Is it worth contacting a Japanese immigration lawyer? - My visa saga continues

The short answer for me was yes. Contacting an immigration lawyer hasn't yet helped me to resolve my visa issue, but it has helped me to clarify things I was unsure about, and has already saved me from potentially wasting more time.

The first point I've clarified is that in my case of applying for permanent residency, since I'm not married to a Japanese citizen or permanent resident, and do not fall into the 'contributions to Japan' category of desirability, I will have to wait to meet the '10 years legally consecutive stay' requirement. If you are married to a resident of Japan, have been for at least 3 years, and hold the maximum number of years on your current visa, then you can apply for PR after just one year of living in Japan.

It's important to note the legally consecutive part of the 10 years requirement for permanent residency, as many resources in English regarding PR list it vaguely as a 10 year 'stay.' You may, like me, have 'stayed' more than 10 years in Japan, but if this was via various visas then your whole stay may not be legally defined as consecutive. Check the landing permission date /上陸許可/ jyourikukyouka (image below) on your alien registration card to know for sure the date from which your current 'stay' is being calculated. I presume that the new resident card which will shortly replace alien registration cards will have something comparable regarding your landing permission date written on it too. (Update, November 2013: I now have a zairyu card to replace my alien card, and there is no "landing date" info. Only the date that you got your zairyu card. Information about your first 'landing' in Japan on your current visa must instead be stored on your file at immigration, rather than on the card now. This is a shame, as seeing the "landing date" on the old alien cards made everything much clearer regarding the length of your current stay).

Your current 'stay' in Japan is calculated from your landing date

In my last post on applying for permanent residency I mentioned the ‘Points-based preferential immigration treatment for highly skilled foreign professionals’ that started in May 2012. I had hoped that the fast-track feature of needing only 4 and a half years before applying for PR might help in my situation if I could make the 70 points required for the special status. The immigration lawyer has helped me understand that this would not be a solution for me because I would need to stay in my current job while running the new business. An additional issue is that my current period of stay would be reset to zero with the change in visa from my current Specialist in Humanities and International Services visa to the new special status visa. Considering that I'll no longer be 34 years old (worth 10 points) and may no longer make the 70 point threshold at the time of extending that visa and reapplying for permanent residency, this would make my application much less certain than if I simply waited 3 years on my current visa.

I'm now finding out what my remaining options are, such as the Business Manager / Investor's visa which I'd written off previously as not applicable for a small business but with professional help perhaps there will be a way to make it work, or finding out if there is a way of extending my current visa through the new business until the time I can apply for PR.

Though I have conceivably been saved from another 10-month wait to find out an application isn't suitable for my situation, the particular lawyer I contacted hasn't actually charged me for any of the advice given to date (though I offered to pay!). This might not be the case with all immigration lawyers, but it doesn't hurt to enquire. For your reference, applications for visa statuses and PR etc. appear to range around the 84,000 - 157,500 JPY mark.

1st attempt at permanent residency in Japan denied

What a blow that was. After waiting 10 months for the verdict on my application for permanent residence in Japan, I received an ominous non-delivery notice from Tokyo Immigration at the weekend (ominous because when you apply for a visa or the eijyuken you fill in a simple postcard that usually just gets mailed to you once your application is successful, telling you to come and get it). Sure enough, when I had the brown envelope redelivered, there were a couple of sheets of photocopied paper inside, saying in Japanese and English that my application had been unsuccessful, and circling the reason. Nice that they let you know it wasn’t successful and that they give you feedback about why.

In my case, the reason for rejection was that I didn’t meet the requirement for living in Japan consecutively for over 10 years. I’ve been living in Japan for over 11 years now, but legally speaking, surrendering my visa at the end of the JET programme when I visited the UK for 2 months before returning to my life and plans in Japan, meant that the counter was set back to zero and so I’m still a couple of years away from 10 legally consecutive years. I had wondered and written about this in my post as I applied for permanent residency, but it's such a disappointment to have this confirmed as the verdict, and to have waited so long to find out. If you want to check for yourself from what date your own period of stay in Japan is calculated from, it's the "landing date" 上陸許可 jyourikukyouka written on your alien registration card (when these cards are shortly all replaced with the new resident card system I presume there will be something comparable written on those too. Update, November 2013: I now have a zairyu card to replace my alien card, and there is no "landing date" info. Only the date that you got your zairyu card. Information about your first 'landing' in Japan on your current visa must instead be stored on your file at immigration, rather than on the card now. This is a shame, as seeing the "landing date" on the old alien cards made everything much clearer regarding the length of your current stay).

