About travel to Taiwan and exchange

My personal experience with foreign cash exchange for international travel has been to exchange my local US Dollars for the currency of the country of destination (Mexican Dollars, British Pounds, European Euros, etc.) at a local branch of my bank^[1] before leaving the US. Prior to returning from the foreign country, I would spend as much of the "foreign" cash in hand as was reasonably possible, but, upon my return, I would go back to that local branch and exchange the foreign currency for US Dollars again.

In your case, this may not work quite as well, since you'll be there for 30 days, and they'll be paying you in cash. You'll have a fairly large amount of cash on hand so it will not be reasonable to spend it all (or a significant amount of it) before returning. Also, traveling with large amounts of cash is generally not recommended^[2]. Therefore, it would be reasonable for you to talk with some of the new friends you'll be making at the Taiwanese office where you'll be training. Get a referral from one or more of them for a local bank where you can exchange the TWD for your local currency. Also, it would probably be worth looking into an electronic funds transfer from that Taiwanese bank to your home bank account.

Most banks are willing to do funds transfers for you. They may charge you a transaction fee to do so, but the fee is probably less than the hassle of traveling with a large amount of cash on hand. As an option, you may want to transfer the TWD directly to your home bank and ask your home bank to make the exchange from TWD to your home currency at their (possibly more favorable) rates and at their (possibly lower) fees for doing so. I would strongly suggest that you contact your bank and ask for their recommendation and policies about doing this. Additionally, get the information from them that you'll need to make the electronic funds transfer and keep that information with your important travel documents. Explaining to them up front what's happening may well help reduce the questions identified in the footnotes about large cash transfers.

US law requires that banks record large cash transactions^[3], and Taiwanese laws and those of your home country may be similar. Therefore, it may be a good idea for you to budget how much money you'll need from your paycheck each week (or whatever frequency they'll pay you), deduct that from your cash in hand, and on pay day, go to a bank and transfer the remaining funds back home. This will provide smaller transactions that may not raise any of the red flags with the authorities that one large cash transfer the day before you leave might raise. If, of course, you're only being paid once before you leave, you won't be able to do this.

As a final thought, you might consider asking your employer to simply pay you at home in the same fashion you get paid on a regular basis. This will provide your paycheck in your home currency, at home, and will (if you have a direct deposit) put it directly into your home bank account, where you can draw on it with a credit/debit card as needed from a Taiwanese bank.

^[1]Definitions:

• "My bank" - the banking institution where I have an account.
• "Local branch" - a physical office of that banking institution that is located convenient to my house, office, or current location in town or around the country.
  • I realize that not every country has a banking system like the US, and your bank may only have one physical location for you to access.

^[2]There are two drawbacks I'm aware of to traveling with large amounts of cash (there are likely others):

1. Theft.
2. You might be looked at by border patrol/customs/immigration folks as looking to participate in illegal activities as one carrying large amounts of cash. This may subject you to more rigorous inspection and questioning at all international border crossings, delaying you getting to your flights and out of the airport once home.

^[3]This is, in theory, to help authorities track those participating in illegal activities, since illegal activities often involve cash payments (they're harder to trace) in large amounts. Depositing or transferring large amounts of cash are considered signs of potential illegal activity, so they're flagged for possible investigation by authorities.