No, I haven't, but this sounds like the same problem with the TTP in Japan. Even if you have the e-Gate stamp exempt endorsement, it's difficult to prove a negative (that you're not a resident).

Great, is the application still done on arrival? I’m on the morning EVA arrival from LAX and my spouse arrives on the next flight 30 minutes later so I’m hoping to get my passport setup by the time they land and get ready to exit.

I don't know if it's still an option. You'll have to schedule something upon the conditional approval and see what the options are.

My guess is that you'd likely be the first new applicant in almost 4 years, and I'd be surprised if there were more than ~100 participants since the inception of this program. I haven't read any reports of others besides me renewing their membership in this program.

You are applying for e-gate with your US passport, correct? You will need to interview. From here: https://egate.immigration.gov.tw/ge-...dItem=section3 it says you will need to bring your GE card.

I saw that yesterday so it seems I’ll have a problem with a Nexus card, but I forgot the $90 fee to apply, and I don’t need to use the gates that badly when I can already skip the line with APEC.

I will be at TPE on the 30th to have them update e-gate for my new passport. If you have any questions, let me know.

It is wholly dependent on the level of 差不多 from the NIA employee for your appointment.

PassID
 

If you need a PASSID number to apply it’s on your Nexus card or Global Entry account.

I was directed to an e-gate upon departing from Taiwan (TPE) in September 2023, equipped with a europassport. It worked.
I had originally submitted my application to enter the country, and was stamped in, by a human being (TSA).
Is there a kind of automatic "enrollment" happening for exiting using an e-gate when you enter (on certain passports)?

al

I believe almost all those exiting are directed to use the e-Gate lanes now. There's no enrollment required to use the gates on exit if eligible.

Interesting, thank you.
The machine even addressed me in the language of my passport once the process was complete!
For my second exit a a few days later I was equipped with children and therefore got to use the human option and received a stamp.

I saw that Taoyuan Airport installed a new style of e-Gates. Has anyone who is a member of this program used the new e-Gates yet?

I entered Taiwan mid-month, my AUS E-gate registration from 2019 still worked. I suppose your GE will also.

I went through TPE last week and they were pushing all US citizens, and others, through the e-gates. I belong to no program and used them time without delay. On a side noted, Taiwan no longer uses an arrival card and went over to an electronic arrival card that you fill out online either at arrival or when arriving into TPE.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6d7de05cc.jpeg

How do the new gates work? Just for US citizens and with or without GE and prior registration or payment of a fee?

If this is the case, then I suppose the e-Gate for Global Entry program is no longer needed (and I wasted NT$3000 in renewing).

I believe the new gates work not just for US citizens, as there are many other countries that are eligible. If i recall correctly from my last trip a year ago, as long as your passport country is eligible, no registration is needed and you do not have to be enrolled in GE, which does significantly negate the value of the going through GE / e-Gate registration.

I was there in November and didn’t see any new egate system. Unfortunately I’m arriving into Songshan in a couple weeks so I won’t be able to check TPE unless the same gates are installed at both.

It'll be interesting to see if NIA brings the new e-Gates to other locations like TSA or KHH. Under the e-Gate for Global Entry program, a member can use e-Gates anywhere they are offered, including the ferry port at Kinmen. I have only entered Taiwan at TPE, however, so I haven't been able to verify this. I did leave via TSA once before they were ushering everyone to the e-Gates upon departure, and I was able to use the e-Gates successfully via my e-Gate for Global Entry enrollment.

I do want to clarify now that I thought hard about it, I dont remember being ushered to use e-gate upon arrival ( so that may mean you have to be registered to use it on arrival ) but distinctly remember that upon departure, if your passport country is eligible they ask you to use e-gate.

For me it doesnt really matter anyways. Through all my years of travel there, even during peak times, immigration at TPE never took longer than 15 minutes. They are quite customer centric. And I dont mind stretching for extra 15 minutes when I already / going to spent 12+ hr on the plane lol.

The e-gates at TSA should all be the 3rd/4th generation ones, which are faster, usually don’t require fingerprints, and work for all departing foreign passport holders. At TPE most of the first generation ones are blocked off at departure.

