Do I need a re-entry visa to go on short trip outside Japan?

[Wage Slave]

Japanese Immigration officials ask to see my card but not anyone else. Everyone else wants to see a passport. As it happens I have a brand new passport this year so until I got a re-entry permit there was absolutely nothing in it relating to Japan.

It might not matter and certainly that is the view from the immigration people. You have an official and impressive looking ID card which no-one is going to question. I'm not so sure.

I've been asked to show my ZRC in other countries when returning to Japan. On my last trip abroad no one in Narita asked to see it though.

Perhaps other Asian countries are more familiar with the Japanese system and understand it better. I haven't travelled within Asia for many years now. All my trips are back to Europe and that might explain differing experience.

[Wibble]

I still wonder why they've decided not to stamp our passports with something confirming our status. If it hasn't happened already, I'm sure at some point there will be an immigration official at an airport in some country that will give grief to an FG trying to return home to Japan. Especially if that FG isn't from a visa waver country. Maybe it's a plot to make us be more mindful of our ZRC's.

It's not likely to be foreign immigration who care about your residency when leaving their country, but the airlines. If you get refused entry and banged up in the gulag, they could be fined and/or responsible for getting you out. But the amount of checking is airline-dependent. I've never been asked to prove my residency by a US-based airline, but almost every time returning with an EU or Japanese airline, when they see that I don't have onward travel from Japan, they want to check my residency status. This used to involve them flicking through my passport for a while before asking me which sticker it was they should be looking at, but like wagyl since 2012 I've found that they know to ask for a residence card and get a bit confused when I show them the seal in my passport instead. All airlines that fly into Japan should recognise the card and have probably been told how to check it's genuine, but not all will check for it as a matter of course.

[CrankyBastard]

I'm probably having another alzheimer moment but the perforated two section card I received when I entered at Narita in March this year is entitled DISEMBARKATION CARD FOR REENTRANT 2./ EMBARKATION CARD FOR REENTRANT 1.
No box to check except the one for being found guilty in a criminal case and the other one for possession of chemicals, swords etc.

[omae mona]

:confused: I'm probably having another alzheimer moment but the perforated two section card I received when I entered at Narita in March this year is entitled DISEMBARKATION CARD FOR REENTRANT 2./ EMBARKATION CARD FOR REENTRANT 1.
No box to check except the one for being found guilty in a criminal case and the other one for possession of chemicals, swords etc.

Wow. That is the really really old version. Doubt they would accept it, since there is no way to indicate your re-entry "style".

[CrankyBastard]

That's what I was given when I entered in March!
I'll scan it and post here later this evening.
I'm off to the dentist now

[CrankyBastard]

photo.JPG

[dimwit]

:confused: I'm probably having another alzheimer moment but the perforated two section card I received when I entered at Narita in March this year is entitled DISEMBARKATION CARD FOR REENTRANT 2./ EMBARKATION CARD FOR REENTRANT 1.
No box to check except the one for being found guilty in a criminal case and the other one for possession of chemicals, swords etc.

Ditto. I got the same card in March.

[Wibble]

:confused: I'm probably having another alzheimer moment but the perforated two section card I received when I entered at Narita in March this year is entitled DISEMBARKATION CARD FOR REENTRANT 2./ EMBARKATION CARD FOR REENTRANT 1.
No box to check except the one for being found guilty in a criminal case and the other one for possession of chemicals, swords etc.

That looks like the old pre-2012 version. I've had them this year but with the tick box added on with a stamp
Like the one on the right here:


Maybe they forgot to stamp or haven't made a 2 tick box stamper yet?

The new new card is pictured in this leaflet http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/re-ed/EDcard_leaf_en.pdf
I've used the old 1 box card since the 2 box thing started and it wasn't questioned.

[matsuki]

Someone obviously mislaid their memo.

OLD FORMS: there was one checkbox, and checking it was optional.
NEW FORMS: there are two checkboxes and you MUST check one. Checking 再入国許可による出国を希望します　(Departure with Re-entry Permission) does exactly the same thing as if you omitted the check on the old card.

