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"Taiwan visa maximum stay clarification" confirms that for Taiwan visa exempt stay you start counting the number of days after the day of arrival (redundantly, as the information is available on governmental websites). That is NOT my question.

My question is what is the "day of arrival"? Is it when your plane was scheduled to land? Is it when your plane lands? Is it when you pass immigration? (This information does not seem to be available elsewhere.)

So, for example, if you have a late night flight and dawdle and don't pass immigration until after 12am, does that count as arriving the day our plane landed or the day we passed immigration ?

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    My question is what counts as "entry day". Is it the day the plane was scheduled to land? The day the plane lands? The day you pass immigration? (This is NOT addressed in "Taiwan visa max stay clarification".) Mark Mayo's answer (which did address my question - thanks!) points out that in cases of flight redirection or extreme delay, immigration won't care when you were supposed to land. But e.g. would they process the wave of people from a late night flight as all arriving on the same day, regardless if some people pass immigration before midnight and others after?
    – JAL
    Jul 26, 2013 at 12:32

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It'll be when you pass through customs. For example, let's say there's an emergency, you get redirected to China for a couple of days, and then flown to Taiwan. They're not going to do it based on your scheduled flight. Indeed, immigration won't usually care what flight you were on or when it was 'meant' to get in - they care that right now, you're standing at their desk and they're approving you for 90 days from then.

However, it's also possible that the shift ends at 1am or something and they don't bother changing their stamps. You could consider dawdling and then asking at the desk to make sure: "This means my visa is from today now, right, given that it's after midnight?". There's no reason they shouldn't, but it may help to 'remind' them that it's a new day.

Of course, real experience on the ground may be a different matter, so if you try it please do report back - it'd be very interesting to hear if it worked.

EDIT

According to Wiki's page on the visa policy of Taiwan:

Citizens of following countries do not require a visa to visit Taiwan for less than 90 days (which starts from the next day of arrival, extension not possible).

and lists countries that fall under this. So it will depend on which passport you're using.

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  • @pnuts Agreed, customs ≠ immigration
    – Calchas
    Aug 3, 2015 at 15:26
  • But Immigration gives you the stamp, customs usually just waves you though, with or without extra checks.
    – Willeke ♦
    Aug 3, 2015 at 18:56

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