Taipei Economic and Cultural Office extends services with opening of its permanent home in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO — At the time the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in San Francisco celebrates the opening of its 7-story new permanent home in the downtown and SoMa neighborhood, their services have been extended in the new building for handling more visa applications and providing a larger library with books and magazines about Taiwan.

The opening ceremony was held on February 27, 2025. Local San Francisco Bay Area elected officials who have ties with Taiwan joined officials representing Taiwan's government in the celebration including San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu who is a son of immigrant parents from Taiwan, San Francisco Supervisors Connie Chan, who was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Taiwan until age 13 immigrating to San Francisco, and Joel Engardio, whose husband is an immigrant from Taiwan, Fremont Mayor Raj Salwan, who is the first Indian-American Mayor in Fremont representing a large Taiwanese immigrant community, Fremont District 4 Councilmember Yang Shao, whose wife is an immigrant from Taiwan, and former Fremont Mayor Lily Mei, who is a daughter of immigrant parents from Taiwan.

Alexander Tah-ray Yui, Taiwan's representative to the United States since November 2023, flew from Washington D.C. to host the opening ceremony in San Francisco. Yui told reporters at the ceremony that the 56,000-square-foot new office symbolized the relationship between two countries that would be strengthened and continued.

Joshua J.S. Ruan, Deputy Minister of the Overseas Community Affairs Council in Taiwan, also flew to San Francisco for the opening ceremony. The Council has established two cultural centers in the San Francisco Bay Area located in Chinatown and Milpitas since the 1980s. The Chinatown center has moved into the new building in San Francisco downtown and continued to serve the community in a larger capacity.

For over a century since the Republic of China (Taiwan) was established in 1911, strong economic and cultural relationship have been maintained between the San Francisco Bay Area and Taiwan due to the large community of Chinese Americans who are immigrants from Taiwan, although the formal relations between the U.S. and Taiwan ended in 1979 when the U.S. established official diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC, China) during Jimmy Carter's Presidency.

The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco has since served as an official Taiwan's government agency to provide economic and cultural services to members of the Chinese community and the Taiwanese immigrant community for decades in the Bay Area. Its office was long located at 555 Montgomery Street in a leased space in San Francisco Financial district next to Chinatown until October 2024 moving into a 7-story new building at 345 4th Street in downtown.

The brand new office of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco was acquired by the Taiwan's government for $53 million. It is the 4th Economic and Cultural Office in the United States fully owned by Taiwan's government following the offices in Washington D.C., New York, and Chicago.

The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco completed the transaction to acquire the entire building at 345 4th Street in January 2023 during the COVID pandemic.

"Among all four offices owned by the Taiwan's government, the purchase price for San Francisco Office was the highest related to the real estate market in the Bay Area," said Jenny Kuo, Communication Director of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco. "It was also about the budget issue and a better timing to find a permanent home for the office because the property values for commercial buildings in San Francisco were down during the pandmeic."

The 7-story standalone building in San Francisco's SoMa district was acquired in 2023. "After about a year of renovations which cost approximately $19 million, the TECO/SF officially moved its operations from its old offices to the new building in October 2024," Kuo added. "This new office is now the home for TECO’s consular, immigration, economic, education, and tourism divisions, as well as the OCAC culture center."

San Francisco is one of the 13 Taipei Economic and Cultural Offices in the United States and covers three regions including Northern California, Utah and Nevada. In addition to the head office in Washington DC, New York and Los Angeles offices, other 9 offices are located in Seattle, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Honolulu, Miami, Atlanta, and Guam.

Tourism has enhanced the connections between Taiwan and the United States. Residents of the San Francisco Bay Area from all communities enjoy traveling to Taiwan for the popular night markets, great food and many more.

Taiwan has participated in the Visa Waiver Program which is administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Under the program, citizens of the United States can travel to Taiwan for business or tourism for stays of up to 90 days without a visa.

For the Taiwanese passport holders, they can also travel to the United States for tourism and business for stays up to 90 days without a visa, but they must obtain an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) through the Visa Waiver Program. An ESTA, which is a multiple-entry document with a validity period of 2 years, can be applied online.

The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office is able to increase the capacity of handling visa and passport applications. People who need to apply for a visa or passport can walk in the new office in San Francisco without appointments required.

Presently the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) has managed 11 Cultural Centers in the United States to promote cultural exchanges and activities. In 1985, the first Cultural Center was established in San Francisco Chinatown. Two years later in 1987, another Cultural Center was open in Sunnyvale. In 2015, the South Bay Cultural Center moved into a 30,000-square-foot new building in Milpitas.

For the past 40 years, the first OCAC Cultural Center had always been located in San Francisco Chinatown with a library service open for the community. The OCAC Cultural Center in San Francisco has moved into the ground floor of the brand new Taipei Economic and Cultural Office building since October 2024.

Tai Hsin Liu, Deputy Director of the OCAC Cultural Center in San Francisco, welcomed community members to come to visit them and check out their library service with collections of books and magazines focused on Taipei.

"Most of our books and magazines in the Cultural Center are in Chinese language and from Taiwan. We are planning to bring in more books and magazines for our community, including those in English language," said Liu.

The books and magazines could be borrowed and checked out for two weeks. The OCAC Cultural Center is open to the public for free admission from 9:00am to 5:pm on every Tuesday to Sunday. The consular service in the new building is open from 9am to 1pm on weekdays.

The new home of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco stands in the heart of the city's business and convention zone and at a convenient location easy to be reached either by driving or taking public transit. It is one block from the Moscone Convention Center and the Yerba Buena Gardens, half block from the Central Subway's Yerba Buena/Moscone Station which connects to San Francisco Chinatown, and right by the 4th Street on-ramp to US Highway 101.