I think the reason they did this was to make sure people are explicitly choosing, and not just skipping the checkbox because they didn't understand it (which is what was happening before, I think).

while I read it to interpret to mean one box for PR visa holders and the other for reg visa holders, the bitch (what an attitude!) at immigration made me fill out a new form with the box that seems to be for PR visa holders...no idea how that makes any sense but we'll see if I get sent to the gulag upon return...

That's really not what it is. Special Re-entry Permission is the new bonus we got beginning in 2012 that allows us to leave the country for up to 1 year just by checking this box, without having to go to the damned immigration office and buy an expensive permit. Most of us want to use this checkbox almost every single time.

The non-special one, "Departure with Re-entry Permission", means you're using the old system. You can only use this if you have purchased a re-entry stamp and have it in your passport. Why would anybody in their right minds do this, given the free option above? Only if you think there is a risk of being out of the country longer than 1 year. Remember they emphasize there are no do-overs; if you choose the free option at first but find yourself stuck outside of Japan for over 12 months, your residency status is toast. There is no way to extend it.

This is explained in fine print on the card, but not very well. And it's fine print.

Thanks guys, you have reassured me I have the right box ticked...as to the language...

Immigration thought they were being helpful with this change, but I think they fucked up. The new form is probably way more confusing to most people.

EXACTLY!! Having missed Wagyl's thread covering the (yet another) change, both the English and Japanese instructions were too vague to understand (in principle ) which box to tick. I think my saving grace was remembering to have my Zairyu card out...which is why she caught it. I would have been fucked if I didn't....

[legion]

I just asked the person at the desk if I'd ticked the right box on the way out. When dealing with officialdom don't ask why ask how.

[omae mona]

EXACTLY!! Having missed Wagyl's thread covering the (yet another) change, both the English and Japanese instructions were too vague to understand (in principle ) which box to tick. I think my saving grace was remembering to have my Zairyu card out...which is why she caught it. I would have been fucked if I didn't....

I think most of us - including you - are pretty safe from accidents even if we get the checkbox wrong. If you had checked the regular re-entry, they would have looked for the re-entry permit in your passport and not found it. They wouldn't let you leave on that status without you paying them their precious 4000 yen.

I think the main risk is the opposite case of yours. If you actually *did* purchase the permit and plan to be out of the country over 12 months, and then you checked the "special" a.k.a. minashi re-entry checkbox by accident, then they would probably not bother to search for the stamp in your passport. You'd find yourself having wasted the 4000 yen, and you'd find yourself screwed if you did not return before 12 months passed.

[matsuki]

I just asked the person at the desk if I'd ticked the right box on the way out. When dealing with officialdom don't ask why ask how.

While I agree (in principle) the problem is when an official fucks up and you don't have their name/info. Much better to know what you're dealing with going in.

EXACTLY!! Having missed Wagyl's thread covering the (yet another) change, both the English and Japanese instructions were too vague to understand (in principle ) which box to tick. I think my saving grace was remembering to have my Zairyu card out...which is why she caught it. I would have been fucked if I didn't....

I think most of us - including you - are pretty safe from accidents even if we get the checkbox wrong. If you had checked the regular re-entry, they would have looked for the re-entry permit in your passport and not found it. They wouldn't let you leave on that status without you paying them their precious 4000 yen.

I think the main risk is the opposite case of yours. If you actually *did* purchase the permit and plan to be out of the country over 12 months, and then you checked the "special" a.k.a. minashi re-entry checkbox by accident, then they would probably not bother to search for the stamp in your passport. You'd find yourself having wasted the 4000 yen, and you'd find yourself screwed if you did not return before 12 months passed.

True, at least they bothered to check...though at the end of the day, this new check-box craze, it's pointless busy/paperwork that benefits nobody yet may end up hurting many.

In other news, the jet GPS displayed a flight path other than expected...Ebola vaccine anyone?

nippofrica.JPG

[wagyl]

Probably prudent in any event considering the similarity between bushmeat and airline food.

It looks like the coordinates weren't entered: that looks suspiciously like 0N 0E

[Samurai_Jerk]

Probably prudent in any event considering the similarity between bushmeat and airline food.

I've never had bushmeat but I guarantee it's better than airline food.

[matsuki]

Probably prudent in any event considering the similarity between bushmeat and airline food.

I've never had bushmeat but I guarantee it's better than airline food.

Monkey brains sounds more appetizing than most airline food...