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coming back after almost 2 months? 2017/1/3 04:56
Hello friends. First time poster here on this forum. :)

I will try to be short and synthetic about my situation, which sometimes worries me. Eventually, I will apology for my english since it's not my native language (I am italian, by the way).

I've been in Japan for 21 days for meeting my then j-girlfriend (now became my wife), though my original intended stay was for 1 month. We have decided to get married, but haven't the necessary documents with me, which why I had to came back to my country earlier (at December 6th) to get and send them to her via EMS, delegating her to proceed with our marriage whilst staying in Italy until my next trip to Japan (planned for the end of this month to register my marriage through Italian consulate in Osaka, but wasn't able to do that for the reasons stated above and also, to live together in Japan with applying for the spouse visa).

Now, I would like to ask to experienced people, who travel very often to Japan, if a 2 months period could become an alarm bell for immigration (like visa-runs or similar) and being questioned by them for further informations?

My intended lenght of stay, for what I have to do (since bureaucracy may take a bit of time), is 2 or 3 months and I will stay at my wife's house, so I have the address and contact informations.

Note that I have my intentions clear, so I have nothing to hide and no reasons to lie. Just that, since it may be my first time to be questioned randomly in airport, to have also some advice to cope with immigration officers in order to not be misunderstood by them. :))

I am speaking a sufficent japanese, plus a fairly decent english as you can probably see from this this.

Any constructive and helpful advices are welcome, since I am also an emotive person and tend to be nervous even when I have nothing to hide (it's a trait of my personality: I am introvert and sometimes very shy for no reason).

Thank you in advance for every tips you can give me.
by eien_tabi (guest)  

Re: coming back after almost 2 months? 2017/1/3 10:18
No alarm bells.
by JapanCustomTours rate this post as useful

Re: coming back after almost 2 months? 2017/1/3 20:01
no alarm bells.

Thank you for your reply. :) at least is something!
Ah, forgot to quote my travel history: I've been in Japan 3 times in the last 3 years. Especially, the second time was as a student for one year (January 2015 ~ December 2015). This will be my 4th time. : )

Also, it is because this is the first time that I come back there after a short interval of time between the last visit and the next one, so I asked if, for immigration, would be considered suspicious or not (even when intentions are actually genuine and not aimed to exploit or circumvent customs and immigration system at the point of entry).
by eien_tabi (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: coming back after almost 2 months? 2017/1/3 20:50
It's really not that often. If you were coming back 5 or 6 times in a year, it may start to get them thinking. However, this frequency is too low to raise any questions.
by Dainichi Heater rate this post as useful

Re: coming back after almost 2 months? 2017/1/4 06:33
It's really not that often. If you were coming back 5 or 6 times in a year, it may start to get them thinking. However, this frequency is too low to raise any questions.

Thank you, Dainichi. :)

At least, I am pretty reassured about it, simply because I became a bit worried due to overthinking. Better being prepared and relaxed than caught unprepared and overhelmed by unnecessary anxiety that could lead ourselves in less pleasant situation because of some misunderstanding. In fact, I was particularly concerned about this short "pause" before coming back again (my first and last trip of 2016 was only at november; this one is the first of 2017) and also, about my travel history since my passport pages has nothing else but past japan stamps and (expired) visa :)

Again, thank you for your kind answer.
by eien_tabi (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: coming back after almost 2 months? 2017/1/4 10:43
I did lots of entry/exit into Japan during 2015 and again, no issue (I think it was eight trips and 240 days in the space of a year). On the visa waiver programme it is very simple.
by JapanCustomTours rate this post as useful

Re: coming back after almost 2 months? 2017/1/5 06:16
Well in the last 14 months, I've been 5 times in japan for over 120 days in total.

In November, I entered Japan to visit it for 41 days. The officer that inspects the passport to apply the visa, asked me why am I staying such a long time. I started telling my travel plan and wanted to show him my bookings on booking.com, but he said there is no need and everything was fine.

So I guess unless they have a reason to doubt you, they wont say anything.
by MirceaM rate this post as useful

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