New Gaikoku Passport and J-Immigration

[Catoneinutica]

Jes' a quickie: I got a new US passport, and need to get all the J-PR visa and "Re-entry Permit" moved over from the old passport; does the usual J-Immigration procedure obtain: cruise over to the fetid hellhole, take a number, go hang out at SBUX for an hour, then come back and hope that it won't take more than another hour for them to call your number whilst enduring the funereal drone of NHK and bathing in the antibiotic-resistant funk of the other applicants (and J-bureaucrats!).

Or can I just belly up to the counter and ask them to restamp the new passport with the old passport stamps? It's been almost ten years; I've plum forgotten.

-catone
-thanks for any info you can give to an early-onset Alzheimer's sufferer

[Yokohammer]

I did that about two years ago in Yokohama, where I was living at the time, and I remember having to fill out a form and take a number. It wasn't a long wait (probably because it was Yokohama), but I did have to wait.

Of course things may have changed since then.

[Greji]

I did that about two years ago in Yokohama, where I was living at the time, and I remember having to fill out a form and take a number. It wasn't a long wait (probably because it was Yokohama), but I did have to wait.

Of course things may have changed since then.

You have to multi task. During the wait, you nanpa all the foreign hookers there trying to get visa extensions. You should be able to parlay any visit to immigrations into at least one shot of back.....

[CrankyBastard]

You can download application forms for some procedures by following this link
http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/english/index.html
But I can't find anything about transfer of passport particulars.

[FG Lurker]

Jes' a quickie: I got a new US passport, and need to get all the J-PR visa and "Re-entry Permit" moved over from the old passport

I've always moved my PR and re-entry stamps from old passports to new... However I have heard that it isn't actually required as long as you keep both passports with you when you travel. Does anyone know for sure?

[Mulboyne]

... However I have heard that it isn't actually required as long as you keep both passports with you when you travel. Does anyone know for sure?

I did that about 10 years ago when I was a resident and it was fine. A few years ago, when not a resident, I needed a new passport while in Japan. My embassy wasn't sure if I would need to move my short term visa stamp to the new one so I went to Shinagawa and they told me it was fine to exit immigration with both.

If I was Cato, I think I might still head to my nearest office just to be on the safe side.

[omae mona]

I've always moved my PR and re-entry stamps from old passports to new... However I have heard that it isn't actually required as long as you keep both passports with you when you travel. Does anyone know for sure?

Absolutely fine to carry both passports and not do the transfer. I did this for over 6 months last time until I had an unrelated reason to visit immigration. Airport immigration staff "suggested" several times in the meantime that I hurry up and visit immigration to do the transfer, but otherwise did not give me a hard time.

[Catoneinutica]

Thanks for the advices, all. Meh, guess I'll mosey on over to Chiba Immigration next Wednesday. It's actually not that bad; the fluorescent-death ambience is no worse than that of the average J-office sweatshop, and the racist J-bureaucrats are as kind to me as they are kibishii to the hapless Asian petitioners.

By the way, the security at the US Embassy is really quite absurd: the usual airport routine, plus you have to surrender your keitei for the duration of your visit. But still, at $75 and a two-or-three day turnaround, the process is infinitely superior to that which the Brits apparently have to endure (see the relevant thread). Being without a passport for three or more weeks? Yikes.

-catone
-promptly stopped making my child-support payments after getting the new passport
-have bastard spawn all around the country, just like greji

[maraboutslim]

Re: US Embassy... a couple of weeks ago they wouldn't even let my wife in even though she is a permanent resident. They said she'd have to make an appointment (none available for months).

[long story short: if you're a permanent resident to the usa but your "green card" has expired but you have not been out of usa for more than 1 year, do not let your airline check in staff at narita tell you you are not allowed to fly back to usa and waste two days of your time and money while you quite rightly convince them they are wrong: their eventual apologies and upgrade to business class will not make up for the extra stress and loss of two days work income back home due to their mistaken belief]

[sublight]

I'm pretty certain the folks at immigration moved all my stamps from the old passport to the new one, although it was so long ago I'm due to go for a new passport any day now.

[omae mona]

Re: US Embassy... a couple of weeks ago they wouldn't even let my wife in even though she is a permanent resident. They said she'd have to make an appointment (none available for months).

