International Students Banned From Entering Taiwan Between Dec. 15 – Feb. 11

International students who are not residents in Taiwan will not be permitted to enter the country between December 15, 2021 and February 11, 2022, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has announced.

MOE has advised all those who want to enter Taiwan in these two months to do it on or before December 14 and complete the quarantine by December 31.

As the Focus Taiwan reports, the new temporary rule applies only to students who lack Alien Residency Certificate (ARC) and has been imposed due to the available quarantine space during the Lunar New Year (LNY) holiday.

Those who want to enter Taiwan after December 15 but do not have a valid ARC are required to submit an application via their education institution to the ministry of education, indicating the reasons why they will not be able to enter on time, why substitute learning agreements are not enough as well as quarantine details.

The ministry will then submit the application to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), which will afterwards approve it based on the spaces available for quarantine.

According to the ministry, students who do not have a valid ARC but must return to their university for the spring semester will be able to enter Taiwan from February 12, 2022.

Since May 19, Taiwan has imposed an entry ban for foreign nationals due to an increase in the number of COVID-10 cases, except for citizens and legal residents.

International students who have secured a place at Taiwan education institutions for programs lasting one year or more have been able to apply for an ARC, the application for which has to be done in Taiwan.

In late August, international students who did not possess an ARC were still able to enter Taiwan; nevertheless, the entry was granted only to those who have been enrolled in degree programs at universities across Taiwan as well as those who would study under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Taiwan Scholarship or the MOE’s Huayu Enrichment Scholarship.

Meanwhile, international students without a scholarship Huayu aren’t allowed to enter Taiwan.  

During a news conference held back in August, the Minister of Education, Pan Wen-chung said that some 13,000 international students without a residence permit would be able to pursue a degree at Taiwanese education institutions, adding that students who have enrolled at Chinese-language scholarship programs could also enter Taiwan before September 2021.