TECO

Many of you may not know this. TECO stands for Taipei Economic and Cultural Offices. Essentially, TECO is the embassy of Taiwan in the U.S. However, because the big bad China won't allow the U.S. to recognize Taiwan as an official country in the world, Taiwan can only have these "offices" to process immigration issues for its citizens in the U.S. Yes, this all sounds very strange, but this is the way the world works. Taiwan is not China and vice versa. But we are all Chinese. Makes sense? If you are curious, check out the Taiwanese history here.

I went to TECO in L.A. today to renew my Taiwanese passport which has expired. Everything went smoothly. The wait was not as bad as I anticipated. This was my first time visiting the TECO in L.A. I like it much better than the one in D.C.