The post office got a new system recently, which is aimed at streamlining the process for sending parcels overseas. The system isn’t the most user-friendly, however, and my colleague has complained about having to fill out the form over and over again due to the unclear instructions.
I have the 2021 version of the list of countries that require this new QR code process:
You might have heard quite a lot of talk about permanent residents and citizens of Taiwan getting an NT$6,000 tax rebate a while back, one of the last things outgoing Premier Su Tseng-chang did before he left office.
Ehhhh… that was back in January, when does the money come in?
The website is here and went live for registration for direct deposits to bank account Wednesday,March 22 at 8 am for those whose IDs end in a zero or a one; those whose IDs end in a two or three on Thursday, March 23 at 8 am; those whose IDs end in a four and five on Friday, March 24; six and seven on Saturday, March 25; and eight and nine on Sunday, March 26. After that, you can register regardless of your ID number. The ATM and Post Office options are also now available.
Click 登記入帳 to register to get the money directly deposited to your bank. You’ll need to fill in your ARC no., the 12 digit number on your NHI card and your bank and bank account number.
So… how do I get my grubby little hands on it?(Updated March 16, 2023)
As you may or may not know, as opposed to the stimulus vouchers issued previously, this time they are issuing cash directly. According to Minister Audrey Tang, there are three main ways to collect your tax rebate (there are two other categories for special categories including remote areas, but not super important for the majority of us):
Straight to yourbank account – you can log into the online system with your NHI card and will have the option to have the money deposited directly into your bank account.
Withdrawing the cash direct from an ATM – you can go to an ATM at one of 12 appointed banks and enter your NHI card number and ID number to allow you to withdraw the cash immediately. (Prepare for some hiccups for APRC holders with this option in my estimation).
Post office counter service – for those who are fans of queueing, you can also get the cash at a post office with your ID/APRC and NHI card. If you’re a real queue aficionado and want to eat up at least a few hours, you can try to get it on the first day or target an area of Taipei with a higher concentration of senior citizens. Alternatively, you can go with option 1 and then queue up for a distinctly average beef noodle restaurant instead.
UPDATE (March 29, 2023):
You can check if you successfully registered using the tool below:
When you click “查詢登記結果” (Check the results of registration), you’ll be prompted to enter your ARC number and the 12 digits on the front of your NHI card. And if you were successful it should give you a message like this:
“Registration complete, the money will enter your account soon.”
You can now borrow a power bank at any 7-11 and leave it back at any other branch. The rental fee is NT$12 per hour, with a 24-hour max charge of NT$36 and a 72-hour maximum rental period. They will hold NT$300 on your card until you return it. If you want to cancel a transaction, you can also return it within 10 minutes without charge. You can check out a list of participating stores here! Wireless and wired charging are both available for Android and Apple.
First, check to see if the Ibon machine at the 7-11 you’re at has any power banks inserted at the bottom. If not, they might all have been rented, or it might not be a participating store. If you do see power banks, you can follow the steps below to rent:
Step 1: At the Ibon Machine main menu, hit 「生活服務」 (everyday services)
I recently applied to swap my UK license for a Taiwanese license, under the mutual driver license agreement signed by Taiwan and the UK.
As I’m from Belfast, I thought that I’d have some difficulty swapping my license under the UK-Taiwan license exchange program. I did have to do some extra explaining but was able to swap successfully.
The initial announcement of the scheme when the memorandum of understanding was signed specified that Northern Irish licenses were excluded, but when the scheme launched in January of this year, no such exclusion was mentioned in the description of the scheme. I messaged the British Office, and they said they had no idea and told me to ask the Taiwanese Motor Vehicle Office. They were a bit more helpful and said that the agreement specified that it was the entire UK (which, of course, includes Northern Ireland).
If you’re from any part of the UK except for Northern Ireland, you can use the gov.uk system to create a check code for your license (used by the British Office to verify your license). If you’re from Northern Ireland, your license number won’t fit, however, and you have to use the NI direct system to create a check code (you have to create an account and apply to upload info on your license, but it’s reasonably simple). I created my check code (to be used within 21 days of creation) and printed out the docs.
I set off to the Taipei Motor Vehicles Office (臺北市區監理所) in Songshan District (about 10 minutes walk from Nanjing Sanmin MRT Station), but you can go to any office. When you arrive, you will have to proceed to the 2nd floor and hit the ticket machine for driver’s licenses.
