Your first month in Taipei: the order and deadlines for your ARC, phone, bank account and health insurance

On this page

1. What ID do you need to get a phone number?
2. Should you get an EasyCard or a TPASS monthly pass?
3. Do you need an ARC?
4. How long do you have to apply for an ARC, and what do you bring?
5. How do you throw out garbage in Taipei?
6. What do foreigners need to open a bank account?
7. Do you have to update your ARC address after moving?
8. Which other ARC deadlines are easy to miss?
9. When can you join National Health Insurance?
10. Where do you follow typhoon and earthquake news?
11. Which emergency numbers should you save?
12. FAQ
13. Sources

In your first month, every errand that can earn you a fine for being late has to do with your ARC (Alien Resident Certificate). If you enter Taiwan on a resident visa, you have 30 days to apply for one, counting from the day after you arrive. After that, each move and each change of job gives you another 30 days to register it.

Do everything else in the order below and you shouldn't get stuck.

What ID do you need to get a phone number?

Every phone number in Taiwan is registered to a real name, and prepaid SIMs are no exception. Under the Regulations for Administration of Mobile Broadband Businesses (行動寬頻業務管理規則), the carrier has to check your name, your address and the numbers of two identity documents before it can switch the line on. For foreigners, the first document is your passport. The second can be any other ID that clearly identifies you, and each carrier decides for itself which ones it accepts. A quick look at the carrier's website before you head out beats discovering at the counter that you're one card short.

Even once a prepaid SIM is working, missing details will catch up with you. Carriers recheck their records every week, and if yours is incomplete they'll give you a week to fill the gaps. Miss that and your service is suspended.

How long a tourist SIM lasts, and what to do while you're still waiting for an ARC, are covered in more depth in How to get a phone number in Taiwan: prepaid SIM, eSIM or monthly plan, and the ID you need.

Should you get an EasyCard or a TPASS monthly pass?

If you only ride now and then, a regular EasyCard will do. You can buy one at the information counter or the card machines in any Taipei Metro station, load some money onto it, and tap it on the MRT and buses alike.

Commuting every day? Then look at TPASS, the monthly pass for Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei and Taoyuan (基北北桃都會通). It costs NT$1,200 and runs for 30 consecutive days from the first time you tap in. Once it's set up on your card, you have 30 days to start using it. It covers the metro systems of Taipei, New Taipei and Taoyuan, city buses in Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei and Taoyuan, and most Taiwan Railway trains between Keelung and Xinfu Station in Taoyuan. With TPASS, YouBike rides in Taipei and New Taipei are also free for the first 30 minutes.

The Airport MRT counts too. You can set up TPASS at any Taoyuan Metro station. The only exception is the information counter at A20 Xingnan, and even there the card machines work. So if you've just landed with no EasyCard, buy a regular card at an Airport MRT station, set up the pass at the same station, and your ride into the city is already on the pass. For the transfers from the airport to each of our houses, see How to get from Taoyuan Airport to Taipei: Airport MRT, buses, taxis and late-night arrivals. Last trains, buses and ride-hailing apps are all in New to Taipei? How to get around by MRT, bus, YouBike, TPASS and taxi.

Do you need an ARC?

That depends on the visa you entered on.

If you came on a resident visa, you apply to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) for an ARC (Article 22 of the Immigration Act). Some people hold a "four-in-one" card that combines a work permit, resident visa, ARC and re-entry permit. That card already does the job of an ARC, so there's nothing more to apply for.

Entered on a visitor visa or visa-free? Then you can only apply for residence from inside Taiwan in specific cases, for example once you've been granted a work permit, or if you came on a visitor visa issued for study.

Take the working holiday visa for Japanese and Korean nationals. It's a multiple-entry visitor visa, and each entry lets you stay up to 180 days. In the 15 days before your stay runs out, you can apply at an NIA service center for an extension of up to another 180 days, but your total time can't go past 1 year from your first entry. For other nationalities, see the country pages of the Bureau of Consular Affairs (Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Hong Kong and Macao residents follow a separate procedure for residence in the Taiwan Area, with conditions and documents that differ from those for foreign nationals.

