月別アーカイブ: 2016年7月

In this case, is he eligible to apply for permanent status?

He has been staying continuously in Japan for more than 10 years.

3 years have passed since he changed his status from “student” to “specialist in humanities/international services”.

It seems that he can fulfill one of the requirements for getting permanent status which requires that you stay in Japan for more than 10 years consecutively, but in this case, he can’t clear.

As I explained on yesterday’s article（To get permanent resident), during this 10 years, it is also required that he has to have stayed for more than 5 years after changing to working visa or the status of residence.

Thank you.

Solicitor Hitoshi Oishi (司法書士・行政書士 大石人士）

Immigration Bureau of Japan shows us “Guidelines for Permission for Permanent Residence” so that we can understand the requirement of getting it.

If you want to get the status of Permanent Resident, you have to check whether you can clear 3 points as follows.

1.Requirement of residence in Japan

2.Requirement of good conduct and self-supporting subsistence

3.Requirement of national interest

In general, you must clear these points.

As to No.1, you have stayed in Japan for more than 10 years consecutively.

During this 10 years, if you came to Japan as a student and finished your study, and then have been working here, it is also required that you have to have stayed for more than 5 years after changing your status to working visa or the status of residence.

As to No.2, you are of good conduct. That is to say, you observe Japanese laws and your daily living as a resident does not invite any social criticism. In addition to this, you have sufficient assets or ability to make an independent living. That is to say, you do not financially depend on someone in the society, and your assets or ability, etc. are assumed to continue to provide you with a stable base of livelihood into the future.

As to No.3, your permanent residence is regarded to be in accord with the interests of Japan. “Guidelines for Permission for Permanent Residence” explains this concretely.

a) The person has been never sentenced to a fine or imprisonment. The person fulfills public duties such as tax payment.

b) The maximum period of stay allowed for the person with his/her current status of residence under Annexed Table 2 of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act is to be fully utilized.

c) There is no possibility that the person could do harm from the viewpoint of protection of public health.

Thank you.

Solicitor Hitoshi Oishi (司法書士・行政書士 大石人士）

To start your business in Japan, you have to change your status into “Business Manager” if you are already have another status here.

To get this, you have to do this procedure.

1)

・Fund raising

・Preparing your office space, etc.

→In this stage, you have to face with some contract such as renting office space, refurbishment of your shop or store, buying office equipment, etc.

You have to be careful of contracting, otherwise you might get involved in losing a lot of your precious money.

As a solicitor, I can check if your contract is valid or not.

・Registration of your company

→In general, to get“Business Manager”, it is better to take Kabushiki-gaisha form.

・Getting approval of prefectural government about handling used car

2) After preparing above things, you have to apply for getting new status.

3) Start your business.

I’m a solicitor.

Now, in my qualification, I can only handle No.1 procedure.

For now, I can’t handle No.2 procedure, because I’m not an immigration lawyer.

Actually, I’m studying to get qualification of immigration lawyer, and will take the exam that will be held at the end of this month.

If I pass, I would be able to handle visa procedure on behalf of you from around the beginning of September.

I don’t want you to lose your precious time.

If you are in a hurry, I suggest you ask to other immigration lawyer who can also handle No.1 procedure.

They can support setting up your business totally.

I will let you know when I pass the exam for immigration lawyer.

Thank you.

Solicitor Hitoshi Oishi （司法書士・行政書士　大石人士）

If you want to do a business like restaurant that requires a certain amount of money　(from several million yen to several thousand yen) to get your business started, you have to do things below under the uncertain conditions.

・renting a store building

・have interior finish work

・employing chefs etc.

Generally, you make an application to the Immigration Bureau for the status of residence after being ready to open your business. This means that you would take a big risk, if you fail to get the status of residence.

Even if you get the status of residence successfully in your initial attempt, it does not mean that everything goes well.

In many cases, you have to renew your status of residence every 1 to 3 years.

Of course, there are certain criteria on renewal of the residence status, and if you don’t meet these requirements, you will be forced to leave Japan.

Thus, the status of residence is indispensable to foreigners who want to start up a business in Japan.

As I explained up to here, I hope that you already have understood that you should be careful about the residence status.

The difficulty of understanding the residence status stems from the point where all foreigners aren’t under the same situations and conditions.

