When I leave can I just hand in gaijin card at airport

[wangta]

instead of going to city hall? I don't want to get to Immigration at the airport and hand in my gaijin card trying to get to the departures lounge and have them tell me, no, you can't hand it in. You should have gone to city hall. My visa is finishing and I'm leaving soon.

I have no idea because things have changed so much over recent yrs with the Ministry of Justice taking over some functions that once were that of city hall. Can I hand over my gaijin card when I leave instead of going to city hall? Is there going to be a problem? Does city hall have to write something first on the card or I won't be able to leave at the airport w/out doing something else first?

Very confused, thanks for helping me.

[Russell]

Back in the days (few decades ago) you could hand it in at the airport.

I would be surprised if the city hall would have taken over that function, since their roles in issuing cards have diminished.

But why not call an immigration office?

[omae mona]

Japan is pretty literal about the rules. If you were to hand in your card at city hall, then until you go to the airport, you'd be residing in Japan without the gaijin card, illegal even for a few hours. Imagine (I know, unlikely) if you got picked up by the police in the meantime.

Hand it in at the airport.

The city hall people would probably be baffled if you were to try it there (in addition to the problem of you being illegal for several hours or days). Remember administration of the new zairyu cards has been mostly turned over to the immigration office, not like the old alien registration cards handled by the local government office.

Amazingly, I can't find any info on the MOJ web site literally describing the correct procedures to leave the country. There is this but this is about returning your card by mail f you *forget* to hand it in when you leave the country. Incidentally, don't ignore this. You'll be in trouble (and subject to a fine) next time you come back to Japan if you just leave the country without handing in your card.

[wagyl]

Incidentally, don't ignore this. You'll be in trouble (and subject to a fine) next time you come back to Japan if you just leave the country without handing in your card.

Q81：
Is a penalty applied in case the obligation to return the residence card was not fulfilled even I am outside Japan with permission of reentry etc.?

A.
If the obligation to return residence card is not fulfilled, you may be punished with a fine not exceeding 200,000 yen. If your residence card expires while you are outside Japan with the permission of re-entry etc., you don’t fulfill the obligation to return it, and you enter Japan again, you will be subject to a penalty.

cite as provided above by omae mona

Now that is interesting. I was about to chime in and say

Why hand in your card? Except for trying to claw back the meagre part of the pension fund contributions you have made, I don't see a reason to limit your future options even during the short, limited time of the remainder of your visa. And if a question is raised about it at a later date, I would say that I had planned to return to Japan within the validity of the visa, but those plans didn't come to fruition.

I am pretty sure that I am not the only person who would have thought that, but it looks like that could be a risky strategy.

[IparryU]

Omae Mona is on it. Hand it in at the airport as you go through customs as that is your last technical presence in Nippon and the TSA/Immigration Occifer will know what to do.

Sent from my SC-03E using Tapatalk

[wagyl]

TSA

This is not quite the 51st state yet.

[IparryU]

TSA

This is not quite the 51st state yet.

Puerto Rico is 51, Japland will be 52 or 53. Really depends on Guam and Philippines.

But ya... That is why i had /migra there.

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[Mike Oxlong]

TSA

This is not quite the 51st state yet.

Puerto Rico is 51, Japland will be 52 or 53. Really depends on Guam and Philippines.

But ya... That is why i had /migra there.

Sent from my SC-03E using Tapatalk

Canuckistan has long been occupied...

[IparryU]

TSA

This is not quite the 51st state yet.

Puerto Rico is 51, Japland will be 52 or 53. Really depends on Guam and Philippines.

But ya... That is why i had /migra there.

Sent from my SC-03E using Tapatalk

Canuckistan has long been occupied...

Ok... So Japan is in the 51~57 range?

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[wangta]

Thanks so much to all of you! I'm in no doubt now!

Just one more thing, do I absolutely have to go to city hall before I leave re the staff writing something on my card for Immigration to see when I hand it in?

I am worried if I don't pay a visit to the folks at city hall then I am missing some vital information being written on my card that will allow me to leave smoothly at Immigration in the airport.

I don't want to go near the arseholes at city hall if I can help them. They are just ignoramuses who completely ignored me and let my cunt of a boss speak for me last time I went when in fact I have more than enough Japanese to hold more than a decent conversation with them about why they shouldn't have charged me nenkin payments before I hadn't even set foot in Japan.

