I’m such a knucklehead.
My daughter and I are flying to the US on Tuesday to visit family. Today’s Friday night, and after doing some packing and digging up the documents, cards, cash, etc. that we’re going to need, I went online to check our reservations. The AA website asked me to enter some additional traveler info, so I did. At that point, I noticed that my passport had expired about five months ago.
I called our nearest consulate in Fukuoka, and since we’re flying out of Tokyo, was advised to call the US embassy in Tokyo at 8am Tuesday morning (closed Monday due to Labor Day) and plead for an emergency passport.
The problem is our flight departs at 11:55am from Haneda. The woman on the phone said the embassy isn’t far from Haneda, so that’s nice, but my connecting flight arrives at Haneda at 9:15 am, and I think that’s cutting it too close.
My next step was to contact American Airlines. It was a waste of 90 minutes. They told me that our flight was overbooked, but that I would still need to pay at least $2000 per ticket (more than twice what we paid) to change our flights.
EDIT: So my plan is to arrive in Tokyo Monday night, show up at the embassy at 8am, and hope for the best. In order to do that, I’m going to have to pay at least another 20,000 to cancel and re-book the connecting flight from western Japan, but it’ll be worth it if I can make our flight out of Haneda.
Does anyone have recent experience with getting an emergency passport at the US embassy in Tokyo? How long did it take to get it, and do you think I can make it back to Haneda by 11am-ish?
Thanks for your help.
9 comments
I’ve done an emergency passport at the UK embassy. I needed to travel to Taiwan and didn’t realise that under 3 months left on a passport for international travel outside of my home country was a no go (this was years and years ago don’t come at me). I desperately needed to travel that day so went to the embassy and did the emergency passport route. They saw me right away and sent me to get passport pictures taken and processed me within the hour. I can’t say for certain you’ll make that flight due to travel and waiting times on the trains and embassy. I ended up rebooking for later on in the day but still could travel on the same day at least. Good luck.
I feel for you OP. I hope youre not being too hard on yourself. I think with some hustling you can still make it work. Allow me to offer my 2 yens worth, if nothing more than to fortify your current plan. By all means disregard if it is not useful (Im not American so do not know how things work from that perspective).
Going to the Embassy early Tues morning is a good idea. It is best to work on the assumption that the embassy will in fact sort you out with a temporary passport in the morning on Tue. I am less confident in you making it back to HND in time to catch your scheduled flight though (given security clearance etc required). To be safe, it might be best to bite the bullet (the 20k yen x 2 bullet not the $2000 x 2 bullet) and reschedule the flight to later in the day or even the following day if possible. Travel as light as possible. Maybe even just carry on baggage and buy new stuff when you get home to the US (your daughter might like this?).
Really hope it works out for you and your daughter. We all do dumb things once in a while. In 10 years time it will be something you laugh about. How do I know? I was off to play in an international sporting event over 20 years ago. Flying out of NRT. I left the “important bag” in the taxi on the way to Ueno station containing passports, cash, plane tickets etc. As I didnt get a receipt from the taxi the police couldnt help me. I missed the tournament. Gutted!! (I ALWAYS get a receipt from taxis ever since that day).
Hang in there!!!
No experience with the embassy (not being American), but if I were in the position of needing to get from the US embassy to Haneda as quickly as possible, I’d get a taxi from the embassy. Google Maps says it would take 22 minutes right now (no idea what the traffic would be like during a weekday morning). Alternatively you could get a taxi to Hamamatsucho Station (maybe 10 minutes) and the monorail direct to Haneda (about 20 minutes).
However first you have to find a taxi reasonably quickly; the ANA Intercontinental Hotel is just around the block and it’s the kind of place which attracts them, so might be worth trying to get one from there. Other methods may be available, but I don’t use taxis much.
Happy to be corrected by anyone with more direct experience. Best of luck anyway.
Unrelated to the passport issue, was your original FUK-HND flight (which you plan to miss) booked on the same itinerary as the AA HND-LAX flight? Or was just that flight changed to Monday?
Update us here if you could after you complete everything on Tuesday. It is definitely useful information.
Last year on my way to getting my spouse visa extended, I noticed my passport had expired like a year before. Not travelling abroad during the pandemic made me completely forget about my passport status. I think I checked some posts in this sub about whether or not my visa application would be accepted with an expired passport. Half said yes and half said no lol Come to find out, it didn’t matter. I was so relieved!
Try to make an appointment on the embassy website! The US embassy is locked down like crazy and I tried to go recently for a non-emergency issue and the ojiichan running the security line scolded at me for not having an appointment and wouldn’t let me talk to anyone. Crossing my fingers that they can help you out!
Do not go to the embassy at 8 AM. Get there much earlier because there will always be people waiting in line before 8 AM.
If you’ve never been to the US Embassy in Tokyo, make sure to look at their website to see the rules about what you can and can’t bring in. They are very strict and will turn you away if you have any prohibited items which include things like iPads, laptops, cameras, smart watches, cigarettes etc. etc.
Obviously you’re going to have to go to the airport right after, so I am concerned you will have these things. Make sure to store everything necessary at a locker at the subway station. If you are taking a taxi, you’ll have to think about where to store everything. Another possibility will be that you leave your daughter with all of your stuff at a café and you go alone. Plan your route. Again, this will necessitate you arriving much earlier than 8 o’clock.
Here is the list of prohibited items and what few things you can actually bring in. They are not kidding around. They confiscated my Frisk mints lol.
https://jp.usembassy.gov/services/security-notice-prohibited-items/
I thought as a US citizen you should be able to get into the US on an expired passport and your issue would be returning to Japan?!
I was in a similar boat earlier this year, albeit discovered the issue a month before the flight, and panicked since the website said 6-8 weeks for the passport renewal.
I booked an emergency passport appointment and filled out the forms (don’t forget to do this!) And at the embassy they actually told me they may be able to issue me a full (non-emergency) passport in that time frame, which they did! Took around 2 weeks if I recall correctly.
In any case, with your timeframes getting even an emergency passport may be problematic.
Good luck.
Don’t the airlines check the passport’s validity when you book the flight?