What I mean is:

If a person A wants to start a business in Japan, A has to get the status of residence called “Investor/Business Manager” but if a person B wants to do the same thing, B can start a business without any application to the Immigration Bureau like Japanese people.

If there is a person who has to change the status of residence wants to start a business, it doesn’t always mean that he or she has to get “Investor/Business Manager” status.

In some cases, you can get your business started easier and quicker by changing your status of residence into another one than getting “Investor/Business Manager” status.

In general, we have a tendency to think that starting up a business in Japan equals to getting “Investor/Business Manager” status.

But, before taking the action, you have to understand your situations totally and clearly, and you also have to know whether you are really required to get “Investor/Business Manager” status.

Therefore, you have to understand the outline for Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, and also it is essential to understand status of residence system of Japan.

So, if you need some help to understand these things, I suggest you go to the Immigration Bureau or specialists like immigration lawyer(行政書士, Gyosei-shoshi）for some advice.

If you contact me about this issue, of course, I will help you as much as I can.

Thank you.

Solicitor Hitoshi Oishi (司法書士・行政書士　大石人士）

In naturalization procedure, you have to collect a lot of documents.

In one of them, there is a document called Driving Record Certificate.

This certificate shows the record of traffic accident and violation of traffic regulations in the past.

Why do you have to submit this?

Let’s check the article 5(1)(ⅲ) of Nationality Act which stipulates the condition

of naturalization.

To confirm whether you meet the condition of “Being a person of good conduct” or not, they use this certificate as information for making a decision. That’s why you have to turn it in.

How to get this certificate?

1.Get application form.

You can get it at police station, police box, or Japan Safe Driving Center.

2.Fill in the application form.

3-1. Pay the fee (630yen) and apply at the post office nearby.

3-2. Apply directly at Japan Safe Driving Center.

4.You can get it in two weeks when applying at the post office. They will send it to you by mail.

When applying directly at Japan Safe Driving Center, they will send it to you in a week or so.

Thank you.

Solicitor Hitoshi Oishi (司法書士・行政書士　大石人士）

I get a lot of inquiries on naturalization from readers, so today, I will explain the outline of the procedure of it.

Procedure of Naturalization

1.Consultation with officers in charge at Legal Affairs Bureau

2.Making application documents / Collecting accompanying documents

3.Submitting the application to Legal Affairs Bureau

4.Checking and Receiving the documents

5.Screening

6.Sending the documents to Ministry of Justice / Screening

7.Making a decision by the Minister of Justice

8-1.Approval / Publication in the Official Gazette / Notification to the applicant by Legal Affairs Bureau

8-2.Disapproval / Notification to the applicant by Legal Affairs Bureau

Usually, it takes 8 months or more to get the result from section 4.

Solicitor Hitoshi Oishi (司法書士・行政書士 大石人士)

The other day, I got the inquiry as follows;

I’m a Filipino and a permanent resident here in Japan. When I marry a foreign woman, can I give her a visa here?

I will explain it.

A foreigner who get engaged to marry a Japanese residing in Japan or a foreigner living here and then who is going to marry them after entering Japan does not get automatically the status of Spouse or Child of Japanese National, Dependent, and Spouse or Child of Permanent Resident, because at the time of coming to Japan, they are not spouses of the Japanese or the foreigner.

When you want to come to Japan as someone’s fiancé/fiancée, it is important for you to get the short term stay visa (90 days) .

In this procedure, you should state clearly that you will visit your fiancé/fiancée in Japan to marry him/her at the Japanese Embassy or Consulate of overseas.

There is often the case where you come to Japan without the visa when you are the people of the country that has a treaty on exempting visa requirements between Japan.

However, this would run counter to the spirit of the treaty or agreement.

The original purpose is only applicable to short stay visitor.

After marrying, there is a possibility that they would turn down your request to change to the status of Spouse or Child of Japanese National, or Dependent.

So, it is desirable that you should get the visa for that purpose, even though you are exempted from getting the short term visa.

When you take this procedure and come to Japan, you will get the status of short term.

After coming here and marrying in accordance with law, and then making an application for changing the status of residence, you can get the permission of it.

After marrying with Japanese, you can get the status of Spouse or Child of Japanese National.

After marrying with foreigner residing in Japan, you can get Spouse or Child of Permanent Resident, or Dependent depending on the foreigner.

Solicitor Hitoshi Oishi

Free consultation is available from here.