Among overseas travelers, there is an old adage – although no formal pronouncement about it – that ‘not all passports are equal.’

But does this passport argument also apply to visa? Could it also be hypothesized in the same vein that ‘not all visa are equal?’ Let me share with you our experience when our family of five members decided to spend part of the 2016 Christmas break in Taiwan (officially the Republic of China) as we prepared our papers to secure our individual visa. But first, allow me to present a brief discourse about passport. Cambridge Dictionary defines passport as “an official document provided by the government of a particular country which shows that the owner is a citizen of that country and allows that person to travel to foreign countries” (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/passport).

In our real and imperfect world, however, passport holders of certain countries are accorded what may be described as ‘preferential’ treatment. It may be unfair; nonetheless, it is a fact of life that we simply have to acknowledge. Immigration officials usually don’t make qualm with holders of American, Australian, Canadian and European passports. That is not the case when passport holders come from the least developed countries (LDCs), such as those from LDCs in Africa or Asia, as these citizens are scrutinized more thoroughly as they pass through their immigration cubicles.

As a Filipino – the Philippines being classified as an LDC – I could sense greater scrutiny of my passport whenever I enter North American or European Union countries. They would ask detailed questions about the purpose of my visit, and their ‘body language’ reflect civilized nuances, sizing me up if I am a potential security risk or a possible economic refugee. Even within Asia, I could sense the same sense of greater scrutiny from immigration officials of Japan, Singapore and South Korea.

From my perspective, though, these immigration officers are not necessarily racially discriminating. In my travels to 29 countries over the last 32 years, I have never experienced being directly insulted or deliberately embarrassed by any of them. (In total, I visited 32 countries but was only a transit passenger in Hamburg, Germany; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and Abu Dhabi and Dubai in United Arab Emirates.) My own take is majority of these immigration officials are simply dedicated civil servants who are protecting their countries’ own interests. What is wrong with that? It is simply an act of self-preservation. If they perceive you to be a potential security threat – or a possible economic refugee, then, they are duty-bound not to let you in. Therefore, there is nothing to grudge about it.

Anyway, back to the visa issue. Without taking into account first the visa requirements, our daughter Hannah, while in Australia, purchased promotional air fares of Cebu Pacific (Cebu Pac).  Headquartered in the Philippines, Cebu Pac is a budget airline that offers discounted air fares. Thus, she purchased round-trip tickets for the five of us on the following dates: leaving Manila, Philippines on 19 December 2016 and going back from Taipei, Taiwan on 26 December 2016.

My memory was re-kindled back to my first trip to Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan, in July 1994. I secured a visa then to enter the country (Figure 1). I joined a group of professionals who participated in a scientific conference (held from 18-21 July 1994) titled Seventh International Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade.

This time, my eldest son (Robert) was the one who checked the on-line application that was provided by the Taiwanese Embassy in Manila. Just like me, Robert went to Taipei in 2015 and he indeed obtained his Taiwanese visa to enter the country. His visit there was prior to his 2017 US trip. As he reviewed the content of the on-line application, he suddenly exclaimed: “Only Jr. needs to secure a visa!” Hence, Robert was the one who discovered that among the five family members, only Jr. (our second son) was required to secure a Taiwanese visa. How did it happen?

The simple reason: the four other family members were holding fairly recent Australian and US visa. My wife (Lita) possessed an Australian tourist visa. She has visited Australia several times in the past upon the invitation of my sister-in-law who is now an Australian citizen living in Darwin, Northern Territory. Our daughter Hannah possessed a working visa from Australia. At that time, she was working as staff nurse at the private Mater Hospital in Sydney, New South Wales. Robert had a US tourist visa. As for me, I held both US visa (B-1/B-2 and J-1) and Australian visa (student and visitor). Below is an animated caricature of our family conversation (Figure 2).

Certainly, Jr. was ‘unhappy’ that he was singled out to obtain a visa. Eventually, he secured his Taiwanese visa (Figure 3) as he had no choice; otherwise, he would be left behind in Manila. Of course he had to pay for it with his own money, and had likewise spent some time processing his papers.

Anyway, our family enjoyed our one-week visit in Taipei that enabled us to visit a few famous tourist places. We visited Baitong Hot Spring located at the foot of Yangmingshan Mountain (Figure 4). This is the sole hot spring in the whole country, which is accessible by metro rail. We had a go-pro family pose at the Chiang Kai-shek (CKS) Memorial Hall (Figure 5). Universally regarded as the most prominent historical landmark in Taiwan, CKS Memorial Hall was erected in honor of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, its founding President.

Of course we salivated our palate at the prominent Din Tai Fung Restaurant (Figure 6), despite the bee line of people wanting to dine in. Originally established in 1958 as a cooking oil retail shop, it transitioned by 1972 into a full-fledged restaurant specializing in soup dumplings and noodles. Din Tai Fung is quite famous for Xiao Long Bao, which is a type of Chinese steamed bun from the Jiangnan region. This bun’s main ingredients include dough and minced pork. We certainly did not miss Jiufen (sometimes spelled as Chiufen or Jioufen) that literally means ‘nine portions’, which is a seaside mountain area in Ruifang District (Figure 7). As a former gold mining town, it has become a popular tourist destination due to the influence of two films: the 1989 movie of Hou Hsiao-hsien titled A City of Sadness about thousands of civilians who were massacred in 1947; and the 2001 Japanese anime movie titled Spirited Away released by Studio Ghibli due to its resemblance to this movie’s downtown area.

Overall, we greatly enjoyed our brief family get-together in the capital city of Taipei. Although through the course of these touristic activities, Jr. would occasionally ‘lament’ why he was singled out to secure a Taiwanese visa. In summary, our family experience has simply proven the earlier posed hypothesis that ‘not all visa are equal!’

Copyright © 2019 by Michael D Pido