Travel Crisis
 

I think I'm out of luck, but I thought I'd see if anyone can come up with a way to solve my problem.

My family left for Japan today and I am to fly out tomorrow (Sunday). When they left, we realized that I have my official passport, not my tourist passport. We are in the process of moving and were currently vacationing at my Mom's. There is no way for me to get my tourist passport since it is either packed with our household items or in storage far away from my Mom's. Unfortunatley, my ticket can only be cancelled (for a fee) and not rescheduled.

Pretty hopeless situation I think.

I have to admit I don't understand the difference between your "official" passport and your "tourist" passport. Is there some reason you can't use your official passport to travel to Japan?

I'd say to call the passport office - they must have an emergency number.

Ditto. What are you refering to? BTW does Japan require a passport or other froms of citizenship proof such as a voters card or orig. birth certificate?

You could be talking about a visa and not passport. My understanging is that when you arrive in Japan, you will be able to get your passport stamped as long as your not staying for a long period of time (I think more than 30 days).

If you're staying less than 90 days, you don't need a visa for Japan. As for traveling with your official passport, you can't use that for purely tourist travel-you have to be on official Govt. travel orders.

Thanks Airlawgirl,

I am traveling for leisure, so my official passport is useless I guess. What a mess I'm in. It hurts to miss a trip to Japan plus pay the financial price of a stupid oversight. Best of luck to all. Thanks again

Out of curriosity, how can you tell if you have an official passport or a tourist passport?

Thanks,
Amit :)

They're different colors, and marked differently. Passport Trouble- I feel quite badly for you- if it were not the week-end, you might have been able to call the toll number for the Bureau of Consular Affairs and they may have been able to do something for you, given that you had an official passport in your hands. You might want to call them tomorrow anyway and find out what, if anything, they could do at this point. Check out the State Dept. website-www.state.gov- and it will direct you to the Bureau of Consular Affairs website.