Taipei Economic & Cultural Office

Pretty fast and efficient place as long as you don’t come during the lunch hour. Not only is it harder to find parking then, but the workers also take turns taking lunch around that time, so there could be a bit of a wait.

This place needs improvement. I called them days in advance to confirm all my paperwork before going up there & when I get up there they tell me I need more stuff done. Their people need more training to not tell the customers the wrong thing. They don’t even apologize for their mistakes. They really don’t care.

Waiting and more waiting. They are friendly when they get to you, but most likely you will have to wait to drop off and pick up. I came in the morning and wait about 1 hour, the clerk said they are not as busy in the afternoon.

Great service really nice staff and was super helpful! It was a completely different experience from most of the administrative places that I’ve been at. My advice is to go during lunch hours because there are less people whereas in the morning there are lots of people waiting in line. Also the CVS or Costco passport photos or just any American approved passport photos will not be accepted there because it doesn’t fit the requirements so my suggestion is to do on-​site photos for only eight dollars there!

I went to get my tourist visa yesterday. When I got there they told me that I filled out the wrong form but was nice enough to let me fill the paper form there. The lady asked me to fill up the online form at home and then she will process my visa at the appointment time I set online. SUPER NICE PEOPLE. The process was so easy. I was out in 20 mins. I parked across the street on a metered parking. There’s plenty of them but they stop working after 4pm.

I haven’t been to this particular office but I have been to the satellite office held a few times a year in El Monte. Yes! You don’t have to wait in line in the Ktown location, look for parking etc. You can go to El Monte or the OC and find FREE parking. I got my passport renewed a few months back. If you have time to kill or have someone wait for you, it’s worth the trip. They are all held on Saturdays too. There’s no point going to the Ktown location because they’ll be closed anyways for those particular events. You probably need to call them to find out. I couldn’t find the schedule on the site. The Taiwanese Cultural Center (TECO) in El Monte is where it’s held.

Extremely rude and condescending. Typical Taiwanese stereotype. Just because I choose to speak to you in Chinese doesn’t mean I don’t know what is going on. Speaking to me like I don’t know anything. I guess this is to be expected from typical Taiwanese attitude.
The person was extremely rude, kept on trying to rush me off the phone. She kept on telling me «I don’t understand your question». Of course you don’t understand my question because you are answering my question before I can finish asking my question. And don’t tell me that I don’t know what I’m talking about, I read all that is on your retarded website, and you mention nothing that I can use. In the payment section you said to pay you $ 45 dollars, well that’s great. except WHO DO I PAY FOR THE ORDER OF???
You need to train your people better, or to build a better website. Also, stop telling me that you guys know better, I don’t know what you know, I don’t know what you do.

I had to go to the immigration office (Suite 750) to get my Taiwan visa. The only parking nearby was metered, and I paid for 45 minutes, but I was in and out within 15 minutes! Man, are they fast here. Actually, it was just a simple form to fill out, but I had to make an appointment beforehand. Luckily, there seems to be minimal to no wait here compared to the passport office next door.
The form was in Chinese (which I don’t read very well), but the helpful lady translated for me and I was able to fill it out in English. About 2 – 3 weeks processing time, and you can either pick up the visa or get it mailed for an additional $ 20. I wanted to skip the 1.5 hour round-​trip drive to K-​town, but my Asian side won out and I chose to pick up when it’s ready :) Hopefully I can combine my next trip here with a soondubu or KBBQ lunch!

I went to this office to renew my passport, and encounter some very friendly and nice staff. They probably not the fastest but they sure take time for you when it is your turn and make you feel like home! :)
One tips for the photo request is always do it on site, b/​c the one that I took at CVS doesn’t meet Taiwanese passport requirement. It’s cheaper than CVS ($ 8 dollars for two pictures, instead of 11 dollars at CVS, (yeah I know CVS increase their price now, and it’s insane). The officer in front is very helpful, nice and he will make sure the photo fits the requirement. Also, it only takes two mins to process the photo. I will call and double check with them before I go, b/​c I read some comment that they get rid of the service a while back. However, they are providing the service now again, and it is awesome.

