Job Discussion Forums

Birdog3344 · Joined: 28 Jun 2004 Posts: 126 Location: Osaka, Japan

I was about to book my one way ticket to Japan with STA travel and was told that I may have a problem entering the country without a return flight. Now I've read about immigration denying travelers entry without a visa, but I will be working for ECC and should, correct me if I'm wrong, have my papers in hand before leaving the U.S. Do I have anything to worry about or has the STA agent got his facts wrong?

spidey · Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 6:55 am Post subject:

In my experience, I would have to say that your agent knows what he/she is talking about.
If you have a working visa in hand to show customs, you shouldn't have any problems. A copy of your contract wouldn't be a bad idea either. If you have a one-way ticket with no visa, you will definitely be asking for trouble.
My advice to you is to wait until you get everything in hand before you start forking out cash for an airline ticket.

S

Nismo · Joined: 27 Jul 2004 Posts: 520

Entering the country with a secured one-year visa, you can purchase a one-way ticket. If you do not have any visa secured, you will need to show proof of a return flight. There is a way around this, though. For instance, you can claim you are leaving the country by ferry, as in you are heading to Korea. What it comes down to, though, is that you shouldn't mess with immigration.

One of the requirements for a company to sponser a visa is to guarantee a return flight for employees in the case that a return flight is needed at the end of the contract, so you don't need to buy a return ticket to get into Japan.

eastcoastgrrl · Joined: 04 Jul 2004 Posts: 12

I just came in last wkd without a return ticket got a 90 day tourist stamp. No return ticket, this was on a US passport.
Not sure why I did not have a problem but I didn't.
Told them I would be working here for at least a year but did not have my visa yet. I had actually filled this out on my card the officer just got me to change it to visitor and let me in.

Laura C · Joined: 14 Oct 2003 Posts: 211 Location: Saitama

I had no problem either. Came in on a one-way ticket without a work visa or Certificate of Eligibility. Got a really nice Customs guy and explained to him that I had a job but was waiting for my work visa to be processed. On the disembarkation (sp?) form I filled in on the plane I wrote for Purpose of Visit: Tourism/Waiting for Visa, and for Length of Stay 1 year. The guy tutted nicely, crossed out '1 year' and wrote in '3 months'.

I was quite worried about this before coming, but as long as your visa is in process it should be OK. It's not like you are coming here on a tourist visa and looking for work - you're just waiting for your visa to be processed.

One good piece of advice I got here though, was to query your company about what to do. If they ask you to lie to customs then your red flag goes up.