Me and my fiancee are leaving Japan in December after living and working here for 2 years.
We have given our notice in and our status as residents will end at the end of December.
My fiancee’s family had booked a trip to Japan for October but have had to postpone their trip till mid Janaury for financial reasons.
Me and my fiancee don’t want to hang around waiting for them but we obviously want to be here when they arrive, so our plan is to go to Korea when we move out of our apartment and come back to Japan after the new year on tourist visas.
Is this possible?
Our supervisors think it would be fine but I can’t help worrying that our time as residents will hinder our ability to use a tourist visa.
Would love to hear about anyone with similar expreriences!
edit: me and my fiancee are both from the UK if that makes any difference?
8 comments
If you have a unique entry visa you have to get a paper from the Immigration Office to explain at the border that you will get back (usually it is written on your visa) 🙂
If you’re really that worried, why don’t you talk to immigration? How can anyone here hope to reassure you if your supervisors can’t?
I assume with tourist visa you mean visa waiver, yeah? as in, just waltz on up to the immigration counter and get a stamp for 90 days. I just did this exact thing but with a different initial visa. left Japan with a few days left on the visa (but did all the moving out procedures), and then entered a few days later on a visa waiver. absolutely no issues at all, no questions or any kind of hesitation. they did look at my passport and the previous visa page, and then gave me the visa waiver stamp right away. I think for the visa waiver it’s only important that you haven’t used it recently. the only important thing is that you have your way out of the country booked in advance, because the flight company taking me into Japan demanded to see it. but actually the immigration officer within Japan didn’t even ask for it.
Logistically is it possible? Yea, if you’re returning on a tourist visa though (as opposed to a SOR with re-entry permit) you might get some scrutiny from immigration at the border considering they have your entry/exit records and you’d literally be voiding your SOR and registered residency and returning in January, so is quite suspicious, not only for evading resident tax purposes but also might suggest you intend to work as a tourist etc.
But if your true intention in this whole story is to avoid 2022 (edit: 2023 resident tax) resident tax then see here: https://www.city.tomisato.lg.jp/faq/faq_detail.php?frmId=105
If you’re just going to Korea as tourist and return to Japan after then you’ve not exactly established domicile/the base of your life elsewhere. Thus (if investigated) you’d still be deemed a resident of japan as of January 1st 2024, and be liable for resident tax…. Which could make your whole endeavor pointless should the real reason of this is to avoid resident tax.
Why wouldn’t it be? You no longer work there, you come in as a tourist. I left and came back two days later, no biggie. After a much longer gap it’s even less suspicious.
If you leave for Korea then come back a day later every 90 days, that’s when they might start to wonder what you are up to. Even so, I’ve been in and out of both Japan and Korea like that and never had any issues. I’ve even done two tourist visas back to back because I stayed the entire ski season. Just skip across the border for a few days and come back in.
6-8 years ago two of my friends did exactly that (independent from each other).
You finish your job, depart Japan and return your residence card. After a weekend in Korea you return as a tourist and enjoy sightseeing with all the tourist perks (e.g. JR Rail pass).
Of course, after the time is up you have to depart to your home country.
AFAIK these rules have not changed.
Why couldnt you come back as tourists? UK is no longer EU though so Im not sure if you need to obtain tourist visa prior to entering Japan.
Thank you to everyone who has shared their experiences!
I was probably just overthinking things as I saw a comment elsewhere about tourist visas and it planted a seed of doubt in my head but I feel a lot better now.