A re-entry permit is a permission granted by the Minister of Justice to simplify the entry and landing procedures for foreign nationals residing in Japan who have temporarily left the country and wish to re-enter Japan.
It is granted on the premise of entering Japan before leaving the country.
The major advantage of the re-entry permit is that it allows the applicant to re-enter Japan with less hassle and time, since the visa normally required for re-entry applications is waived.
In addition, since the status of residence and period of stay held at the time of departure are considered to have continued at the time of entry, there is no need to obtain a new status of residence.
On the other hand, if you leave Japan without re-entry permission, your status of residence and its period of stay will both cease to exist.
Therefore, if you wish to re-enter Japan, you must obtain a new visa, apply for landing, and go through the landing examination procedure before receiving permission.
You can see that this is a very time-consuming process.
So, basically, it is better for foreigners with status of residence to apply for a re-entry permit when leaving Japan for some reason.
Re-entry permits are broadly classified into the following two types and are determined by either of them.
Valid for one time only
Valid for any number of times within the period of validity.
The maximum period of validity is 5 years (6 years for special permanent residents).
The application is very simple and requires the following four documents.
Documents for the application
Re-entry permit
Passport
Residence card (or alien registration certificate that is deemed to be a residence card)
Re-entry permit for the first round: 3,000 yen, re-entry permit for the second round: 6,000 yen.
It is recommended that you obtain a re-entry permit as much as possible when leaving Japan, as it can be prepared within a day.
What is a Special re-entry permission?
A special re-entry permission is issued to foreign nationals who have Japanese resident status and possess a passport.
It allows re-entry through a simplified procedure when you wish to re-enter Japan within one year from the date of departure.
Simply put, it is a system that allows a foreign national to leave Japan with the intention of re-entering the country and to work under the same status of residence when re-entering.
Since the procedure is simplified, no regular entry permit is required.
This system is very effective in the following cases.
A temporary return to home country
Short-term business trip
Short-term business trip
In these cases, you do not need to bother to apply for a re-entry permit to the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Agency.
If you have a status of residence and a passport, you should actively use this service.
The application is simple. When leaving Japan, all you have to do is tell the immigration inspector at the airport or elsewhere that you wish to leave the country with special re-entry permission, and fill in the information on a special ED card.
On the other hand, there are of course some points to keep in mind.
In particular, you must be aware of the expiration date of your stay in Japan.
For example, a special re-entry permission assumes that you will re-enter Japan within one year.
Therefore, if your status of residence expires within a year, you can only re-enter Japan until the expiration date.
If you re-enter Japan after your status of residence has expired, you will have to apply for a new visa, which takes time and effort.
When using the Special re-entry permission, be sure to check it against the period of your current status of residence.
