (and I think also other Southeast Asians) to enter Taiwan hassle-free within minutes.

Disclaimer: I am a travel blogger, not the official representative of Taiwan or Taiwan visa immigration. The information in this blog post might change depending on the government. I visited Taiwan for the first time and with TAC in September 2023, so if you’re visiting Taiwan in the future, please check with the official website or representative to get the latest update.

I finally realized my dream to visit Taiwan last month (September 2023)! A bit of backstory, before the 2020 pandemic, I planned my trip to Taiwan right before March 2020 and the lockdown. And now the world is opening up again, the pandemic has become an endemic, and I decided to plan my trip to Taiwan once more. As an Indonesian, the first thing that we always do when planning a trip is check whether we need a visa or not to enter the country. So, when I was searching about how to enter Taiwan as an Indonesian citizen, I discovered this Travel Authorization Certificate from my cousin and online.

Benefits of Travel Authorization Certificate

These are the benefits of TAC for Indonesian travelers:

1. Visa-free entry: No need to go through the lengthy visa application process. So you don’t need to get documents here and there and give them to the visa immigration office thingy.
2. Quick and easy online application: Apply for the TAC from the comfort of your own home. This is the link to the online application.
3. Fast approval: The TAC application is typically processed within minutes. It’s literally just 10 minutes based on my experience.
4. Stay up to 14 days: Explore the beauty of Taiwan for a maximum of 14 days. And trust me, 2 weeks is enough to visit all major cities in Taiwan.

You Need to Meet These Requirements Before Applying TAC

Hold on your horses! Before you apply, please read the requirements for your country here. I highly suggest that you read it thoroughly before you plan your travel because these are some of the basic requirements for you to be able to apply for TAC. Please bear in mind that I copied and pasted the information below from the link above:

Basic requirements

1. The applicant’s passport must have a remaining validity of at least six months starting from the date of arrival in Taiwan.
2. The applicant must possess an onward/return air or ferry ticket.
3. The applicant has never been employed as a blue-collar worker in Taiwan.

Additional requirements: In addition to the aforementioned basic requirements, one of the following requirements (so you don’t need to meet all the requirements below) must also be met:

A. The applicant possesses at least one of the following documents issued by Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, any of EU and Schengen countries, the United Kingdom, or the United States:

1. Valid resident or permanent resident card
2. Valid entry visa (may be electronic visa)
3. Resident card or visa that has expired less than 10 years prior to the date of arrival in Taiwan

B. Applicants who use an electronic visa issued by Australia or New Zealand as the required document must present a valid Australian or New Zealand electronic visa as entering Taiwan.

C. Applicants who use a visa issued by Japan/Korea as the required document must present the proof record of entering Japan/Korea.

How I Enter Taiwan with Australian Visa

Once again, go to their official website to get the latest update. Now I will talk about my case. I have US, Schengen, Australia, South Korea, and Japan visas. The US, Schengen, and South Korea visas had expired a long time ago, but still within 10 years, so I still can use that but I need to bring my old passport to Taiwan. In case they need me to show the evidence. I also have an Australia visa and a Japan waiver visa and they are both still active. But if you see the above, in the Additional Requirements section C, if I have a Japan visa (or in this case, a visa waiver) I need to have proof that I’ve been to Japan with that waiver visa. In this case, I haven’t been to Japan with the new waiver visa (I have the old one in my previous passport, and I’ve been to Japan several times with that waiver visa).

At this point, my only chance is with my Australia visa, so I emailed the Taiwan immigration people (this is the email that I contacted, [email protected]) whether I can use an Australia visa even if I haven’t used it yet, and they said yes I can. So, in the end, I used my Australia visa to apply for TAC, and eventually to enter Taiwan.

One Last Thing to Remember Before Flying to Taiwan

There was a hiccup when I was trying to check in to my flight in Jakarta, Indonesia. Turns out the visa number that I input in the TAC application form was wrong! I was flying with the budget airline Vietjet Air and the staff checked my TAC carefully and realized that I input the wrong number. I input the “Application ID” number instead of the “Visa grant number” in the TAC form. Fatal mistake! But worry not, the staff airline told me to just reapply and print the new TAC. So I did it then and there, with my phone, and printed it in an airport hotel reception.

It is very important to print the TAC because they will only let you enter to Taiwan if you have the physical proof. So I printed my Australian visa and the new TAC.

From this experience, I learned that you can apply to TAC very last minute, literally before you check in on your flight. But I wouldn’t recommend this because it’s just too stressful for me and I rather have all of my documents ready. It’s also nice to have several active visas from Australia, Japan, South Korea, or the US because it’s easier to apply for other visas and in this case, to apply for TAC. It’s like a buy-one-get-one kind of deal. Oh, by the way, this TAC is completely free. So you don’t need to go to a travel agent and pay them to do it for you. You can do it yourself in your home. Or in my case, in my phone, at the airport.

Important Reminders

• TAC is valid for a single entry and a maximum stay of 14 days in Taiwan. So if you go out and let’s say, fly to Japan for a week, and then you want to enter Taiwan again, you need to apply for the TAC again.
• If you need to be in Taiwan for more than 14 days, then you should probably apply for a visa.
• Ensure that your passport is valid for at least six months beyond your planned departure date from Taiwan.
• Check for any additional entry requirements or restrictions before your travel and check the official website, in case they made some new changes to the requirement.

Here’s what my Travel Authorization Certification looks like

To give you an idea of what it looks like, I’m showing you what my TAC looks like. I have to redact it because there’s my personal information. But overall, that’s how it looks like and all the blue text are your information.

I hope all the information above is useful for you and I can’t wait for you to discover Taiwan. I personally had a great time and I can’t believe that it took me this long to visit Taiwan. Taiwan has everything, from amazing food to beautiful nature. If you’re planning your trip to Taiwan, don’t forget to follow/subscribe to my blog so you can get a notification when my upcoming post is up.

See you in my next blog post!