Taiwanese electronic passport application fees set to drop in 2013

Taiwanese citizens will pay less when applying for the country’s electronic passports in 2013 as the Legislative Yuan passed a first reading on fee reductions Wednesday, Focus Taiwan reported.

Members of a legislative standing committee reached an agreement to cut the application fee for machine-readable regular passports from NT$1,600 ($55 USD) to NT$1,300 ($43 USD), starting next year. Additionally, the price of electronic passports valid only between three and five years, will be lowered from NT$1,200 ($41 USD) to NT$900 ($30 USD).

According to a report on NationalVIsas.com, electronic passport applications in Taiwan increased by 25% last month alone. To date, 5 million electronic passports have been issued in Taiwan since the project was introduced in 2008. This amounts to roughly 50% of all Taiwanese passports in circulation.

As reported by Biometric Update earlier today, electronic passports are increasingly becoming the norm around the world, as more countries continue to adopt the practice and develop electronic passport initiatives of their own.

Biometric Update’s most recent Biometric Research Note looks at government implementation of eID programs, including electronic passports.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  border control  |  ePassports  |  immigration control  |  secure identification