MOFA to further relax online passport renewal service from July

Taipei, June 9 (CNA) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Tuesday announced that it is expanding eligibility for its online passport renewal service to Taiwanese nationals whose passports will expire within one year, starting in July.

Previously, only those whose passports had already expired or had less than six months of validity remaining could use the online service, which was launched in 2025 to make passport renewals easier and eliminate the need to visit a Bureau of Consular Affairs (BOCA) office.

Beginning next month, Republic of China (Taiwan) citizens aged 18 or older may renew their passports online using a citizen digital certificate, provided the passport is not lost or damaged and no changes are required to the information page, MOFA spokesperson Hsiao Kuangwei (蕭光偉) said at a weekly briefing.

According to BOCA, only around 110,000 people have used the service since it was launched 18 months ago.

The bureau initially estimated that the service could benefit 200,000 to 300,000 passport renewal applicants each year. In 2024, BOCA issued 2.8 million passports in total.

A BOCA official said last year that the requirement to possess a government-issued citizen digital certificate to apply was one of the barriers limiting the initiative's popularity.

Only around 4 million of Taiwan's roughly 23 million citizens have the certificate, which is used in Taiwan as an official form of online identification.