The U.S. has sent out huge numbers of notifications by email etc. about the new appointment system, and I think there have been postings on FG about it, but I am sure it will still take a while before everybody's aware. But are you serious that there are no appointments available for months? That is awful. The appointment calendar for the Citizen Services room is doubtless different than the calendar for non-citizens like your wife. But as a citizen I recently made an appointment that was only one week out. That was the most convenient day for me, but I think I remember seeing plenty of openings only 2-3 days in advance.

long story short: if you're a permanent resident to the usa but your "green card" has expired but you have not been out of usa for more than 1 year, do not let your airline check in staff at narita tell you you are not allowed to fly back to usa and waste two days of your time and money while you quite rightly convince them they are wrong: their eventual apologies and upgrade to business class will not make up for the extra stress and loss of two days work income back home due to their mistaken belief]

Ugh, how awful. Did the U.S. let her in as a tourist when you arrived? Or renew the green card?

[maraboutslim]

She had no problems at all when she arrived in San Francisco. They did notice and say, "hey, did you know your green card is expired? here, take this form and renew it". (handed her a version of the application form that expired in 06/09 of course)

The green card itself is just an ID card that makes it easy for one to prove to employers that they are legal and stuff like that. It's not like a driver's license where when it expires you can no longer drive. Your card can expire and it not have any effect at all on your permanent resident status, which is, uh, after all "permanent". (in fact, previously green cards didn't even have expiration dates: they just have them now so they can get new "biometrics" of you and charge you more fees - $370! - every ten years).

But you maintain your permanent status in the USA with or without a card as long as you don't leave for more than a year. If you want to do that, you just need to get a special permit first or jump through a bunch of hoops before returning.

But this all happened on a weekend so it took us two days to get the right info and show it to United. They finally talked to a high enough manager that told them, "uh, yeah, they're right. of course you're not supposed to deny someone boarding if their only issue is expired green card and we were notified of that on such and such a date by the u.s. government just like the info from the embassy says...", and the narita staff apologized profusely and put her on the next available flight. But I was pretty stressed trying to deal with it from here, and she ended up missing the first two days of work (she does special education and since summer school isn't part of the regular school year, she can't use paid vacation or sick days to cover absences. she just had to eat the loss of pay.).

This week's headache: renewing the kids' japanese passports from san francisco. They require the family registry (koseki) and we can't exactly pop down to the kuyakusho to get that so we're trying to figure out how to request it by mail and how to pay (usually one pays with those stamps from the machines, but...). Of course Grandma could get it for us, but she's currently sitting in my living room downstairs and will be here all summer! (and naturally we didn't notice the passports were expired until grandma got here and decided she wanted to take the kids back with her for a couple of weeks at the end of the summer). I'll never understand why governments always make you submit the same paperwork over and over again each time instead of just accepting that they gave you a passport before so that must mean someone already looked at everything and its on the up and up.

[Coligny]

I'll never understand why governments always make you submit the same paperwork over and over again each time instead of just accepting that they gave you a passport before so that must mean someone already looked at everything and its on the up and up.

Fooking crybaby...

When I will have to renew my passport I have to prove that me AND my parents are french. Birth certificate and all...

AND it's illegal to keep the old passport and ID cards...

[Samurai_Jerk]

Fooking crybaby...

When I will have to renew my passport I have to prove that me AND my parents are french. Birth certificate and all...

What do immigrants whose parents aren't French do?

[Coligny]

What do immigrants whose parents aren't French do?

They have a special certificate when they obtain the citizenship. Which is enough to prove they be french...

Me, i'm double fooked, my grand parent father side were living in french algeria. They left in 62 (after that... other war we somehow lost)... But my father decided to stay and took algerian citizenship... Only to discover around 2 years after that it sucked, came to France and had to ask for naturalisation which was granted de facto since my grand parents were always French. But me... I will have to provide certificate proving that my father was naturalized French... It's such a charly-foxtrot that I'm thinking it might be easier to ask for japanese citizenship... Great part of the fun come from the fact that french administration is a lovecraftian creature by its rules, and the lack of profesionnalism/lazyness from civil servant. PLUS the downright disingenuousity of some.

Local ambassy is same level of rock hard stupidity... They managed to lose my registration file... asked me to resubmit everything from the start. (birth certificate, military status, certified japanese wedding certificate). Last time I went to register a death on the french family book. I RECEIVED A FOOCKING CONGRATULATION CARD BACK with the book...

[Samurai_Jerk]

I RECEIVED A FOOCKING CONGRATULATION CARD BACK with the book...

Sorry, but that's funny.

[Coligny]

:lol: Sorry, but that's funny.

I hatez youz...

[IparryU]

I hatez youz...

dude, your posts make my day. fookin hillarious!