The Message below is from American Institute in Taiwan (“AIT”):
Because of public health measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, effective March 20, 2020, the U.S. Department of State began to limit passport operations. Effective April 2, the Department further limited its ability to offer routine passport and citizenship services abroad.
AIT urges you to consider waiting to apply for your passports, through mail or in-person, until the Department has resumed normal operations. While AIT will continue to process a limited number of routine passport applications, we expect significant delivery delays. At this time, we are unable to estimate when normal operations will resume. Please note that the validity of your U.S. passport does not affect your eligibility for U.S. citizen emergency services.
AIT will continue to schedule Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA) appointments. However, we expect significant delivery delays.
For emergency passport services for U.S. citizens, please contact AIT at TaipeiACS@state.gov.
AIT will also reduce routine notarial services. If your need for a notarial service is not urgent, we encourage you to wait to apply until we resume routine operations.
AIT cannot provide updates or estimate processing times for previously approved applications. Please consider delaying new passport applications and update requests until we resume normal operations. If you previously applied for a passport or citizenship service but have yet to receive your documents, you should expect significant delays.
We encourage you to visit www.ait.org.tw for more information and enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive the latest COVID-19 and U.S. Citizen Services updates.