We visited this location just last week, and I have to say, I have never been more disappointed with foreign government employees in my entire residence here in the US. :O)
Upon taking a number from the more likely than not $ 10,000 dollar digital number dispenser, I shortly thereafter noticed that they have a $ 35,000 — $ 40,000 salaried human receptionist, who never said a word to me upon entering. He did however seem to be a bit aggressive with several other visitors in their native language (mine is English, so I really am not positive, but is sounded like a raised voice and looked like a kitted eyebrow). Good thing he’s there to direct many of the visitors as they may become lost or disoriented upon entering the door and 10 feet in taking a number by pushing the only button possible on that electronic number dispenser.
After waiting for over an hour and a half and observing the other customers as each of their numbers are called and they «approach the bench», only to have someone send them away to obtain more paperwork within the first 5 min. of assistance. I would watch as each would return and retake a number throughout my hour and a half of waiting.
Finally my number came up… and yes, I too had obtained an inadequate number of copies of my paperwork required, and no they did not have a copy machine behind the counter! So, off to obtain a second copy of ALL my paperwork for their records (FUN FACT: most government offices need certified copies of paperwork when they are accepting copies, however, this one sends you out to make your own and then compares the docs when you return).
So, without a usable copy machine in sight and no assistance what so ever from the counter help… off we went waking the streets of downtown LA, as I almost tripped over a homeless person while looking for addresses of a Notary Service, which by the way was no longer in service. Finally about four blocks later and two times around we stumbled upon a notary service that was actually still in business.
We had a document which was actually notarized and acceptable had it had the wording «State of California» at the top of the page and not at the bottom as it were. Either way, we needed to obtain an «All Purpose Acknowledgment» form and have it notarized by another kind person for $ 40! (That’s two signatures folks).
When we returned to TECO we thought we had it all figured out… but we were wrong! Took another number, waited about 45 min. more, paid a «EXPEDITED FEE» to have the documents EXPEDITED (same day), the woman helping us said it will be a few hours and they will call us, so, we went to lunch and received a call from the very same woman… she said that they needed us to return to fill out additional forms. We then had to leave the Korean BBQ restaurant mid serving! Thankfully we had someone we left there as collateral, so they weren’t too worried about us dodging out on the meal.
Got back to TECO and filled out the additional forms required (Another $ 30 fee!), and the TECO representative said they will call us if they need anything else. $ 140 dollars for the expedite service and $ 10 worth of parking meter fees later, we arrived back at the STAR KING BBQ (Korean) finished up our meal, it was very good! Got to the final course… and of course… TECO called once again! Yep! They needed us back ASAP! Ran down the street to TECO and into the office that was by this time, thinned out and ready to close, at 4:20 pm the TECO representative told us that our «EXPEDITED» documents would have to be mailed back to us over night for an additional fee of $ 20 as they did not have enough time to complete the documents, and that if we simply pay the $ 20 they will finish it up and get them off to us first thing Monday morning. (it was Friday).
Something was fundamentally wrong with this service!
Needless to say, I gave them an ultimatum… «refund my $ 140».
They opted to stay later and asked us to please wait as all the important people who actually understand immigration laws are in a emergency meeting. It actually did not go this pleasant, but out of the kindness of my heart I edited out the fun stuff.
At 5:20pm as everyone behind the counter was scrambling around collecting their personal effects and disappearing one by one… out stepped two older more experienced and worldly TECO officers! They summonsed us to the bullet proof glass, and notified us that we need to fill out four different application forms as the first TECO representative helping us gave us the wrong forms. So here we go again, good thing I had my mother in law with me she was very helpful with the writing our English names in Chinese Characters part of the form.
About 15 additional minutes later we had our documentation that would only have been able to be done with us there in person. Had we left the office and paid the additional $ 20 for overnight service of our documents, they would have never been able to be complete.

Smaller place, compared with China Consulate. The working staff are much nicer, very patient in answering questions.(even through the phone. Once I encountered a grumpy woman, then when I asked more questions, she gave the phone to a very nice lady who is very patient and have a beautiful voice.) Most people came here unprepared. That took a lot of working staff’s time. I filled out all the papers online and printed out. It only took me less than 5 min. at the window. But most of customers occupied at the window more than 20 min.
I have been here several times, my experiences as followings:
1. Don’t come on Mondays or Saturdays. It’s packed.
2. Avoid lunch time. It’s hard to find vacant parking meters. (There are plenty of roadside parking meters at Serrano St.) 15 min. cost 1 quarter. (Unless you are picking up the done stuff, normally it takes at least 1 hour to get in and out)
3. Go to 7^th floor directly, there is a touch screen at right side of entry desk to get number. (Of course, you have to have your papers ready first. Do your homework and bring the papers with you.)
4. They have passport photo service on site.($ 8) The Cantonese accent gentleman at the entry desk, looks and sounds grumpy, actually is very helpful. Just too many «bored» customers like to chat with him and affect his job. (He gives out the application forms and taking passport photo) I guess he has to «pretend» not nice. I saw him go extra miles to help people. He would go inside the counters to help people for picking up passport or documents when the staff are too busy. He helps me to turn in the photo to the right person after he developed the pictures. (The counter was so crowded, he saw me waited in the line again and told me that he would go inside to turn in the photo for me)
5. You need to have a valid Taiwanese passport to have document authentication. So I have to make 2 trips. Applying 1-​year passport needs 5 working days. 10-​year passport needs 15 working days.
6. When you go there to pick up (remember to bring the receipt), don’t need to get a number, just go directly to window 1. Show your yellow receipt, someone will come to help you. (5 min. to get in and out)
7. When I applied document authentication, the website states it needs 2 working days. I got it at the same day without extra cost. (They told me need 2 hours, but only took a little more than 1 hour)
8. They accept cash, personal check and credit card. (They charge 3−4% extra for credit card use) Apply passport only cost $ 10. But visa needs $ 160. I think they try to be nice to their citizens:) Taiwan allows dual citizenship.