Checklist:
Passport
ARC valid for at least six months
UK driver’s license
Check code
2 x Driver License (1 inch) photographs (there is a photo booth at the office)
NIA Certificate of Entry and Exit dates (Note: I didn’t bring this and they didn’t ask, but it’s listed by the British Office – link below)
The staff didn’t know what to do with the NI Direct check code, as they’d only been instructed to use the gov.uk system. So the woman came out and discussed it with me and I told her that Northern Ireland has a different agency and a different system and she said she would check with the British Office and get back to me.
You don’t have to hand in your health check until you are contacted and your check code has been authenticated, but it’s quite convenient to do it the same day at the nearby Po Jengh Hospital (博仁綜合醫院). While you’re handing in your license info and check code, you can ask for the following form to do your health check:
Go to the main door of the hospital and tell the security guard that you want to do a driver license health check (駕照體檢/jiàzhào tǐjiǎn). He’ll stamp your hand with a blue “P” and tell you to go into an alley and go in a side entrance on the left. This is the special entrance for health checks. You take the elevator up and then take a ticket and wait for the various checks (it took me around 20-30 mins). Remember to take NT$300 in cash to pay for the health check. They check your hearing and sight and a few other basic checks. After you pay, you have to take the health check certificate back down to the main lobby of the hospital to get stamped (you don’t have to take a number, there should be a lady sitting to the left who deals with your form).
You don’t have to hand the health certificate in that day and can just wait for the office to contact you. They were pretty quick for me, I did it on the Friday before the 228 bridge weekend and got notified it was authenticated on the following Tuesday. I went back to the Motor Vehicle Office with my passport, ARC, my driver’s license, the health check and driver license photos (these have to be the same as the one you put on your health check form.
When you go back to the office, specify that it’s your second visit and they’ll go looking for your info. Then after a bit of staring at your ARC, passport and license (approx. 15 mins) they’ll hand you your Taiwanese license and take away your UK license (you can get this back if you return to the UK and return the Taiwanese license to the DVLA).
Up until around November 17 of 2021, the vaccination status of foreign residents in Taiwan wasn’t listed on their NHI app or in their card details. Some information was clearly available, given that so many foreign residents were able to get vaccinations and follow-up vaccinations on the online appointment platform, but what do you do if the information shown on your card is in conflict with the info displayed online or on the NHI app?
UPDATE (March 10, 2022): If you got your vaccinations before you updated your NHI card to match your new ARC number format, the vaccination record on your online records and in the NHI app won’t be carried over and you’ll also have to go through the process detailed below.
This happened to me, in that the Heping Branch of Taipei City Hospitals still haven’t uploaded info from my first vaccine in May, meaning that my second vaccination is listed as my first:
As the qualifying criteria for a booster dose is 5 months passing since your second dose, I thought I’d given the hospital a reasonable enough window in which to update the details if they were going to. So I called the 1922 hotline, and they told me to go to my local district health and welfare office (區衛生所), these are called district health and care centers (區健康照顧中心) or district health service centers (區健康服務中心) in Taipei City. The one for Zhongzheng District is here.
Take your yellow vaccination card and your NHI card to your local branch, and they’ll take your details at reception and ask you to fill out a form.
Essentially, the helpful lady at the counter told me that they will contact the hospital to request that they update their records and then they’ll contact me when it’s done.
UPDATE: The records were updated the following day:
It’s probably best to update your online status, so that when it comes time for your booster, the system will know when you become eligible (5 months after your second dose).
If your online banking is crashing today, it’s likely because the Executive Yuan has released NT$5,000 stimulus vouchers starting today and banks are making a ream of offers to early birds.
If you’ve got an APRC or are a Taiwanese citizen with household registration and a bit of patience, you can get them by navigating to the dedicated website here or the English version here.
There are four options:
You can wait until to book the paper version in advance: First round advance booking: September 25 – October 1 First round withdrawal: October 8 – October 21 Second round advance booking: October 25 – November 1 Second round withdrawal: November 8 – November 21
You can register to tie the vouchers to your credit card.
You tie them to Easycard style cards (like Ipass etc)
You can tie them to a digital wallet, like Taiwan Pay, etc
Currently, the website is patchy as it’s getting a lot of hits, so it’s best to go through your bank or payment method of choice, which all feature prominent links.
I chose to tie mine to Taiwan Pay through the Megabank app. Most banks have a simple enough interface to navigate but don’t give up if they throw up an error message, as everyone is rushing on the first day.
If you’ve panicked and want to check exactly what you’ve registered for, you can use this function to check your status.
The advantage of using digital versions, is that there are often additional offers. The downside, as I’ve mentioned before, is that you don’t get to brag on Instagram.
