In an effort to further prevent passport fraud, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is now working on a new policy that will require passport applications to be submitted in person. A trial run of the new application procedure will start next month, with full implementation scheduled for July.

The line of people taking numbers waiting to apply for passport is long with the numbers already reaching 900s.

Those who didnt want to wait in line would usually ask travel agents to apply for passport instead for, in Taiwan, over 65% of the passports were applied through travel agents.

However, starting next month, the concept will change for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is running a trial period of asking passport applicants to apply in person.

During the period, a third of the housing registration administration offices in Taiwan, which is 124 of them, are to offer certification of applicant service before travel agencies can take over to complete the passport application process.

The public is reacting differently on the new procedure.

According to the MOFA, it will take the reactions of the public into consideration. If the public reacts well, starting July of this year, the new application procedure will become official.

Afterwards, Taiwan will ask the U.S. to grant R.O.C. passport holders visa free travel privileges.

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