AFAIK only foreigners from a few countries can use e-gates for arrival, and GE holders still need to enroll and pay the fee.

Which countries can use the egate on arrival, and is it any egate or are they specially marked? Is any pre registration required or you just scan your passport?

This appears to have changed recently, at least at TPE:

There appears to be no preregistration required based on the above, but you need to fill out an electronic arrival card. This replaces the paper form (and presumably the speedy electronic arrival card that you had to use when using the e-Gates via Global Entry).

I don't know if e-Gate usage is restricted to certain passport holders or not under the new system. I can ask during my next trip, but I don't anticipate going to Taiwan until closer to the end of the year.

For the longest time I thought you were somehow related to BOCA (Taiwan's Bureau of Consular Affairs), but given the question I guess my assumption was way off :p

Citizens (who are not resident of Taiwan) of US, AU, DE, SG, KR, and IT can enroll for e-gates (https://egate.immigration.gov.tw/ega...nd/home/select). All use of e-gates for arrival require pre-registration. Given the use of e-gates by these foreign passport holders predates the 3rd/4th generation of e-gates, I assume they can use all e-gates just like TW citizens. Although personally I'd stick to the newer e-gates (the ones with a much bigger screen) as the old ones have really bad facial recognition.

Possibly as I usually use my TW passport when entering Taiwan, so don't really have much information about use with foreign passports. However, the most recent update on the NIA website (https://www.immigration.gov.tw/5475/...366038/cp_news) still says only citizens from the six countries (with US citizens limited to those with GE) can use e-gates for arrival with prior enrollments, and self-enrollment is limited to TW passport or ARC holders. Although I certainly won't be surprised if the government says one thing while doing another...

Yep, and I only found out about the new e-Gates via an online news article. I was unable to find anything from NIA directly. My guess is that it's moving in a similar direction like Australia where previously one had to be a Global Entry member to use the SmartGates, but eventually they opened up use of the SmartGates to most travelers.

Im travelling to TPE next week and I'll ask. They are also in the middle of replacing the TPE e-gates with the so called the "3rd/4th gen" hardware, so criteria and conditions could be very fluid in the middle of all this.

looking at the website nothing has changed. You still need to pay a very high fee and get interviewed. I’ll just use APEC and pass on the NT3000.

I believe I am in the same boat as well. Unfortunate timing!

Did you renew e-Gate for Global Entry recently? I had wondered if anyone else had, or if I was the only person who had.

If you read earlier posts in this thread, I had issues using the e-Gates during my first post pandemic entry to Taiwan after I had renewed. I haven't had another entry since December 2022. I did transit TPE in January, but the airside connection and not having to reclear security won out over seeing if NIA fixed my e-Gate enrollment in January 2023. :)

I renewed just earlier this year, in February 2024, if memory serves me right. I can't confirm if there were potential issues because I renewed in the arrivals hall with the NIA desk. Hopefully they can provide a bit more clarity on what their plans and intentions are going forward. If it holds, like the press release says, then the 3000NTD was a bad investment...

for anyone who did renew, y'all investment is not necessarily wasted, but likely has dimished in value.

Below is an excerpt of what the new upgrade entails (emphasis mine) and this is last updated on 03/2024. Basically this means, in the near future, the benefit of paying the 3000NTD is expedited arrival immigration clearance, where e-gates are only available to registered foreign national. On departure, everyone holding an eligible passport can use e-gate for departure immigration clearance. Me thinks this is not a good investment of ~US$95, unless you travel into Taiwan super frequently and dont have checked bags.

Source:
https://www.immigration.gov.tw/5475/...141401/233630/

Ⅱ. Highlights and Achievements
1. Features of the third- and fourth-generation e-Gate
(1) The system is compatible with previous generations of e-Gate. Thus, users do not need to re-enroll.
(2) Foreign persons are eligible to use the third- and fourth-generation e-Gate in departure.
(3) A dynamic facial recognition function is applied to accelerate immigration clearance processes.
(4) Those who have heights falling in the range of 120-200 cm are eligible to enroll for the e-Gate.
(5) Instructions in 40 languages are provided to better serve multicultural users.