The documents for each kind of status, and how to hand them in, are set out item by item in ARC (Alien Resident Certificate) application and address change: what to bring and how long you have. On a working holiday and still hunting for your first place? Read Finding a place on a Taiwan working holiday: before you fly, your first home and avoiding deposit scams next.

How long do you have to apply for an ARC, and what do you bring?

The 30 days start on the day after you enter Taiwan. Land on 10 October, for instance, and 11 October is day 1, which puts day 30 on 9 November. Apply after that and you can be fined NT$2,000 to NT$10,000 (Article 85 of the same act).

If you live in Taipei City, you apply at the NIA's Taipei City Service Center, No. 15, Guangzhou St., Zhongzheng Dist. (phone 02-2388-5185). Its counters take applications Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 17:00. Students and foreign professionals can also use the NIA's online application systems. At the counter, bring these basic documents:

• The application form and 1 color photo taken within the last 2 years
• Your passport and resident visa, originals and photocopies (the originals are checked and handed back)
• Proof of why you're living in Taiwan, original and photocopy, such as an admission letter, a certificate of enrollment or the letter granting your work permit
• Proof of where you currently live, such as your lease

Once you've applied, the review takes 10 working days, not counting any time spent supplying missing documents. A card valid for one year costs NT$1,000.

Oddly enough, the address is where people most often get stuck. Say you spend your first few days in a hotel and move into your long-term place a week later. Apply with the hotel address, and after the move you'll be back at the service center to change it. It's easier to move in first, get your lease, then go. As long as you're still inside the 30 days, you're in time.

At Seal Co-living, you sign a residential lease of at least 30 days. If you plan to use that lease for your ARC, tell us before you sign so we can check which documents we're able to give you. Whether the service center accepts them, and how it reviews them, is still up to the NIA. Deposits, contracts, address registration and the other things foreigners often ask about when renting are explained step by step in Common sticking points for foreigners renting in Taipei: agent's fees, deposits, lease language, ARC address registration, and how Seal Co-living handles them.

How do you throw out garbage in Taipei?

Taipei has charged for garbage by the bag since 1 July 2000. Regular garbage goes into official Taipei City garbage bags, and what you pay for the bags is the fee. Recycling and food waste are collected for free, with no special bags, as long as you sort them properly. The city's Department of Environmental Protection has put the sorting rules and collection times into one chart, and there's an illustrated leaflet in English as well.

At Seal Co-living, garbage bags are included in the monthly utilities fee of NT$1,000. How each house splits up the garbage and recycling, and when it goes out, is worth asking about on the day you move in. Our list of other questions for move-in day is in Getting the hang of co-living for the first time: getting along with housemates, shared spaces, and your first-week checklist. For garbage truck times and what has to be recycled separately, How do you take out the garbage in Taipei? Truck times, official bags, recycling and food waste goes into more detail.

What do foreigners need to open a bank account?

It comes down to whether you have an ARC yet. This is how the Banking Bureau of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) lists it in its Q&A on opening accounts:

That UI number information sheet is issued by the NIA. Foreign nationals can't apply for it online. You go to a service center counter yourself, or have someone go for you, with the application form and your passport, original and photocopy. So without an ARC, the service center comes before the bank. As a rule, you also have to go in person to open a New Taiwan dollar account.

Transfers between banks, mobile payments and sending money home all come after the account is open, and we go through them in Banking in Taiwan as a foreigner: what to bring to open an account, how to pay rent by transfer, and whether mobile payments work.

Do you have to update your ARC address after moving?

Yes. If your address changes while you hold residence, you have 30 days to register it, counting from the day after the move. Take your passport, your ARC and an original document proving the new address (a lease, for example) to the service center for the area you moved to. Moving within Taipei City just means going back to the same Taipei City Service Center. Skip it and the fine is the same as for applying late.

Some people plan to wait and change the address when they renew their ARC. That doesn't work, because the deadline runs from the day you move. Moving from one Seal Co-living house to another counts as a move too.