I’m an ABC in my 30’s who recently tried to obtain my Overseas ROC passport and establish my family heritage with Taiwan. My father is in his 80’s and suffering from the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s. and is going to be living in a retirement home for former military in Taipei. My mom recently had cancer which went into remission and has decided to retire to Taiwan in her remaining years. I wanted to get my ROC passport to help them settle in and hopefully spend some time with them with the eventual goal of becoming a full national if I had to stay longer.
I recently went to the Wilshire blvd TECO office in L.A. to get my overseas ROC passport done and it was probably the worst experience I’ve ever had with any sort of government consulate. I’ve traveled and lived a brief time overseas before and have even dealt with some rather tedious bureaucracies in Southeast Asia but what I went through here was ridiculous.
I applied a month ago for a ROC passport and the clerk told us over the phone that I needed my birth certificate verified since I was born in the U.S. Since I was born in the south I was told to send a copy of my b.c. to Teco Atlanta office via certified mail for verification along with copies of my parent’s TW passports. Fine, no problem. They sent it back within a week with a validation stamp and sticker. I then went to the Teco Los Angeles office to fill out the application forms in Chinese for the passport with my mother in tow with all our family documents and this is where the real headaches began.
We brought along around 35+ years of documentation including my parent’s marriage certificates in both Taiwan in the U.S., multiple old passports from our entire family, U.S. citizenship papers, Taiwan Hukou, and the kitchen sink. The lady looked through everything and said that my middle initial was changed (it was not, CA DMV and social security admin used to allow abbreviated middle initials) and I had to go to the social security administration office and give them proof of my supposed «name change» and full middle name and then bring it back to them. This is after I showed them my SS card, driver’s license, and very recent U.S. passport. I ended up making the trip to the local SS office to get this done and driving all the way back to TECO the next week to submit everything again.
This time the teco office clerk checked over everything gave it the green light and told us the passport would be ready in 3 weeks. Flash forward just a few days ago when I went to pick up my passport and was told that my official U.S. birth certificate with a county government seal and Atlanta TECO office stamp was «invalid» because my mom’s maiden name was misspelled on my b.c. It was a one letter difference on a birth certificate that was already validated and notarized by the Atlanta TECO office. The clerk claims that a different woman with the same long name of my mom (except with a one letter difference) could have married my dad and had me. :roll: They had the entire passport already made and everything but decided not to give it to me over this.
So, they want me to call up the county public health office where I was born which is in a southern state and I live in California to get my official b.c. amended to _​change_​one letter of my mom’s maiden name on my b.c. to the one on her Taiwanese passport. I called the county office where I was born to ask them what I would have to do to get an amendment. Basically it would require a trip to court to get the error looked at by the local court, a document filed to show that my mom’s maiden name is indeed the same as the one on my birth certificate, and then submitting an application to the county health office to get one letter changed. Then TECO said that they also wanted me to re-​validate my birth certificate again with Atlanta. then resubmit everything then they might hand over the passport if I can get it all done within the 3 month period before they shred it.
After about a month of getting the run around and over $ 100 in fees and wasted time off. I pretty much said forget it and walked out. I guess those old family ties to Taiwan die with my generation because I will never be able to obtain even a simple overseas ROC passport.
This is an absolutely atrocious and complete embarrassment of a bureaucracy for any country that claims to be developed. Be warned if there is even a slight complication with your paperwork.

I think this may be one of my best experiences EVER at a consulate. I’ve been to my fair share and have had poor and delightful experiences, but the good folks at the Taipei Consulate were very cordial and professional. I was treated with respect (just as I treated them) — as simple as it sounds, it is not uncommon to find embassy/​consulate officials to be disrespectful.