The good news for me is that the other items on the reasons for denial sheet (photo below) don’t appear to have been problematic:

• Show good conduct
• Have adequate means to support myself
• Be paying taxes, etc. For full details of requirements see my previous post

My options now seem to be to a) wait another couple of years and re-apply, b) try reapplying myself to see if another staff member or period of policy might shine a more favourable light on my case – anecdotally you do hear of people being accepted earlier than the stated 10-years, c) contact an immigration lawyer to see if there are any other options or whether reapplying with their help would increase my chances at this point (this lawyer lists fees of 126,000 - 157,500 JPY to help with PR, with you only paying half if unsuccessful, another promising laywer who also appears to help with business incorporation is here, no prices listed on the site).

While dashing about on the internet looking for solutions I also found something else potentially relevant, and very new and so I thought I’d share it here:

Since May 2012, Japan has started using a points-based system with the snappy title of ‘Points-based preferential immigration treatment for highly skilled foreign professionals’ (same info here, easier to navigate without all the cartoons). This is a way to make it easier for measurably 'desirable' types of people to live and stay in Japan in view of the declining population, particularly the number of people of tax-paying age. I’ve heard about similar systems being used for immigration into New Zealand and other countries.

There are 3 streams - academic research, advanced specialized professionals, and business management. The details are here (pdf), but it’s along the lines of a bachelor’s degree is 10 points, being under 35 is 10 points, level 1 Japanese proficiency is 10 points, having a promised salary of a certain level is worth a related number of points, with 70 points being the requirement for preferential treatment including only having to have 4 years and 6 months consecutive stay in Japan in order to be considered for permanent residency.

Reading between the lines, the points based system appears similar to the more losely defined ‘contributions to Japan’ element of the existing application process – where people with nobel prizes and ability to make impactful, positive contributions to Japanese economics or society would be granted permanent residency more easily. It’s not easy to reach the 70 points, but it’s possibly more attainable than a Nobel Prize. I’m currently wondering if based on my current professional experience in Japan, I might just be able to make the cut.

I guess that as Japan’s population problem advances over time (see points 2 and 6 on this page of the MOJ's site), the point system will need to be relaxed or additional systems implemented so that more willing tax-paying foreigners can successfully make long-term stable lives here without the need to be superhumans to be accepted.

So I’m currently looking into this new point system, and I’ve also contacted an immigration lawyer to see if their services might be meaningfully employed to help me try again. I’m certainly not giving up!

Applying for a permanent residence visa (永住権) in Japan

My understanding of the guidelines for applying for permanent residence visa status in Japan is that unless you are the child or spouse of a Japanese national then you will need to:

- Fill in forms (naturally) to request the change to your visa status. Note that your current visa needs to be for the maximum number of years allowed for that visa type. Until recently this was 3 years for many visas, but with the new immigration system the upper limit for many visas is now 5 years. I'm unclear as to whether you'll now need the 5 instead of the 3 year version, but you are unlikely to get PR if you only have a 1 year visa. See here for the list of requirements on immigration's official site, though it's a little confusing.

- Write a 'letter' translated into Japanese stating the reason you're applying for permanent residence status. There is also a line on the application form asking for this information, but I guess the letter can go into a little more detail. I doubt it has to be very long, it will just need to seem logical to the person evaluating your application. Examples might be planning a family, or wanting to set up your own business in future.

- Have lived in Japan for over 10 years, or be contributing significantly to Japan. Judging from the website however, short of being a Nobel Laureate, being accepted based on your artistic, diplomatic, economic etc. contribution to Japan looks tough. (If you have been married to a Japanese citizen/PR holder for over 3 years, you can apply after just 1 year of living in Japan provided your current visa has the maximum number of years.)

- Show good conduct (have no criminal record).

- Get a certificate of "registered matters" from your ward office showing your current status of residence. (Ask them for a 外国人登録原票記載事項証明書 / gaikokujin touroku genpyo kisai jiko shoumeisho. This is more or less the same information as on your gaijin card, but will also have a record of any changes made and it'll have the ward office's stamp on it. Official documents from the ward office usually cost a few hundred yen to have printed, and they usually make them for you while you wait.)

