Do you need a visa for a Taipei layover?

If you stay airside

Changing planes at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) without leaving needs no visa: Taiwan’s Bureau of Consular Affairs says you don’t need one if you stay in the international transit area. Follow the transfer signs, taking the Skytrain inside security if you change terminals. If you don’t yet have your next boarding pass, get it at one of the four transfer counters. Then go through security again and up to departures on the third floor.

• Every passport can change planes this way, Indian ones included.
• How long you can stay. Taiwan publishes no time limit for staying airside. Be at your gate at least 30 minutes before departure.
• A flight within Taiwan next means passing immigration, so the rules for leaving the airport apply.

If you want to leave the airport

You’re entering Taiwan, even for a few hours, so you need permission to do so.

Passport	What you need to leave Taoyuan
US	No visa, up to 90 days; passport valid for your stay
British (British Citizen)	No visa, up to 90 days; passport valid 6 months
EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland	No visa, up to 90 days; passport valid 6 months
Canada, Australia, New Zealand	No visa, up to 90 days; passport valid 6 months
India	Travel Authorization Certificate (free, online) if you hold a qualifying visa or residence card; otherwise a Taiwan visa

Everyone in the table also files the free Taiwan Arrival Card online before landing, and needs a confirmed flight out, which your onward flight is.

Visa-free entry

Most Western passports, and Japan’s and Korea’s, enter Taiwan for up to 90 days with no visa. The rules that catch layover travellers out:

• Six months on your passport, counted from the day you arrive, for every passport in the table except the US. A US passport need only be valid for your stay.
• British passports qualify only with British Citizen status. Other British nationality passports aren’t on the visa-free list.
• An ordinary passport. Emergency and temporary passports don’t qualify, except American and Japanese ones.
• An onward flight, confirmed. Keep the e-ticket or boarding pass to hand.

Travel Authorization Certificate (TAC)

Taiwan’s online permission for travellers from India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam who already hold a visa from certain other countries. For an Indian passport on a layover, it’s the way to leave the airport without a visa.

• Who qualifies: a valid ordinary passport with at least six months left on arrival, a confirmed onward flight, and a visa or residence card, valid or expired within the last 10 years, from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand or a Schengen or EU country. A Taiwan visa or residence card from the last 10 years also counts. Work permits don’t, and nor do cancelled visas or anyone who has worked in Taiwan as a blue-collar worker.
• Cost: free, on the National Immigration Agency’s Travel Authorization Certificate site.
• Timing: no decision time is published, so apply at least a few days before you fly.
• Validity: 90 days, for several entries.
• At the border: show the printed certificate and the visa or card you qualified with. A Japanese or Korean visa counts only with proof that you have entered that country.

Taiwan Arrival Card

Everyone entering Taiwan without a residence card fills it in online, free, within the 7 days before arrival, the day you land included. It takes a few minutes and asks for your flight details, so do it before you fly; airport Wi-Fi is free if you forget. You don’t need it if you stay in the transit area.

Visas for other passports

If your passport isn’t visa-free and can’t use the TAC, you need a Taiwan visa or eVisa before you fly: check the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ eVisa site for your nationality.

The free half-day tours

The Tourism Administration’s free tours from the airport take you through immigration, so you still need permission to enter. The guided bus tours take a visa-free passport or a valid Taiwan visa, and are for connecting passengers with 7 to 24 hours between flights who fly on to a different destination from the one they came from, with a passport valid for six months. With a TAC, you can register for the free self-guided tour, which comes with a round-trip Airport MRT voucher; if you’d rather have a seat on the bus, email the organisers at halfdaytour@mail.tad.gov.tw before you book. Bring your passport and both boarding passes. How to join, and the flight times they need: itineraries.

If you’re on separate tickets

Taoyuan’s transfer counters handle connections booked on one ticket. On separate tickets with checked bags, you go through immigration, collect your bags, then check in and clear security again, so you need permission to enter Taiwan even if you never planned to leave the airport. With hand luggage only and a boarding pass for your next flight, you may be able to stay in the transit area: ask your second airline before you travel.

At the border

Taiwan’s arrival e-gates are only for travellers who have registered for them in advance, so plan on the staffed desks for foreign passports. Have your passport, your onward booking and, for an Indian passport, the printed TAC ready. Taoyuan publishes no queue times; plan on about an hour from landing to the train (getting into the city). Leaving Taiwan, every foreign passport can use the departure e-gates.

Before you go landside

• Check whether your bags are checked through to your final destination.
• File the Taiwan Arrival Card if you haven’t.
• Plan to be back at the airport 90 minutes before departure, with your onward boarding pass, or earlier if you still need to check in or drop a bag. Check which terminal your next flight leaves from: the Airport MRT between them is free. See getting into the city.