Hi there,
Im just reading up on South East Asia, where i would love to travel in the next few years. I'm also travelling to Taiwan this summer. I was surprised to hear that if you have a stamp in your passport from Taiwan, you will get denied entry into many countries?
Is there any truth to this?
More importantly, are there any other countries that you cannot enter having your passport stamped with Taiwan?
Thanks in advance,
Daniel
Dear Daniel.
I don't know where you get your info from but as far as I am aware you can have a Taiwan stamp in your passport and it won't stop you from entering any other country even their worst enemy the PRC China. It is not like a Cuban stamp, Israel stamp or a DPRK stamp. Though my American buddies tell me cuba and Israel is easy, you ask the nice person at immigration to stamp it onto a separate piece of paper when you fly via Mexico to Cuba or wherever to Israel. Heh I very nearly did get a DPRK stamp though. Felix however had a DPRK stamp as a joke, the TSA did not treat him very nicely for having this.
In fact it is rather the reverse as Taiwanese passport holders are scrutinised more heavily or have to do some more paperwork when entering and leaving other countries. Though it is a bit of tit for tat really. As Taiwan does not recognise PRC passports and the PRC does not recognise Taiwanese passports requiring a third document. Which resembles a passport which does not say Taiwan or China on it to sort of side step any nationality issues.
Strangely though TCG's on off Taiwanese girlie who TCG thinks will probably Dear John me sometime soon has lots of separate bits of paper sellotaped into the back with various stamps on them. I've seen a Malaysian one and a Singaporean one.
Though tbh entry and exit paperwork in Asia is pretty normal. The EU has spoiled me on one hand I get less stamps, my uncle though travelling around in the 1990s and 1980s filled passports with European stamps. Almost everywhere in Asia demands one of those customs declaration forms which people fill in with anything they fancy. For example when I arrived in Sokcho Korea via ferry from Zarubino Russia, I was faced with a mountain of paperwork. Ok ok it was more like a molehill but since I had just lost a severe drinking game with a bunch of Russians and my breath was powerful enough to melt steel, it felt like a mountain.
