I am a South African citizen living in South Korea. I understand that as a South African, I would need a visa to visit Taiwan. However, I am also an Irish citizen, and as an Irish citizen I do not need a visa if I am visiting for less than 30 days. My problem comes in because my work visa for South Korea is in my South African passport, so I assume that I would have to leave on my South African passport. Can I leave SK on one passport and enter Taiwan on another? That is my real question, I suppose.
Taiwan - 6 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
I think it is OK. Because I know most of the Taiwanese Americans leave the US with US passport and enter Taiwan with Taiwanese passport. This way the Taiwanese American can stay in Taiwan longer than 2 weeks because using US passport they can only stay in Taiwan NO more than 2 weeks.
2 :
It shouldn't be a problem. A lot of people with dual-citizenship leave one country on one passport and enter another country on a different one. Sometimes immigration officers at the country you are entering will ask to see your other passport, but usually there are no issues. Or staff at the check-in counter (at South Korea) may ask to see which passport you will use to enter Taiwan if they don't see a Taiwan visa in your South Africa passport. I would double check with a travel agent just to make sure though. A quick phone call may save you a lot of trouble at the airport.
3 :
You can enter and leave Taiwan with your Irish passport. Taiwan immigration tolerates dual citizenship. The question is with S. Korea. You have to check whether S. Korean immigration permits your re-entry with your S. African passport without any entry/departure stamps of a foreign country.
4 :
Like Yellow and Dark Green Saturn said Taiwan does accept passports from dual nationality citizens, You can chose which country to enter Taiwan as a citizen of as long as your passport is valid. I think Korea also accepts dual citizen passports, so when entering Korea when you return you should declare that you visited Taiwan as an Irish citizen but your Korean work visa/student visa/marriage visa, is based on your S. African citizenship. The customs and immigration agents should be able to sort the rest of it out from there. As for JJohny's answer, I dont think he is clear on the length of stay Americans have in Taiwan. It is 30 days without a visa, and up to 180 days with a renewed tourist visa. Not 2 weeks. *edit* Pay No Attention to George's answer, it is inaccurate to say the least. He is a known troll with multiple proxy accounts, and only posts questions and answers to things that belittle Taiwan and dissuade people from visiting. The only thing that is plausible, is that they customs and immigration agents might ask why you are reentering Korea with out an entry/exit visa stamp for Taiwan. However, you most likely registered that you are a dual-national citizen when you apply for your Korean residency visa (I am not sure if they require this or not), if so they will not ask anymore questions than to see your Irish passport to prove you went to Taiwan.
5 :
That you do is take both passports as you said. You can leave on any passport as long as its valid. The South Korean boarder guards will stamp you as leaving the country, if they enquire about you not having a visa, tell them that you own an Irish passport and that your have duel nationality, and as a citizen of Ireland you can enter Taiwan visa free. For Taiwan, you enter and leave on the passport with the entry stamp, the Irish one, and enter South Korea using the one with the visa in it, boarder guards do not know what country you have flown from.
6 :
BAD IDEA. Persons carrying multiple passports (even if they are legitimate) always generate immediate suspicion with Customs officials. Furthermore, you may be denied re-entry into South Korea and lose your job. Do you want to risk all of that for the sake of avoiding a small visa fee? When Customs officials at your destination country can't locate a departure stamp related to your inbound travel, they will want answers. When you produce a second passport, they will take you into custody. Expect a thorough interrogation, full-body-search, intensive search of your belongings, and other indignities. You will have even worse problems when you try re-entering South Korea. They may even refuse you re-entry for violating visa rules. The problems could multiply fast and become quite large, so why risk it?
