Asia - Intl connecting to Intl in Taiwan, customs?

I was wondering if any of you have traveled through Taipei from Hong Kong with an onward flight to the United States. Or just connected international through Taipei to another international flight.

After arriving in taipei from Hong Kong, will I need to go through customs and go through security again? Like in the United States? Or do you arrive and just continue onto your next gate without having to clear customs and security?

I will be flying into Taipei on Cathay Pacific (most likely, maybe a different airline) from Hong Kong and continuing onward to San Francisco on United Airlines.

Thanks a lot!

UAL747fan

You need to go through a security check as you move from the arrivals level to the departure level, but you stay airside and you do not have to clear any immigration or customs. If you don't already have your onward boarding pass then you will need to go to the relevant airside transit desk to collect it before you proceed through security.

The rest of the world isn't like the U.S. or Canada. Like the rest of the civilised world, TPE has sterile transit, at least for the terminal that CI and KL use. I did a same a/c turnaround there in January. Was off the a/c, through security and back to departure airside in 2 minutes (helped that the transfer point was adjacent to the gate) so I had time to go to the lounge despite a <50 minute turnaround.

Thanks a lot, those were incredibly fast and helpful replies!

UAL747fan

Of course, you may choose to go through immigration. If you have several hours at TPE, at least until recently, you could do a free city tour.

Assuming your luggage was checked through in HKG to SFO you do NOT need to go through customs at Taipei.

But you still need to go through a secondary security screening. I'm assuming you'll also need to stop by the transfer desk in Taipei to get your UA BP.

International to international connections in Taipei do not require you to go through passport control and customs. Assuming that your checked baggage is interlined to your onward connection, you will just need to go to the transfer desk in TPE and get a boarding pass if you don't get one at HKG (this is probably the case if you go from CX to UA; you probably can get a boarding pass in HKG if you are flying from one Star Alliance carrier to another). You probably may have to go through a secondary security screening before getting to the gate but it is nowhere as onerous as screening at a US airport.

Is it really true that in the U.S. you have to go through customs, even if you are just connecting to another country (say, Canada?). I've never been to another country that required passage through customs. TPE is not like that, as you might expect.

I didn't know about the free tour of Taipei. But I do know that it is a long trip to the city (45-60 minutes?) and there is no rail system (just bus and taxi).

The rest of the world isn't like the U.S. or Canada. Like the rest of the civilised world, TPE has sterile transit, at least for the terminal that CI and KL use.

It's all too easy to slip out of the sterile areas in many airports. I did it by accident and pure ignorance once (before I was a FF) - lots of red faces all around, but it was whispered that it wasn't the first time.

In places like HKG, NRT, ICN, etc with a significant proportion of transit it may make sense to build your airport from the ground up to support a secure, sterile transit.

In the USA, transit was only ever such a tiny proportion that it could never make sense to do so. It would be a good idea to put in place a fast track for transit pax at the few airports where there are many; if it was enough biz for the airlines to care then doubtless they'd pay for it.

LHR T5 has fingerprinting of domestic pax in order to be able to support "secure" transit (and I wonder just how secure that really is). I regard that as a darn sight less "civilized" than forcing transit pax through immigration/customs.

All that said, with such a porous northern border, the security paranoia seems rather beside the point. But if you are going to have immigration/customers in an airport, it makes sense to do the job properly.

Is it really true that in the U.S. you have to go through customs, even if you are just connecting to another country (say, Canada?). I've never been to another country that required passage through customs. TPE is not like that, as you might expect.

I didn't know about the free tour of Taipei. But I do know that it is a long trip to the city (45-60 minutes?) and there is no rail system (just bus and taxi).


The USA is more of an O/D (origination and destination) country rather than a transit country, which may explain its regulations for having to go through immigration and customs no matter what (and this was the case pre-9-11).

Another country that requires international/international connecting passengers to go through customs/immigration is China, though I don't know if they've changed the regs since.

LHR T5 has fingerprinting of domestic pax in order to be able to support "secure" transitEr, no. It's done to have a mechanism to force domestic passengers through the shopping area. As far as BAA is concerned they are a shopping mall operator with the advantage of having a large number of captive customers.

Er, no. It's done to have a mechanism to force domestic passengers through the shopping area. As far as BAA is concerned they are a shopping mall operator with the advantage of having a large number of captive customers.

For the time being, the fingerprinting system for domestic pax has not been introduced at LHR T5 because of Data Protection concerns.

Excellent news - I'm glad somebody's got the balls to stand up to BAA.

The USA is more of an O/D (origination and destination) country rather than a transit country, which may explain its regulations for having to go through immigration and customs no matter what (and this was the case pre-9-11).

Another country that requires international/international connecting passengers to go through customs/immigration is China, though I don't know if they've changed the regs since.


US is a joke, just does not fall in line with anywhere else in the world.

Baggage, everyone else has 20kg or 23 kg max not per bag, oh no not the USA, you get a house on wheels and you can take 2 pc

Fly to one city from outside USA and transit in say New York or Chicago, what a joke, you have to lift your baggage off one belt and put it on another and then go throught the so called security all over again !! yeah like giving your adress for the first two nights will stop you being a terrorist.

I have been on so many delays due to Americans argueing over weight of their bags in Europe and the size of their hand luggage, it amazing how they just dont think that anywhere else is different.