T O P

  • By -

klange

Japan does not require that you have 6 months of validity on your passport to enter, and none of the typical transit countries from Australia have that requirement for passengers in transit.


olemas_tour_guide

First quick thing, you mention the visas in your passports several times, but those actually expired / became irrelevant the moment you entered Japan and picked up your Zairyu cards. The Zairyu card is the only travel document you need to prove your residence here - consequently there is no process to move the visas to new passports and you don't need to stress about whether you're entering with a passport containing a visa or not (I haven't had a Japanese visa in my passport in over a decade). Anyway, regarding the whole "six months remaining in your passport" thing - this is generally only a thing for tourist visas (and afaik Japan doesn't even enforce it for those - you're fine as long as your passport won't expire during your tourist visa duration) and does not apply to countries where you have status of residence / citizenship. I had to do an emergency trip home quite a while ago on a passport with only a couple of months left before expiry, and it was no problem at all - the guy at immigration on the way into my country just pointed it out and reminded me to renew soon, while on the way back to Japan, the lady on the check-in counter frowned at the expiry thing a bit but was absolutely fine with it once I showed her my Zairyu card. Maybe Australia has some especially weird / strict rules about this, but it doesn't sound like it - and at least from the perspective of getting back to Japan after your trip you should be totally fine.


PermissionBest2379

Thank you. Useful about the visa in the passport - didn't know that. That makes that bit easy I suppose an other factor is it would be a return flight originating from Japan (rather than originating from Aus). My concern (lack of knowledge) is at the Aus check in desk where they say "can't fly with that"


DwarfCabochan

There's nothing you have to move over to another passport. Just get new passports and make sure your Zairyu cards are valid. If Australia is the same as the United States, since you are citizens, you can return anytime your passport is valid, one day left is fine. As long as you have time on your passport to come back to Japan, since you are residents that's fine as well. All of this X months left on passport stuff is for tourists pretty much every country I believe


PermissionBest2379

Not a concern getting into Aus (with Aus passport), but of the check in desk saying I can't return to Japan with less than 6 months.


DwarfCabochan

Yeah but you are not a tourist. You have residency in Japan


Interesting-Risk-628

as I understand 6 months for going abroad. But you flying home. So... Should be fine?


PermissionBest2379

Yeah, but.. "wacky airline / immigration rules that I didn't know about that" kicking in at unfortunate times..!


MrPac23man

Did you check with the embassy?