Immigration agency's entry website 'tuning' drags on for 6 days, affecting 20,000 mainland tourists to Taiwan

▲ The National Immigration Agency's website dedicated to processing entries from mainland China and Hong Kong/Macau has been down for multiple days, affecting tens of thousands of mainland tourists to Taiwan. (Photo / Google Maps)

Reported by Wu Bing-song / Compiled by staff

Within the National Immigration Agency's operating system,the visa application and registration system for mainland Chinese, Hong Kong, and Macau visitors to Taiwan has been down since September 4 and remains unresolved, affecting tens of thousands of travelers. On the 9th, Chien Yu-yan, director of Taipei City's Department of Information and Tourism, stated that this has caused substantial harm to Taiwan’s tourism industry chain, impacting everything from tourist attractions and travel agencies to airlines and tour bus companies.

Many businesses have been affected, with numerous people calling the immigration agency directly only to be told, “The system is down, please keep trying.” Others who contacted the Ministry of the Interior about the issue were simply told, “We know, the Immigration Agency has been notified,” but received no actual help. The main line of the Immigration Agency has also been almost constantly busy, making it impossible to get through during working hours.

On September 3, the National Immigration Agency posted a notice on the “Online Application and Issuance Management System for Short-Term Entry to Taiwan from Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau,” stating: “Our Online Application and Issuance Management System for Short-Term Entry to Taiwan from Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau is scheduled for system tuning from 7:00 PM on Friday, September 4, 2015, to 12:00 PM on Sunday, September 6, 2015. During this period, the system will be suspended. Additionally, from 12:00 PM to 12:00 AM on Sunday, September 6, 2015, testing will be conducted, and online application services may be suspended intermittently.”

Unexpectedly, this tuning process ran into major issues, with the system failing to come back online properly. On the afternoon of September 8, another notice was issued: “Due to system malfunction, our Online Application and Issuance Management System for Short-Term Entry to Taiwan from Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau was unable to operate normally on Tuesday, September 8, 2015. To protect the rights of industry operators, the deadline for expedited applications and fee submissions on September 8 has been extended to 6:00 PM.”

Despite this, the problem remained unresolved as of the 9th, and the Immigration Agency stated again on the 9th that“Upon investigation, the system underwent virtualization work last week, which led to abnormal tuning conditions. We have sternly requested the vendor to resolve the issue as soon as possible.””

On the 9th, Chien Yu-yan, director of Taipei City's Department of Information and Tourism, stated that this has caused substantial harm to Taiwan’s tourism industry chain, impacting everything from tourist attractions and travel agencies to airlines and tour bus companies. According to Wu Chih-chien, chairman of the Taipei Association of Travel Agents, the system downtime has affected over 20,000 mainland Chinese and Hong Kong/Macau tourists (including around 10,000 group and independent travelers, and about 10,000 visiting for tours, family visits, or business activities), causing tangible damage to Taiwan’s tourism industry.

From the start of 2015 until the end of July, Taiwan received about 5.8 million foreign visitors, of which around 3 million came from mainland China and Hong Kong/Macau. Wu Chih-chien said that after coordination, the Immigration Agency is currently processing applications manually, but he expressed concern that this could affect Taiwan’s tourism and international image, urging all government departments to expedite efforts to restore normal operations of the entry system.