- Prove stable employment sufficient to support yourself: Get your company to make you a certificate of employment / 在職証明書 / zaishoku shoumeisho and if you have one also submit an up-to-date employment contract / 雇用契約書 / koyou keiyaku sho, along with proof of 3 years of tax payments. For me, proof of tax payments is in the form of withholding tax slips / 源泉徴収票 / gensen choshu hyo from my company and my tax return forms / 確定申告 / kakutei shinkoku, as well as a proof of income tax payment certificate 所得課税証明書 / shotoku kazei shoumeisho from the ward office (also for 3 years) since my current company doesn't process all of my taxes. In your case your company may be able to supply all the necessary information including detail of your ward tax payments as in the next bullet. The lady on the phone at immigration suggested I also include a recent bank statement to show my bank account details and as proof that I'm set up here well enough to support myself. She added that it wasn't a requirement though. As a general rule of thumb from speaking with immigration lawyers, having over 200,000 yen/month wages consistently appears to be a minimum.

- Be paying residence/ward tax (go to your ward office an ask them for a residence tax proof of payment certificate for the last 3 years / 住民税の課税証明書 / jyuminzei no kazei shoumeisho. This might be a recent addition to the requirements which, along with more active chasing up and freezing the bank accounts of non-payers, appears to be part of a bid to get tougher on ward tax evasion/forgetfulness. In my case, the ward office gave me one document that covered all my income and residence tax payments in one go. This all-in-one document was called a 特別区民税・都民税（個人分）証明書 / tokubetsu kuminzei tominzei kojinbun shoumeisho, and they gave me one sheet for each of the last 3 years, showing no tax was outstanding.)

- Be sponsored by a guarantor who is a Japanese national or a holder of permanent residence status. (Have them sign this guarantor document or this one in Japanese. This clause is interesting (read: possibly meaningless), in that on the MOJ website itself it is stated (in Q.7) that the guarantor is not legally bound to the agreement they sign). The guarantor will need to supply proof of their past 12 months' income, their certificate of employment / 在職証明書 / zaishoku shoumeisho, and either their residence certificate / 住民票 / jyumin hyo if they are Japanese, or if they are a permanent resident, their certificate of registered matters (as above for you) / 外国人登録原票記載事項証明書 / gaikokujin touroku genpyo kisai jiko shoumeisho.)

- 8,000 yen stamp for the application fee, which you can get at the convenience store on the ground floor of the immigration building.

- Finally, if an employer or friend can write a letter of recommendation in Japanese, while not required, it is also helpful.

Given that I have been in Japan for over 10 years now and can meet the other requirements, I feel cautiously optimistic about the chances of receiving the status. The application seems to take anything up to 8 months though (update: it took 10 months and was rejected due to length of current stay), while police checks and so on are carried out. I guess the only thing I'm slightly unsure about is whether, after handing in my gaijin card after the JET programme just over 7 years ago, they will count my stay as 10 or 7 years. That, and whether the 'reason' for applying for permanent residency as requested on the application form, needs to be attractive in a particular way.

As reported in a number of places, getting the permanent residence status appears to have no down-side and has the benefit of freeing up the long-term resident vocationally speaking, prevents accidental overstaying on shorter visas and has the additional advantage of rescuing the foreigner living in Japan from annual or triennial trips to the windswept Immigration Bureau on the bay in Shinagawa.

Currently gathering the paperwork for my application. Wish me luck!

Starting a small business in Japan - visa status (part 1)

My current visa status is a 3-year renewable working visa with the catchy title of 'Specialist in Humanities and International Services' (or 人文知識・国際業務 in Japanese). This is the kind of visa applicable for a wide variety of professional reasons for being in Japan, from teaching English as a foreign language, to working in marketing.

To run a business in Japan you will generally need a 'Investor/Business Manager' visa (投資・経営 visa category in Japanese), although if you have a spouse visa or permanent residency those would do just as well.

Though I have heard of people being awarded investor visa status without meeting all of the requirements set forth by the Immigration Bureau of Japan, I'm operating on the assumption that the requirements do need to be met, including:
- Employing two or more full time Japanese citizens or permanent residents of Japan, or
- Annual investment in the company of at least 5 million yen. (About 39,000 GBP, or 64,000 USD).

The problem with planning to open a little shop is that neither of the above conditions are likely to be met given the small scale of the enterprise, particularly at the startup stage. Feeling that the requirements were a little forbidding, I had a look around to see how Japan compares to other countries in this respect. The UK is alleged to compare favourably with the US and other countries, but despite recent lowering of initial hurdles to non-UK resident entrepreneurs through a creation of a Prospective Entrepreneurs visa category, the requirements that need to be met are still higher than those of the Japanese Investor/Business Manager.

Not discouraged, and also not particularly interested in exploring the complexities and legal issues of the marriage of convenience route, I'm looking into the remaining option - becoming a permanent resident of Japan.