Fingerprinting and pre-registration

As questions and discussion are clearly not allowed in the ''Experienced the new Immigration System?'', I would like to repeat my deleted question in a new thread here...

Andrew wrote:

Meanwhile, I entered Japan via Narita twice under the new Immigration System. As a Re Entry Holder, I could make use of the two orange special lanes for foreign residents. Zero waiting time. Processing by the inspector, finger printing and taking photo all together less than a minute. No questions asked.
Even faster compared to the previous situation, when I was entitled to use the ''natives'' lanes.

So you are saying that there are special ''fast lanes'' at Narita for non-Japanese residents with a re-entry permit? If so, this is great news, but it appears to negate the advantages of pre-registering before leaving, especially if that means wasting half a day at the Shinagawa Immigration Office.

I would also be interested to know if anyone has pre-registered at Narita on the way out. Is it possible? How long does it take?

So you are saying that there are special ''fast lanes'' at Narita for non-Japanese residents with a re-entry permit? If so, this is great news, but it appears to negate the advantages of pre-registering before leaving, especially if that means wasting half a day at the Shinagawa Immigration Office.

I would also be interested to know if anyone has pre-registered at Narita on the way out. Is it possible? How long does it take?

I just took a short trip to the US from 12/3-12/11 and I went through the whole immigration process.

I preregistered at Narita. It is only available at the immigration counters in the south wing of terminal 1. If you don't go through this wing then you can't preregister. It took about 20 minutes and there was no one in line as it was a Monday. Dec 21-23 are going to be a nightmare for preregistration and I would give yourself at least an extra hour if you plan on doing this.

Coming back into Japan I went through immigration at the North wing of terminal 1. They do not have automatic gates rather there is a special re-entry permit holder's line with orange signs between the foreigner and Japanese sections. I was the only one in line and it took about 30 seconds. The automatic gates are located only in the south wing of terminal 1, and I suspect that there is no re-entry permit holder's line there. I don't know anything about terminal 2 but I assume it follows the procedure as the north wing of terminal 1.

I would suggest checking to see which terminal your flight arrives at, and which wing if you arrive at terminal 1, before you decide to preregister. If you arrive at terminal 2 or terminal 1 north wing then it would be a waste of time to preregister. You would essentially be giving immigration more information than is necessary to enter the country, and wait an extra hour for the privilege to do so. The funny thing is that the whole fingerprint system seems to significantly speed up the process for reentry permit holders, although I can't say if this is true at the automatic gates.

yllwsmrf,

Thanks for the detailed reply. It's strange how the arrangements differ depending on the terminal, but it is reassuring to know that the procedure is so quick and painless.