Taiwan eases visa regulations for MSAR visitors

Taiwan is enforcing new visa policies to boost visitation from Macau, said the head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Macau, Lu Chang-shui, according to news outlet Focus Taiwan.
The measures include allowing Mainland Chinese citizens who have worked or studied in the MSAR for at least one year to apply for travel permits online from March 28, so as to reduce time required to obtain a travel visa.
According to Mr. Lu, the online system will reduce the waiting period for this type of visitor to five work days from the previous two to three weeks via paper application.
Last month, Taiwan authorities also started allowing Macau permanent residents that were not born in the city to apply for travel permits through the online application system.
Taiwan was the third largest source of visitors to Macau, with a total of 1.07 million Taiwanese visiting the city in 2016, an 8.8 per cent yearly increase, while 144,346 Macau residents visited Taiwan in 2016, a 3.8 per cent growth from a year ago.