I ended up paying kokumin kenko hoken (health and pension), no big deal there. But the cunts insisted it was fair to collect the pension from me for when I was in my home country one month before I had even set foot in Japan again to work. I have no record of outstanding payments in Japan. Not for anything. I hate the city hall cunts and I don't ever want to see them again. All my final payments will be taken out of my last salary

Is it mandatory to see city hall before we leave even if we owe nothing? Do they have to write something on our gaijin card for Immi at the airport to see? I don't even want to see city hall cunts again. Just like I never want to see my cunt of a weirdo boss again.

[chibaka]

All my final payments will be taken out of my last salary

If this is the case then forget shitty office. You have obviously experienced the level of retardation that exists in said office, it will only confuse the issue. Hand the card in at the airport.

I have nightmares about the shitty office, hate the fucking place, best thing immigration ever did was take responsibility for the gaijin card.

[Russell]

Wangta, you are aware that you can get back up to 3 years of your pension premium payments when you leave Japan, do you?

[nikoneko]

I just asked this exact thing last week at immigration as I am leaving too. I have a Zairyo card so ymmv if you have the old kind of card, but I was told to hand it in at the airport and they would take it and void it. Also was told to show them my passport at the airport.

[wagyl]

Wangta, you are aware that you can get back up to 3 years of your pension premium payments when you leave Japan, do you?

I get the feeling that wangta is from one of the countries listed here. It is up to him to research whether it is better for him in his circumstances to claim back the three years contributions or to wait until he is retiring age to claim his phantasmagorical bounty.

[wangta]

Thanks folks for all the help, really love fuckedgaijin website for the people who post here.

What happened was I just handed in my passport and gaijin card, told em in Japanese the expiration date on my gaijin card was finishing in a few days, and they took my card, punched a hole in it and gave it back.

The interesting thing is I have a printed stamp in my passport that says I can stay until some time later this year. I think that was put in there by Immigration when I arrived in Japan for the job I did from 2013 to 2014.

When I left that stamp was not voided by the Immigration officer who processed my departure a few days before my permission to stay date on my gaijin card finished.

Is it still possible to re-enter Japan and stay until that date?

What would be the difference between re-entering on what appears to be permission to stay until that date and a plain ol tourist visa? - as an Aussie I can stay for 3 months I think w/out a visa as a tourist.

I'd love to work somewhere else in Japan quite separate from the bumfuck place I was in last job. Will that apparent permission still in my passport give me some kind of benefit?

[wagyl]

Japan works on a system of once only entry, and then reentry permits. By getting that stamp in your passport, it is an indication that you have used up that one entry. Any subsequest entries within that time period require a reentry permit.

Even moreso, everything is now online at Immigration and the record they will have of your exit without a reentry will be more powerful than anything you have stamped in your passport. I am almost certain you will not be allowed to work based only on what is in your passport.

(To be honest I don't understand why or how the dates for permission to stay seem to be different on your passport than on your gaijin card. Your entry was after July 2012, I am guessing, and your card is titled "Residence Card" not "Certificate of Alien Registration" which was the old card system, with dates which confused some people.)

[yanpa]

(To be honest I don't understand why or how the dates for permission to stay seem to be different on your passport than on your gaijin card.)

The ARCs had their own expiration date as they were issued by local government, not immigration.

The ZRCs have the expiry date of the current "period of stay", which makes more sense.

[wagyl]

Yep, simultaneous edit there... The dates wangta is dealing with suggest the new system. But then, having a stamp in the passport suggests the old system. I don't know whether they still stamp on first entry into Japan. Or indeed whether wangta has had a work permit from before 2012 which expired when he left the country earlier...

[yanpa]

I can't remember the exact dates but it sounds like he scraped in towards the end of the old system, hence the stamp (presumably the sticker with the QR code) and ARC. In which case, now he's handed in the ARC and exited without a reentry permit, the stamp/sticker is just a pretty piece of passport decoration.

FWIW I changed my residency status not long after the new system came in so the stamp/sticker in my passport is invalidated, but the accompanying multiple reentry permit is technically still valid (albeit pointless).

[Wage Slave]

FWIW I changed my residency status not long after the new system came in so the stamp/sticker in my passport is invalidated, but the accompanying multiple reentry permit is technically still valid (albeit pointless).

If it has less than a year left on it then it is pointless. However, it has more then it still has a some value.

[yanpa]

FWIW I changed my residency status not long after the new system came in so the stamp/sticker in my passport is invalidated, but the accompanying multiple reentry permit is technically still valid (albeit pointless).

If it has less than a year left on it then it is pointless. However, it has more then it still has a some value.

