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Foreigner Friendly?

Info Tech, Taiwan

Every Taiwanese has a National ID Card 身分證 with its own unique number, not unlike a Social Security number in the US. The difference is that every legal permanent resident in the US also has a Social Security number, but foreigners living legally in Taiwan are given a different number. Instead of a National ID Card number we are given an Alien Resident Certificate 居留證 number.

This wouldn’t be a problem, except that a large number of Taiwan’s online services require a National ID Card number in order to use the site, and offer no alternative for resident aliens. Foreigners are essentially banned from using such sites. Some sites, like the National Railway Administration allow you to use your passport number, but only if you use a crappy English language alternative website.

I am going to use this post to slowly compile a list of such websites. If you encounter a Taiwanese website which is not foreigner friendly, please post it to the comments and please make clear whether the site offers an inferior English language only website (English only) or bans foreigners from registering altogether (foreigners not allowed).

This is just a start, please help add more sites. Eventually we may need additional categories, like sites which only work with Chinese Windows, or sites which don’t allow you to enter non-Chinese names, etc. but I’m keeping it simple for now.

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