Going to Taiwan and China with an Arrest Record
 

HI guys,

so I recently was surprised with a trip to taiwan and china from my family, the only thing is i have a arrest record.

1. traffic for allowing someone to drive my car without liscense, i was never arrested just had to appear in court and was given a fine that i paid off.

2. I was arrested in 2013 for felony drug charge that was later dropped to a misdemeanor for cannabis, i was ordered to do drug court which i completed and my case was dismissed. The arrest still shows on my record because my expunge application is still being processed since it takes 3-6 months for it to go through.

Will i have trouble going through immigration/customs when i get to taiwan? i'm a little nervous about getting denied once i arrive. I was approved for my chinese visa for my trip to shanghai so i'm not too worried about that trip. If someone has experience with traveling to taiwan or any other asian country with a record have any feedback i would appreciate it ! thanks !

I'm assuming you are from the States/EU, and not planning to stay beyond 90 days. Someone I know had a felony dropped to misdemeanor, entered visa-exemption without any problem. Just don't try to bring any in, some Asian countries take "punishable by death" literally.

Yes Im from the state and no I'm not sneaking any in lol, 2 years clean :cool:. I'm bringing a copy of my court papers saying my case was dismissed just in case. I'm only in Taiwan for 5 days and China for 5 days.

Nobody is going to care. Don't bother with the court papers. In fact if you get a secondary and they find them, it might bring up more trouble.

Alternative plan: scan the operative court order and have it on your mobile device/laptop just in case. And BTW, the "expunged" record continues to be visible to US TSA and US Immigration.

Thanks guys

I'm just a little nervous, I know they won't ask on my arrival card but I was nervous the immigration officer might be able to see it when they pull up my passport info.
The drug charges say dismissed on my record and the traffic charge says conviction but that's a minor charge so I'm not too worried about that.

Second this. Carry scans, not paper.

> no I'm not sneaking any in lol,

If any of the luggage/gear you will be using, was ever anywhere near your drugs, dogs may alert on just the lingering residue/odor ... and that could be a very bad thing for you.

I'm using my grandparents luggage so I doubt there will be residue/odor on there luggage lol.

The point is this kind of stuff the folks at immigration are not going to see in China or in Tawain. If they could see this stuff then you wouldn't need me to go run a background check on myself in the US and have it notarized by the US Consulate.

I just got a little nervous because on the Taiwan immigration site it said no criminal record to be allowed in but I don't know exactly what pops up when they scan my passport or scan my fingerprints.

So from what I'm gathering is that it probably won't show up but if it does and they question just be honest and tell them it was dismissed?

They are not going to pull up criminal records from the US (note that Canada and US DO exchange this information, so keep that in mind) - however if the felony was somehow uploaded to Interpol for some reason, they will certainly pull from that database...but it seems very unlikely that it would be.

What do the fingerprint scanners and photos do at the airport ? Is it just for there records?

;) More serious: stating Taiwan and China as different countries really upsets the Chinese (PRC folks) as much as a criminal record :D . Or, maybe, it is criminal to them :eek: . BTW, when I am asked how many countries I have lived in or visited, I list China and Taiwan as separate, but have gotten grief in China over my "ignorance" in not knowing that Taiwan is a province just like Hunan.

Just ignore them...the communist Chinese like to believe in fairy tales and expect others to go along with their nonsense. Taiwan is a completely separate, sovereign, independent nation and should be considered as such.