Hmm, is it possible that under the old system you could re-enter at any time before the permit expires, even if that period was greater than a year? If so that is a regression (not that I anticipate needing to stay outside of the place for more than a year, but you never know).

[Wage Slave]

I think so - it was valid for re-entry until expired. If you fork out for a re-entry permit now it is valid for 5 years from the date of issue. I splashed out because you never know and also with a new passport that stamp is the only evidence in the passport that I have any connection with Japan.

[wagyl]

FWIW I changed my residency status not long after the new system came in so the stamp/sticker in my passport is invalidated, but the accompanying multiple reentry permit is technically still valid (albeit pointless).

If it has less than a year left on it then it is pointless. However, it has more then it still has a some value.

Hmm, is it possible that under the old system you could re-enter at any time before the permit expires, even if that period was greater than a year? If so that is a regression (not that I anticipate needing to stay outside of the place for more than a year, but you never know).

Correct.

[yanpa]

FWIW I changed my residency status not long after the new system came in so the stamp/sticker in my passport is invalidated, but the accompanying multiple reentry permit is technically still valid (albeit pointless).

If it has less than a year left on it then it is pointless. However, it has more then it still has a some value.

Hmm, is it possible that under the old system you could re-enter at any time before the permit expires, even if that period was greater than a year? If so that is a regression (not that I anticipate needing to stay outside of the place for more than a year, but you never know).

Correct.

Hmm, maybe not. Looks like you can still apply like before if you intend spending more than four seasons outside of the archipelago. Which would explain why they left the stamp in.

１年（特別永住者は２年）の期間を超えて再入国する予定の方は，従来どおり再入国許可が必要です。

http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact_1/ ... page3.html

[wagyl]

Err yes, and I was going to get all pedantic on the use of the term "regression."

In summary, under the old system, visa periods were up to three years, and you had to apply for any and all reentry permits, for return within the period of that reentry permit (maximum three years, or length of parent visa, whichever comes first).

Under the new system, visa periods are up to five years (Yay!), there are automatic reentry permits that you don't have to apply for (Yay!), but they are only of one year duration (Boo!) and you can not extend them from outside the country (Shit! I'm Fucked!). But! If you get your shit together in advance, you can apply for a special reentry permit (paradoxically NOT the one called "special reentry permit," that term is used for the automatic one) which allows you to be out of the country for up to five years or life of parent visa (Yay!) It is less of a regression and more of a shuffle. Some things have got more convenient, but there are pitfalls to watch for.

In your case, they left the stamp in, because there was no reason for them to void it. It had not become invalid just because you had transferred the custody of your testicles from your boss to your wife.

[wangta]

Thanks Waygl and everybody who gave good info here.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

Japan works on a system of once only entry, and then reentry permits. By getting that stamp in your passport, it is an indication that you have used up that one entry. Any subsequest entries within that time period require a reentry permit.

Even moreso, everything is now online at Immigration and the record they will have of your exit without a reentry will be more powerful than anything you have stamped in your passport. I am almost certain you will not be allowed to work based only on what is in your passport.

(To be honest I don't understand why or how the dates for permission to stay seem to be different on your passport than on your gaijin card. Your entry was after July 2012, I am guessing, and your card is titled "Residence Card" not "Certificate of Alien Registration" which was the old card system, with dates which confused some people.)

i am totally confused by this one entry thing. i entered on a one year multi-entry at the end of april with my COE. got that taken care of and got the card. the embarkation card is still in my passport stapled on the page where the visa is. then when i left a couple weeks ago, they have put a new stamp in that says 'automated gate user for special re-entry' and i was told that i need to now use the automated gates when i return (which is today). so i have no idea if i have to fill in the landing card again or not. i'm sure whatever door i choose is going to be the wrong one though...

[wagyl]

No you do not fill in a landing card. You have a reentry permit, that is what you enter Japan with.

My embarkation card is still in the passport three editions ago, they never see it and never ask for it.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

No you do not fill in a landing card. You have a reentry permit, that is what you enter Japan with.

My embarkation card is still in the passport three editions ago, they never see it and never ask for it.

you are right, i didn't have to fill it in. BUT...i have something in there (that they took up a whole page to do) that has a QR code and says 'automated gate user, exempt from japanese entry and exit stamp'. however, they stamped me today anyway. so now i have lost an entire page to the multiple entry visa, half a page to the initial sticker that says one year entry as intracompany transferee, one full page for the QR automated gate user thing, and 1/4 page where they stamped me in today. which means in about 3 months i'm going to need a new passport...