Is Applying for a Taiwan Tourist Visa Easy?

Firstly, to apply for a tourist visa to Taiwan ONLINE, check if you meet the following criteria:
1. Passport validity of at least 6 months from the date of entry into Taiwan (not from the date of online application).
2. Round-trip air ticket to Taiwan or onward ticket to a third country.
3. No previous employment in Taiwan.
4. Possess a permanent residency card, Valid Visa, or Visa expired within the last 10 years from one of the following countries/blocs:
- USA
- Canada
- UK
- Japan
- South Korea
- Australia
- New Zealand
- Schengen Area (Europe)
Note: The validity period of within the last 10 years refers to the expiration date of the residency card or visa (if no expiration date, then issuance date) and the date of entry into Taiwan not exceeding 10 years apart.
Once you meet the above criteria, you can visit the following website to apply for a Taiwan visa online:
https://niaspeedy.immigration.gov.tw/nia_southeast/
After accessing the site, follow the instructions (available in Vietnamese), fill in your name, date of birth, passport details, passport expiration date, visa or residency card number from the aforementioned countries/blocs. I promise, filling out this information takes only 1 or 2 minutes.

Next, click the confirmation button. On the last page, once your information is 'APPROVED', click on the PRINT button. Then the PDF visa confirmation file will appear. You can either save it to your computer or print it immediately. I recommend both, but definitely save a copy on your computer.

I was shocked the first time because I never thought applying for a visa online could be so quick and easy. It only took 2 minutes to print out the visa confirmation sheet.
When going through procedures at Tan Son Nhat Airport, I presented my passport, the printed visa confirmation sheet, round-trip ticket, and the old passport with an expired US visa not exceeding 10 years to the airline staff.
Then, upon arrival at Taipei Airport, I went straight to the immigration counter (no need to go through the Visa On Arrival counter). At the immigration counter, the Taiwanese officer was friendly and courteous. I greeted them with a 'Good morning', handed over my new passport, the visa confirmation sheet, and the old passport with the US visa. The immigration officer inspected the US visa under a magnifying glass and a projector, took my fingerprints, and then stamped the entry stamp 'cute' on my passport. That's it, the whole process took only 1 to 2 minutes. I was shocked again. I never imagined everything would be so simple. They didn't even bother to ask for the round-trip ticket even though I had it prepared.
Special note: When filling out information on the website to apply for a visa, be careful not to input the wrong date format. Taiwan's website uses the date format as follows:
YEAR / MONTH / DAY
For example, if the date is May 15, 1981, it should be entered as 1981 / 05 / 15.
Another note: If the expired visas of the aforementioned countries are in the current valid passport, then there is no issue. But if your expired visas are in the old passport that is no longer in use, remember to bring that old passport for immigration officers to inspect and cross-reference.

To sum up, whether you used to travel independently or with a tour and had visas from those mentioned countries (still valid or expired), even including trips to South Korea, just go ahead and apply for the visa online. It's fast and ridiculously simple.

For those who don't qualify for online visa application, typically those who don't have a permanent residency card, residency card, or valid visa, or whose visa has expired within the last 10 years from the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Schengen countries, and South Korea, will have to apply for a visa directly at
Required documents include:

Visa application submission address in Vietnam
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Hanoi (responsible for areas from Hue and beyond)