A foreign driver’s license is a souvenir with a time limit. Visitors can usually drive on it with an International Driving Permit for thirty days after entry. After that, or once you have an ARC, the question is conversion, not confidence.
Some countries and some U.S. states have reciprocity. If yours does, the local motor-vehicle office will swap, not retest. If it does not, you sit the written exam and, for a car, a road test. The scooter (ordinary light motorcycle) is a different category. People who assume the car license covers the 125cc they just bought find out at the first checkpoint.
Bring the passport, ARC, the original license, a translation if the office asks, photos in the right size, and patience. Taipei, New Taipei, and Taoyuan do not run on the same queue. English is inconsistent. The Highway Bureau pages are the official ones; forums are where people describe the line, not the law.
Do this before you need it. The week a typhoon warning and a hospital run overlap is a bad week to discover you have been riding on luck. If you are still on YouBike, stay there until the card in your wallet is a Taiwanese one.