People there are nice and helpful.
It took me less than a hr to get my passport renewed:) But keep in mind it takes more than 15 working days to process. (I sent my application on Nov 9 and will be ready for picking up on Dec 5)
They don’t do on site passport photo anymore but you can go to the CVS next door or the Passport photo on the 6^th st between Oxford and Sorrano Ave recommended by the staff. It’s a Korean owned store so there is only a small English «Passport Photo» sign at the front and the store name and the rest were written in Korean ($ 5 for 2 photo, cheap, so-​so quality)
Parking at the back of the building $ 1.5 for 15 mins. Max $ 15 per day. Not too bad at all. You can either pay the ticket when exiting the parking lot or pay at the machine located at the north side of courtyard. Both accept credit card.

I think I’m a fan mainly because of it’s TAIWAN related. For the most part they were nice and helpful with my paper works. However my auntie said she called one time and the lady on the phone was bitchy and rude. So I called for her and spoke in English, so the lady was nicer. Maybe it was an isolated incident, but it’s no excuse.
As for parking, it gets tough at certain hours, one time I go early in the morning, the parking was easy, no traffic, then the 2^nd time was close to lunch time, traffic was bad and barely got lucky at a meter parking, bring some coins for it.

The man at the front counter greeting people seems really grumpy, but he’s actually a nice guy.
Remember to first go fill out forms (in the back of the room) and after you fill out the forms, go get a ticket from the ticket machine (between the front counter and the windows).
The workers here are all very nice and accommodating.
When I come here I always park on the street. I find that to be the cheapest parking possible.
Also, go early. There’s no line around 8 or 9 am, then the line kind of explodes.

I came on a wednesday afternoon… to get a student visa because i’m planning on studying in taiwan to better my CHINESE! anyway going here… it was a little of a trek for me… seeing how i’m from the OC… but that’s okay! It’s located in the heart of k-​town which is fine too. and if you go during work hours… it’s pretty easy to find parking! The only thing is it’s annoying because the meters are ghetto and don’t accept credit cards! BOO BOO!
Anyway now about the Taipei Economic & Cultural office… i had gone many years ago with my father when I needed a visa for taiwan. Anyway coming now… i don’t know if that much has changed except for their ticket machine. HAHAH the new system is pretty automated and pretty cool… anyway this place reminds me of the DMV… but when i went there was hardly any people there so i got LUCKY! YAY~!!
Anyway waiting for like 5 – 10 minutes my number was called and i went to the front and talked with the lady… she asked my why i was going to taiwan when i started using my CHINGLISH she was like your chinese is pretty good why are you going to taiwan to learn it? i told her to better my speaking skills and to read and write better… because well let’s face it CHINESE IS USEFUL! anyway after a little bit… i gave her all my documents (passport, visa application, flight itinerary, 2 passport photos, school entrance letter) and bam application submitted. this place is BOMB the lady was super helpful and she told me that i should come back in 2 days to pick up my finished visa/​passport.
I paid using credit card… and it was funny… you know the stingy asian stereotype? ahah it was hilarious because the creditcard service charge was a total of $ 3.89 or something like that so my total bill came out to be $ 143.89 and she was like you should use cash or check to avoid the service charge… AHHAHAHA :) cute.
anyway i LOVE TAIWAN… and i’m excited to be going there for a while!
Btw…you should call in advance to make sure you bring all the necessary documents!!!

Parking aint too bad if you go in the evening. Throw in some quarters and you are on your way.
Head to the seventh floor and take a number (if needed). Sometimes I come here and it is totally dead!
Everyone there has always been very helpful and polite.
A+ Taiwan!
Edit (minus two stars): While I was there two weeks ago they said I could apply for a Taiwan drivers license with just a notarized us copy of my California license. So I spent $ 20 and two trips later, all I got was their own notarization of my us drivers license because when I just got to Taiwan, they said no. They misinformed me and wasted a ton of my time and money. So be careful and do your own research and calls to make sure.

More than just VISA to Taiwan
Courteous and Efficient Taiwanese
Taiwan culture evolved by the people on this island over the last two decades to the most friendliest and helpful office in Los Angeles.
After my husband passed away, there are certain paperwork that I need to do so requested by relatives in Taiwan.
The web information is easy to follow, and most forms can be downloaded.
Before going to the office, a phone call is good idea to clarify any questions — that includes «what documents» you need to bring in to the office… etc. — and remember write it all down — before and after.
The #1 Window for Information in this office is very helpful. The agent was efficient, patient and informative. She took the time review my initial paperwork, and also suggested for what «else» be added on the form before formal filing.
My relative would be surprised and happy for what I’ve done more than what they had requested — all for all to save time. — btw, I felt my husband was up there guiding me thru this smooth process.
No doubt about it — this is the Taiwan Culture of its own on the planet.

Friendly Service, and lines are not very long too.
I can really feel people are trying to help here. Its so smooth in compare to the China Embassy few blocks down.
Take Metro or Bus in order to avoid the parking situation. Plenty meter parking nearby the area too.