Which other ARC deadlines are easy to miss?

Service center counters only take applications Monday to Friday. If your day 30 falls on a Saturday or Sunday, go on a weekday before it.

Changing jobs comes with a deadline as well. If your place of work changes while you hold residence, you have 30 days to register the change with the NIA, just as with a move, and the fine for not doing it is the same.

To extend your residence, apply within the 3 months before it expires. On the day you get your ARC, put the expiry date in your calendar so it doesn't sneak up on you.

When can you join National Health Insurance?

You aren't covered the moment you land. Under Article 9 of the National Health Insurance Act, anyone holding a residence document has to join National Health Insurance (NHI) once they either work for a regular employer or have lived in Taiwan for 6 months.

With a regular employer, the company enrolls you on the day you're hired. Without one, you wait until you've lived in Taiwan for 6 months. Living here the whole time obviously counts. So does a stay with a single trip abroad of no more than 30 days, as long as your time in Taiwan still adds up to 6 months once the days away are taken out. Hong Kong and Macao residents holding a Taiwan Area Resident Certificate follow the same 6-month rule.

Until then, every doctor's visit is at your own expense, so buy overseas medical insurance before you leave. The working holiday visas for Japanese and Korean nationals already require you to have insurance when you apply. How a visit to the doctor works, and how to find hospitals with English-speaking staff, is in Seeing a doctor in Taipei: when NHI starts, clinics and the ER, and English-friendly hospitals. What you'd pay each month to enroll on your own is listed in Living in Taipei in 2026: how much does it cost per month?.

Where do you follow typhoon and earthquake news?

For typhoons, go to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). It issues both the sea and the land typhoon warnings, and it has pages in English.

Work and school closures are announced by each city and county government, and the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration (DGPA, Executive Yuan) gathers them all on its website. A closure for the whole day or the morning is normally announced between 7 and 10 the evening before. If the storm only picks up after midnight, the announcement comes by half past four that morning at the latest.

Before a typhoon hits, the Taipei City Government's disaster preparedness site (防災臺北) suggests getting a few things ready. Charge your phone and power bank. Bring anything on the balcony indoors or tie it down. Pack an emergency bag with 3 days' worth of drinking water, non-perishable food, a flashlight and the medicines you take regularly.

And earthquakes? In a big one, your phone gets an earthquake early warning through the Public Warning System (PWS). The alarm goes off on its own and a warning message pops up on the screen. Close to the epicenter, though, the shaking may already have started by the time the message arrives. So the moment you feel it, Drop, Cover and Hold On, without waiting for your phone. The city's disaster site also recommends securing cabinets and other large furniture.

Which emergency numbers should you save?

When your signal is fine, just call 110 or 119 directly. Dialing 112 puts you through an extra voice menu, so it's a little slower. If you think you've run into a scam, you can report it online on the National Police Agency's 165 Anti-Fraud website.

FAQ

Can I open a bank account before my ARC comes through?

The rules allow it, but in practice it may not go smoothly. The post office has suspended new accounts opened with a passport plus a UI number information sheet (as of 9 October 2026, except for foreign students on certain scholarships), and each bank has its own review standards. If your ARC is nearly ready, it's simpler to wait until you have it. If your first salary needs somewhere to land soon, ask the payroll bank your employer uses whether it accepts the sheet.

Can I register my ARC address at a friend's place?

Yes, but you'll need some extra paperwork from the owner. If you're staying with someone, attach a copy of the property ownership certificate, or a copy of both sides of the Taiwanese owner's national ID card, along with a letter of consent from the owner.

If work and school are called off for a typhoon, does my company close too?

Not necessarily. The closures that the DGPA publishes cover government offices and schools. Private companies follow guidelines from the Ministry of Labor. If you're not sure you have to go in, ask your employer.

Sources

(All retrieved on 2026-10-09.)

1. 1.Immigration Act (amended ROC 112-06-28), Articles 22, 31 and 85law.moj.gov.tw/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=D0080132
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