Originally Posted by
Majuki
Usually you can get conditional approval and schedule an appointment within a few days. If you aren't planning to go to Taiwan until September 2019, I wouldn't apply before August 2019.
This is good advice - just to clarify, the problem is that the Taiwan e-gate interview must be completed within 180 days of the conditional approval, so it's probably a good idea to leave a buffer in case travel plans change.
Most of us went through the process a while ago, but IIRC, conditional approval was granted within minutes and interviews only have a 3-day advance requirement. A few weeks or even a month prior should leave sufficient buffer for any problems.