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Ministry extends
last-minute airport passport services
By Shih Hsiu-chuan / Staff reporter
Taiwanese who do not have a passport or whose passport is invalid will be able
to have it renewed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, as long as they have
paid their flight tickets and their flight takes off within 12 hours, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday.
The announcement came in the wake of an incident in which Vice President Wu Den-yih¡¦s
(§d´°¸q) daughter was able to get her son¡¦s passport renewed just before boarding a
flight on Friday last week. Since the incident, the ministry has received an
increasing number of complaints as netizens recounted their experiences of being
sent to the Bureau of Council Affairs in Taipei to renew their passport after
they discovered at the airport that their passport was invalid.
Some criticized what they said was the special privilege with which Wu¡¦s
grandson was able to get a new passport in just an hour¡¦s time.
The ministry has said that the service has long been available to the general
public, but that the service was usually only extended to people who needed to
go abroad to help their family members in an emergency.
Wu¡¦s daughter left for Palau for a family vacation.
Due to the limited resources at the ministry¡¦s Emergency Contact Centers at the
airport, passengers might not get their passports renewed before scheduled
departure time if too many people need the service at the same time.
The two Emergency Contact Centers at the airport are staffed by four people, who
have to deal with other services ¡X mainly calls through a 24-hour help line for
Taiwanese who encounter emergency situations ¡X and only have one passport
printing machine, the ministry said, urging people to check their passports
before leaving for a trip to ensure that they were valid for at least another
six months.
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