Aaaahhhh, we finally did it!! After months of incredible amounts of stress and running back and forth to buildings like the one below, we finally obtained Jules’ Taiwanese passport today! I practically squealed when the lady at the passport counter at the Bureau of Consular Affairs handed over the passport. As you can see from Jules’ expression, he was pretty psyched to have dual nationality.
Barring the boring minutiae of any bureaucratic system, I was and am completely baffled by how efficient the government system works here. You have to take a numbered ticket when you enter government agencies to conduct any official business, but I don’t think we ever waited for more than three minutes…minutes!! Everyone was over-the-top friendly and helpful, and it really highlighted the contrast between the workers here and the sourpuss workers at the Taiwanese ‘fake embassy’ in New York. Perhaps those workers are just bitter, since their agency isn’t an official embassy given that the States won’t recognize Taiwan as an official country.
Anyhow, I’m just giddy that we finally have this passport in hand where we don’t have to worry about leaving the country every 90 days due to visa restrictions. Plus, we get to go through the express lane at Taiwan customs. Plus, it’s cool to collect passports.
Of course, as soon as the photo was taken Jules said, “So, when do I get my British passport?”
