Can I Extend My Visa in Taiwan? Eligibility by Entry Type

The first question: how did you enter?

Whether you can extend your stay in Taiwan depends on the type of entry you used, not on how long you want to stay. The National Immigration Agency (NIA, yimin shu 移民署) publishes one instruction for visitor-visa extension, and the eligibility is measured against the visa itself.

The deciding factors are:

• What kind of visa you hold (visitor visa vs landing visa vs visa-waiver entry)
• How many days the visa originally granted (60 days or more)
• Whether the visa carries a ‘no extension’ remark from the issuing office

If you entered without a visa (visa-waiver) or on a landing visa, the normal extension route is not available to you. If you hold a visitor visa that granted 60 or more days and has no restriction remark, extension is allowed — up to the limits below.

This article answers whether your entry type can be extended at all. For the step-by-step procedure — the documents, where to apply and the NT$300 fee — see our Taiwan visa extension guide.

The 60-day visitor visa rule

The NIA instruction for visitor visa extension says an application can be accepted when the stay originally granted by the visa is 60 days or more and the visa is not subject to a ‘no extension’ restriction.

The ‘60 days’ here refers to the stay granted by the visa when it was issued — not the number of days currently left before expiry. A visa that granted only 14 days, or a visa-waiver entry that grants 30–90 days, does not qualify for this route even if it looks ‘longer than 60’ at a glance.

Applications are made at an NIA service centre up to 15 days before expiry. Each extension may not exceed the stay the original visa allowed, and your total stay — original plus all extensions — may not exceed 6 months (180 days).

What ‘no extension’ means

Some visitor visas carry a remark from the issuing office — commonly stamped as ‘no extension will be granted’ — and those cannot be extended no matter how long the granted stay is. The remark is the issuing office’s instruction to the NIA not to allow an extension.

Also outside the normal route:

• Landing visa (issued at the airport for certain nationalities) — not extendable this way
• Visa-waiver entry — not covered by the 60-day extension instruction

The NIA does allow some extra stay in force-majeure situations (hospitalisation, family member entering hospital or death, natural disaster, detention) at its discretion, usually for one to two months. These are exceptions decided case by case and do not open the door for anyone whose visa carries a no-extension remark.

Long-stay residents: ARC renewal, not visa extension

If you live in Taiwan long term, your status is the ARC (Alien Resident Certificate, juliu zheng 居留證) — a residence document, not a visa. ARC holders do not extend a visa; they apply for an extension of residency under the Immigration Act, on a different track with a different fee from the visitor-extension NT$300. The full ARC renewal procedure (timing, documents and online vs in-person filing) is in the Taiwan visa extension guide.

What happens if you overstay

Overstaying is penalised under the Immigration Act. Since the 2024 amendment (in force from March 2024), the fine range is NT$10,000 to NT$50,000, applied in steps — the longer the overstay, the higher the tier. A longer overstay can also lead to a re-entry ban on your next application.

• Overstay of 10 days or less brings the lowest tier
• Longer overstays move up through the tiers towards the maximum
• An entry ban can be imposed for repeated or long overstays

If you know you are close to expiry, apply on time: the visitor extension window opens 15 days before expiry, and the ARC renewal window opens 3 months before. Verify the current penalties with the NIA before relying on any figure, because the amounts are fixed by law and updated notices.