For foreign nationals who want to live permanently in Japan.
Administrative scrivener corporation Partner offers advice for permanent resident permission and permanent resident application.
It is important to prepare well before applying for permanent resident permission, so ask experts for advice early in order to successfully get the permission.
Our office offer useful daily advices for people who are thinking about obtaining permanent resident permission in the future.
This is a permission given by Minister of Justice to foreign nationals, who already have had working visa or status visa, want to change their status of residence to permanent resident, if they meet certain conditions.
Foreign nationals who got the permanent resident visa do not have limitation on activities and period of stay. Compared to other status of residence, they have a great reduction in limitation of activities.
However, applicants must stay more than 10 years in Japan. Not everyone can apply this visa.
In addition, spouse of a Japanese resident visa holders or long-term resident visa holders are eased part of the requirements for application.
For foreign nationals who want to stay in Japan for the rest of life, there are two options, “permanent resident” and “naturalization”.
What are the differences in requirements between permanent resident and naturalization?
Naturalization
Living in Japan continuously more than 5 years.
（Mitigation requirements）
Spouse of a Japanese national
Having more than 3 years marriage life, or living in Japan continuously for a year.と
Foreign nationals who changed their status of resident from studying overseas to working
It is necessary to have the working visa more than 3 years.
Permanent resident
There must be a certain amount of income that can live a stable life in the future in terms of property and skills.
A certain amount of income depends on the number of family to support.
This is considered on the basis of household, but not the applicant him/herself.
It is necessary to submit documents showing the recent 5 years’ income such as tax certificate or tax payment certificate.
Naturalization
There must be an ability to make a living in terms of property and skills that the applicant or the spouse or other relatives have.
It is not asked to have a certain amount of income as the requirement of permanent resident is asked. It is fine in principal, if there is enough income and property for a family to live.
Permanent resident
Applicants have not received any sentence to pay a fine or pensiveness.
Applicants must fulfill formal obligations such as tax obligation.
Non-payment of taxes should not be happened. Pension and social health insurance are also judgment points.
Tax certificate and pension payment are checked back 5 years.
Naturalization
Applicants must not have received any sentence to pay a fine or pensiveness. If applicants received a fine or pensiveness in the past, it must be happened more than 10 years ago.
Applicants must not have committed any serious traffic offenses in the past 5 years.
Applicants must fulfill formal obligations such as tax obligation.
Resent year’s Tax certificate and pension payment are necessary for application.
If applicants have relatives, who is a corporate owner, living together, then it is necessary to submit documents about tax payment and social insurance of the corporate.
Permanent resident
Japanese language skill is not the target of judgment.
Naturalization
Applicants need to have 3rd or 4th grade of elementary school level Japanese language skill.
There are some cases that Japanese language test is implemented before the naturalization application.
Japanese government does not allow having dual citizenship.
When applicants want to acquire Japanese citizenship, they have to renounce their present nationality.
Also there are some countries such as China, once a person renounced the nationality at his or her own will, it is not allow the requisition of the former nationality in principle.
In addition, about the permanent resident, if the person receives punishment for crimes in Japan after the allowance, then the allowance might get revoked.
Since permanent residents are not Japanese, there are possibilities of not having same government protection as Japanese because foreign nationals do not apply to a government policy that is made for Japanese citizens.
Permanent resident
Living in Japan continuously for 10 years.
（Mitigation requirements）
Spouse of a Japanese national, spouse of a permanent resident
Having more than 3 years marriage life, or lining in Japan continuously for a year.と
Long-term resident
Living in Japan continuously for more than 5 years.
Highly skilled professional #1
Living in Japan continuously for more than 3 years.
Highly skilled professional #2
Living in Japan continuously for more than one year.
Applicants need to live in Japan more than 10 years in principle.
Besides, applicants have to work in Japan for at least 5 years with the working or other stats of residences to live in Japan, in the 10 years that mentioned above.
【Mitigation requirements】
Spouse of a Japanese national： Having more than 3 years marriage life, and living in Japan continuously for one year.
Long-term resident: Living in Japan continuously for more than 5 years.
Highly skilled professional: Living in Japan continuously for more than 1 year at the earliest, depending on the types of the highly skilled professional visa.
Applicants have not received any sentence to pay a fine or pensiveness.
Applicants must fulfill formal obligations such as tax obligation.
Especially, the possibility of permission might be lower if applicants have had serious traffic offenses or have been repeatedly caught for speeding.
Also, applicants have to be aware that unpaid pension or repeated moratorium would be the point of lower the possibility of allowance.
There must be a certain amount of income that can live a stable life in the future in terms of property and skills.
Income is considered on the basis of household but not the applicant him/herself for the case of permanent resident application. Therefore, there is no problem with income requirement if the spouse of the applicant has enough income.
When applicants support their aged parents, required amount of income is higher than normal cases because it is necessary to include the income of supported family in the number.
Approximate sum of the income is different depending on total number of family dependents. Please contact us for detail.
“3 years” is considered as the longest period of stay for the time being.
According to the Ministry of Justice, “standard period of time for processing” is “4 months”(2019). But it takes about 8 months in average for most applicants, and the longest is 1 year.
There are some customers came to consultation because they could not get permitted when they applied permanent resident by themselves.
There must be reasons of not getting permitted.
The most important thing to do, when you were not permitted, is to know the reasons why you could not get the permission.
A lot of cases are permitted when applicants reapply the permanent resident, knowing the reasons and prepare appropriate documents.
Applicants’ Past 5 years’ national pension payment record are judged. Most cases that are not permitted are that there were a situation of unpaid in the past 5 years.
Also, if applicants received exemption or partial exemption of national pension in the past 5 years, it would be judged as not living the stable life.
For permanent resident application, it is required to live a stable life continuously. When applicants have dependent family members, income has to be large enough to support the numbers of dependent family members.
If applicants who take aged parents, who live in home country, into the count, then it is necessary to explain the fact of money transfer clearly, as well as explain that they have enough income to support the parents.
Not paying tax means that a person cannot live a financially stable life. In the case of applicants have had a non-taxable year in the past 5 years, it is difficult to be permitted.
If there are contradiction information between documents and certificate, it is judged that the documents are lack of reliability and cannot get permitted.
For example, the contents of renewal of status of residence and documents of bringing over family to Japan are different from contents of certificates and statement of reasons.
Some of the cases are judged as bad behavior, and does not get permitted.
Once a foreign national acquired permanent residence, it is possible to live in Japan without date in principle.
However, since permanent residence is only the status of residence that allows foreign nationals live in Japan, there are some situations that permanent residence would be cancelled.
There is a system called re-entry permit system (the Special re-entry system) for permanent residents. Permanent residents are able to leave Japan and return within 1 year (2 years for special permanent residents) without needing to apply for an re-entry permission.
However, permanent residence would be cancelled if the person did not come back to Japan within the specified period.
If a permanent resident plans to leave Japan for more than 1 year, it is necessary to proceed re-entry permit in order to keep the permanent residence for 5 years after one’s departure.
When a permanent resident is sentenced to imprisonment, he or she might be evicted from Japan and the permanent residence would be cancelled.
Company owners have to pay attention particularly.
When illegality is identified in the status of resident renewal application for foreign national employees, a company owner is judged that the company is not properly managed, and that permanent resident status would be cancelled.
Permanent residents have indefinite period of stay, and do not need to renew the period of stay.
However, there is an expiration date on the residence card. Therefore, it is required to renew the residence card before the date of expiry.
