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.

I forgot to report back. I have a new passport issued June 2018. I updated via the DHS portal, and this reflected on the NIA side shortly. I brought my old passport just in case, but I had zero issues using the new passport entering Taiwan in December at T2. I aligned the left edge of the passport with the light as before, and it worked on the first try.

As another data point, I also had no problem with Australia's SmartGate in November, so I haven't experienced the same issue reading a US passport that others have.

To add another data point, I previously had to align my passport with the red light to get it to read properly.
As of today, it seems that's no longer necessary. I inserted my passport straight to the upper left and it seemed to work properly the first time.

I guess the NIA fixed the issue!

I'll check that out during my next trip.

Was speaking to the NIA officer-in-charge yesterday because the machine continues to hate my passport. According to him, those with older passports have issues not because of the size but because of the ICAO lines at the bottom of the picture page. Versions that are older (mine is 2014) create issues with the reading of the passport, hence the "chip cannot be read" screen (there's no cannot read page in the software). NIA went to engage AIT and DHS to figure out what was going on.

My previous issued passport was from 2010, and aligning with the light worked. It's odd because I've read reports that newer US passports have had some problems with SmartGate in Australia. e-Gate doesn't seem to work with older passports, and SmartGate doesn't seem to work with the new. :)

To clarify, this is the same passport I used back in 2018 issued in 2010. I'll be going through arrivals again tomorrow and will report back.

I just went through the eGate with my 2010 Passport at Arrivals with the normal positioning you would expect to use and everything worked!

Great data point! Thanks!

For those whom E-Gate has worked, when you fill in the Online Arrival Card, which Visa type do you select? The last 2 times I've selected Visitor and the E-Gate didn't work for me. Someone just called me today and suggested that I use Visa Exempt instead.

I couldn't find any documentation on this anywhere and wonder if anyone else had similar experience? I'll be flying back into TPE again next week so I'll find out!

Hello taglin138,

Yes, you would select Visa Exempt under this arrangement.

I don't think you need to fill out an arrival card with e-gate... but if you are on a US passport, you'd be visa exempt. Visitor visa is for people coming from countries that require a visa.

If you're doing e-Gate for Global Entry, you have to fill out an online arrival card. If you have a Taiwan passport with National ID, ARC, or APRC there's no online arrival card required when using e-Gate.