Was this the NIA desk prior to passport control or the one landside? If it was the one prior to passport control, does that mean you tried to use the e-Gates after that and they failed?

The above conflicts with the report from minhaoxue, which indicates that US passport holders can now use the e-Gates on arrival without having e-Gate for Global Entry, an ARC/APRC, or any prior registration. As of January 2023, US passport holders could use the e-Gates on departure without prior registration, so what you described is not a change from my last departure from Taiwan. However, using e-Gates upon departure used to require registration, and this was the case as recently as November 2019. (This is my most recent data point since my manager and I were departing Taiwan at the same time. My manager followed me to the e-Gates but was unable to use them with a US passport and was ushered toward the regular desks.)

This was the NIA desk prior to passport control. There were no problems passing through the e-Gates after my visit and renewal at the desk. I tried to express my concern, thinking that the system would not update as quickly so that I needed to get back into the long line for immigration, but the NIA agent said there should be no problems using the e-Gate.

That's great. I didn't know that it was possible to renew in person.

Yeah, this is a conflict from what minhaoxue is saying, but that is what it says on the immigration website. In the chinese language version (which i would assume to be the most accurate, as understandably non-english countries may not update their english info regularly), there is even a matrix that shows who can or cannot use e-gates and what are the conditions attached, and it says foreign nationals cannot use it on arrival without registration.

For those that can read chinese. I probably can translate it later.
https://www.immigration.gov.tw/media...D%E8%A1%A8.jpg

This is probably correct, no registration and fee, no egate. I don’t know of other countries that allow a foreign national visitor (non resident) that permits egate use without any form of registration as they are essentially just letting anyone waltz into the country without any inspection or check for warrants, prior issues, etc.

I’m landing at Songshan later today which I don’t believe has the new gates otherwise I’d try and take one for the team to see what happens.

If someone can confirm TSA has the new gates please post and I’ll give it a try. Worst case I’ll get rejected and just go to the APEC line

I have experienced many situations in Taiwan where the website is outdated, even the Chinese version. Unfortunately, we don't have more than one data point so far of a US passport visitor, meaning no residency, who's not an e-Gate for Global Entry member using the e-Gates for arrival.

Keep us updated. I don't think that the new style e-Gates are necessarily a condition for opening up their use to more people, but rather it seems coincidental that at TPE they appear to have opened up the use to more travelers after installing them.

Also, I don't want to do the perennial FlyerTalk thing and immediately cite a counterexample after someone makes an absolute claim, but countries that come to mind with automated passport control gates available for arriving visitors that do not require registration as long as you have an eligible passport are the UK, Australia, and Singapore.

Singapore is the most recent. Before 2020, you had to have a certain number of entries and register, similar to Hong Kong. Australia used to require US passport holders to be Global Entry members, but it was opened to all perhaps a decade ago. The UK used to require a certain number of visits and enrollment in the registered traveler program, but, again, opened up to all since May 2019.

The automated border control is performing the same (and perhaps a more thorough) check on travelers as the manual lanes. It is comparing against the photo in the biometric passport, and when you scan your passport it will check for eligibility to enter. If there are any issues, such as a flag against you as a traveler or not getting a good match between the passport photo and you, you'll be referred to an immigration booth.

I'd like to add that I wasn't aware of the option either. I told the desk that I had filled out my application form online with the proper payment & renewal steps, but waited a long time with no response. I want to preface this by saying it might be a YMMV situation, but I am just providing an additional data point for everyone.

Good to know - I was not aware these countries had E gates without registration, especially SG. Last time I was there I had an argument with the robot immigration inspector when she saw my second passport in the pouch and argued with me that having two citizenships was impossible :rolleyes:. The less I need to interact with SIN airport staff, I've found over the years, the better.

I will update the thread in a few hours after arriving in TSA.

It's not as dicey as Mrs. Majuki entering the PRC on her US passport with a visa and trying to take a cross strait flight to Taiwan with ticketing agents asking about her onward travel plans from Taiwan. :D

Surprisingly, the Chinese consulate had no issue granting a tourist visa even though she showed both passports.