Taiwan, South Korea kick-start reciprocal e-gate clearance program

Taiwan and South Korea on Wednesday launched a reciprocal program for automated immigration clearance, amid growing tourism between the two countries. The China Post/Asia News Network

TAIPEI — A reciprocal agreement on electronic customs clearance services between Taiwan and South Korea came into effect on June 27, allowing a growing number of travellers to benefit from shorter custom clearance time.

According to Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency (NIA), you can usually clear immigration at the e-Gates in three minutes pending prior registration, compared with 10 to 25 minutes during peak periods at the manned immigration desks.

This might be very important for the nearly 2 million people who travel between Taiwan and South Korea each year.

To promote the new service, the NIA said it has already set up a temporary desk at Incheon International Airport in Seoul for South Koreans who wish to register for the e-Gate program. The desk will be open until July 4.

Also, South Koreans can register at any of the NIA’s 27 service counters located around Taiwan, if necessary.

At the same time, Taiwan nationals aged 17 years and over are eligible to enroll in South Korea’s automated immigration clearance system at its service centers, according to the country’s immigration website.

South Korea is the second country with which Taiwan has established a reciprocal automated immigration program, following a similar arrangement with the United States in November 2017.

The e-Gate system, which uses the iris recognition scanner and fingerprint scanner to verify the identification of passport holders, has been in place in Taiwan since 2012. Similar electronic clearance systems can be found in Japan and Australia.