The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said on Sunday that Taiwanese visitors to the United States entering under the Taiwan-US visa waiver would not be affected by a recent change in US immigration policy.
US President Donald Trump signed a controversial executive order banning restricting immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
The ban also suspends the “visa interview waiver programme.”
AIT spokesperson Sonia Urbom stressed that the “visa interview waiver programme” is not the same as the “visa waiver programme” overseen by the US Department of Homeland Security, adding that conditions relating to the latter would not change.
“The Visa Waiver Program still applies to Taiwanese visitors travelling to the US,” stressed Urbom, adding that Taiwanese could visit the US government’s official website for the Visa Waiver Program if they would like to know more about the programme.
The AIT, a de facto embassy, represents US interests in Taiwan in the absence of official diplomatic relations.
According to the US Bureau of Consular Affairs, there are 38 participating countries, including Taiwan, in the Visa Waiver Program.
Citizens of participating nations are able to travel to the US for up to 90 days for business or tourism without a visa.
Issued late on Friday, Trump’s executive order bars citizens of the seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US for the next 90 days and suspends the admission of all refugees for 120 days.
The order has already led to widespread confusion regarding implementation and enforcement.
Critics quickly decried the executive order as a “Muslim ban,” which Trump has rejected, insisting that the new policy did not amount to a “Muslim ban” like the one he called for in the heat of his election campaign.
Trump on Friday said that his actions would keep “radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America.”
Protests against the policy have erupted at more than eight major US airports.
The country’s tech industry has also signaled significant opposition to it, with statements of concern coming from leaders of Google, Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Netflix, Salesforce, Slack and Uber, among others.
Iran, one of the countries whose citizens were banned, on Sunday slammed Trump’s order as an “insult” and a “gift to extremists.”