There are additional bonuses you can accrue, depending on which bank or payment app you tie your vouchers to:
Taiwan Pay is offering additional funds to a certain number of registrants. ESun is offering NT$50 for single registrants, but you can increase this by registering as a group.
Note: the spending period for the vouchers starts October 8!
For Taiwan Pay, the first period of payment runs from October 8-22, which is when they’ll calculate what bonuses you get back. This will be deposited in your account November 1. Then the second spending period runs from October 23-29 and the kickbacks will be deposited into your account on November 8. The third spending period runs from October 30 – November 5, and the kickbacks are deposited on November 15.
The NHI-funded COVID-19 vaccine appointment booking website has been released.
First of all, if you haven’t already downloaded the NHI app and logged in (the same one used to book masks) you can find instructions here.
If you’ve already got the app, the steps seem incredibly simple. When the system is operational, you can click the COVID-19 Vaccine Appointment on your app:
After checking your system requirements are up to scratch, it will prompt you to enter you ARC/ID number, the OTP code from your app and a captcha code:
To access the OTP code, you just go into your NHI app and click the OTP password option:
Did the one-night stand you’d rather forget leave his/her charger in your room last night? Or is the parcel you just received from Shoppee not as advertised? Instead of queuing at the post office during working hours or making a shameful trek to the yellow line and having that awkward, “Wanna do it again?” “No, thanks! Here’s your charger! Bye!” chat in person, you can just send whatever you’ve got to a 7-11 near them.
You don’t have to buy a special bag or anything, just wrap it in a paper bag or reuse a box. You’ll need the recipient’s name, phone number and the name or number of the 7-11 of their choice, along with NT$60 for goods worth NT$0-1000, or slightly more for more expensive items (see below).
Click or tap once to cast the moon blocks (跋杯 “po̍ah-poe“) and hit the stamp to reset.
These moon blocks are common divination tools in Taiwanese temples. The basic idea is to formulate a question for the gods in your mind, then cast the moon blocks to get their answer.
When the moon blocks each land on a different side, this is 「聖杯」 or “sèng poe”. If you see this symbol (in the simulation above it is represented in seal script as below), it means the gods allow what you’re asking, they agree or things will go to plan. Normally you have to get this result three times in a row to be sure of your answer.
聖杯 sèng poe
If you’re overly anxious or a little flustered, you might not be super clear on how to ask the question. If this is the case, you may well get the 「笑杯」 or “chhiò poe” (both flat sides facing upward) response from the gods. This represents the gods laughing, either because they are confused, need more time to think on your problem or need it formulated more clearly. If you get this symbol, you can either cast the moon blocks again or try to rephrase the question before doing so.
笑杯 chhiò poe
The final possibility is 「陰杯」or “im poe” (the flat sides down), which indicates that the gods do not agree, that they’re angry or that things will not pan out smoothly for you. If you get this result, you can try asking again or ask something else. This one is also referred to as 「無杯」”bô poe”, 「怒杯」 (seemingly only in Mandarin) “nùbēi” and 「哭杯」 (this is a dangerous one, as it has a similar pronounciation to a swearword in Taiwanese (「哭父」 khàu-pē).
陰杯 im poe
If you visit an actual temple, it’s usual to draw a lot with a number on it that corresponds to a drawer with a fortune inside it. When you first draw the lot you can ask the gods if it’s the right one by casting the moon blocks. It might take you quite a few tries before you can finally get a drawer. Most temples will have fortune tellers on hand to decipher your fortune for you. Longshan Temple even had fortune translations in English last time I visited.
I created this simulation together with Arvid Torres who was also behind all the visuals. The Unity Engine uses physics, so the random factor is there for the gods to play with if they wish.
You can get some fancy MRT-themed masks today if you register with the new MRT app (Android: 捷運Go or Apple: 捷運Go), although beware, you might have to suffer through several crashes:
Once you’ve signed up for the app, (you’ll need to verify your phone number, head to 「好康活動」 on the orange nav bar and click on 「捷然不同的通勤時尚」 and then register for the promotional event by pressing 「拿口罩」 on the bottom of the screen. You’ll then be prompted to pick a station to pick your masks up at on March 28 (from 10am – 6pm). Then hit 「領券」 pick up my voucher. You’ll be able to go to the MRT counter to exchange them on March 28, but brace yourself for queues judging by how much the app has been crashing.
Just a quick note for pun-lovers. The name of the promotion 「捷然不同」 is a pun on the phrase 「截然不同」 (jiéránbùtóng / entirely different), substituting the first character for the 「捷」(jié / rapid) in 「捷運」(jiéyùn / MRT).
