Speedy Passport Processing

Kudus to the Canadian government in general and the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei (CTOT) in particular for speedy handling of my passport renewal. I was somewhat chagrined last week when I discovered it would take 15 working days post-application for my new passport to arrive from Canada.

I filed last Thursday and I got a phone message yesterday (Tuesday) morning saying my passport was ready. This is the third passport renewal I've had processed from Taipei and it's the first time my passport has been machine readable. (I think that's good.) However, I'm more impressed with the fact that it took only three working days for the passport application to be processed in Canada and sent back to Taipei. Or maybe they just say it's processed in Canada.

I still wonder why the Canadian authorities have such strict requirements for passport renewal applications, though. In addition to turning in my old passport, I was also required to submit an original birth certificate and a second form of photo ID with my English signature. Fortunately, I keep the birth certificate in Taipei and I have also maintained a Canadian drivers' license (none of my Taiwan photo ID cards have my English signature). Also, I was required to find a guarantor (a professional who has known me for more than two years) to vouch for my identity by signing my application form and a photograph (thanks R). My American friends say they only need to provide their current (expiring) passport as proof of identity. That's, like, so relaxed eh? Can't we do that too, Canada?

While I'm at it, I would like to offer restrained praise for the new (Taiwan) National Immigration Agency. This was my first visit to their office since they began operations in January (if you're not in the know, be advised that Taipei residents don't complete residency-related procedures at the Foreign Police office anymore; now this type of thing is handled down Yan Ping Street, at the corner with Guangzhou Street). I had to get my Entry & Exit Permit transferred from my old passport to my new passport. It all went down quite smoothly. The CTOT gave me a slip of paper with the English-language help line run by the NIA (0800-024-111). I called and found after a hesitating start in English that it was much more expeditious to speak Mandarin, but the operator was very friendly and she provided the correct information.

So this was a good Taiwan day for me. I had absolutely no inclination to yell at anyone, unlike the unfortunate Japanese man who is the subject of Feiren's item posted earlier today.

More Immigration Injustice

Just after an American woman in Hualien gets fined NT$6,000 for swearing at someone, a Japanese man married to a Taiwanese woman gets convicted of a similar offense--publicly insulting an official during the course of his official duties. This offense, defined in Article 140 of the Criminal Code) carries a prison term of up to six months. Prison terms of less than six months are routinely suspended as in this case where the man was sentenced to a reasonable 30 days for his hissy fit.

A Japanese man was given a suspended sentence of 30 days' detention and barred from the country for five years for cursing immigration officials at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in September 2005, aviation police sources said yesterday.

The man, who is married to a Taiwanese woman, often travels between Taiwan and Japan. He became so enraged by what he called the snail-paced immigration inspection at the airport that he burst into a volley of curses when an immigration officer checked his travel documents.

His banning from Taiwan for five years though is arbitrary, unreasonable, and disproportional to his offense especially in view of the fact that he is married to a Taiwanese national. Unlike the 30 - day suspended sentence, the decision to ban him from reentering Taiwan is a purely administrative decision. Since I don't have all the facts, I'm not going to speculate on which agency made the ruling and what their legal basis is but it should suffice to observe that nowhere in Article 140 is it provided that one can be banned from re entering Taiwan because of this offense.

In other words, this individual was meted out an additional and far more serious punishment in addition to the punishment for which the law provides. And he was of course denied due process since there was no hearing by an independent immigration tribunal--the Immigration Bureau simply tacked his five-year ban on out of spite and without any outside supervision using their sweeping administrative powers to deport and bar foreigners.

While it is somehow comforting to learn that at least some Japanese are susceptible to fits of 'Taiwan rage' and inappropriate behavior and that this behavior is no limited to westerners, the cumulative and extra-judicial punishment did not fit the crime at all. And then the Immigration Bureau had the nerve to complain that the man did not express 'remorse' for his crime and further had the audacity to file appeals--presumably appeals against his unjust banning from Taiwan.

Immigration officials said they felt compelled to file the lawsuit to defend the government's "prestige" and "authority." They expressed regret that the man had not shown any remorse and has fought the charges by filing petitions with several agencies.

Surely the appropriate course of action (if the man was causing a disturbance that was affecting other travelers) would have been to detain him at the airport until he cooled off. If he was foolish enough to strike an officer or destroy property, he could have been duly charged on those grounds. No doubt when he came to his senses he would have felt remorse and apologized.

But instead the Immigration Bureau, which we just learned today is riddled with officials colluding with human traffickers, takes refuge behind a outdated and authoritarian law to protect its questionable dignity and then abuses its administrative powers to bar someone from Taiwan. Talk about petty!

Rank thinks it's the Immigration Bureau that owes someone an apology. Fat chance he'll ever get it.