"Japanese immigration screws the pooch, I pay the price"

[TennoChinko]

What's really the case here?
Another CJ? Or, did this guy really get screwed?

[Samurai_Jerk]

I think this comment probably sums up what happened:

tourist visa is not a real visa, it seems like what happened is that the people he talked to on the phone told him to wait because he told them he had a visa and probably didn't mention that it was tourist, if he had to wait for so long he should have done his research properly

It's hard to say whether or not he got screwed or was trying to pull a fast one with only his side of the story. However, it sounds like he was here on a visa waiver and trying to get a work visa. I know you can stay while waiting for an application to clear beyond your period of stay if you're a legal resident of Japan. However, I don't think that applies if you're in Japan on visa waiver.

I wonder why it took so long and why he was eventually rejected.

[Yokohammer]

I'm going to guess that some vital information is missing from this story. Too many holes.
And his apparent belief that speaking Japanese is reason to be granted a visa reveals a tendency to wishful/unrealistic thinking.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I'm going to guess that some vital information is missing from this story. Too many holes.
And his apparent belief that speaking Japanese is reason to be granted a visa reveals a tendency to wishful/unrealistic thinking.

Also, how dare they treat him like an African or Middle Easterner?

[Yokohammer]

Also, how dare they treat him like an African or Middle Easterner?

Yeah, that kind of got to me too.
I mean, really, being lumped together with restaurant workers? The indignity!

[Samurai_Jerk]

Also, how dare they treat him like an African or Middle Easterner?

Yeah, that kind of got to me too.
I mean, really, being lumped together with restaurant workers? The indignity!

I guess white privilege only goes so far in Japan.

[matsuki]

Also, how dare they treat him like an African or Middle Easterner?

Yeah, that kind of got to me too.
I mean, really, being lumped together with restaurant workers? The indignity!

I guess white privilege only goes so far in Japan.

I was going to say...sentiment reeks of "but but I'm special" mentality

Passport and citizenship for a foreigner in Japan is VERY rare. It's a country with almost no immigration.

I remember when I was in uni and the international relations professor tried to argue that Japan and Germany only allowed foreigners to become citizens if they had Japanese or German blood....now maybe at sometime that was the case but it sure wasn't when I was in uni. Her "but that's what it says in the book!" reply went over pretty terrible in class but I still liked her since she cracked up when I gave my opinion of the clueless idiots on her "protest globalization" video. There were even a few J-lemurs in that with the same "I'm here to save my country! Let's stop globalization and protect our cultures and the future of the planet!!"

[Wage Slave]

I'm going to guess that some vital information is missing from this story. Too many holes.
And his apparent belief that speaking Japanese is reason to be granted a visa reveals a tendency to wishful/unrealistic thinking.

Yes. In particular, he doesn't say what business he was running, for whom or what the Japanese people he employed were doing. It sounds like he ran afoul of the "your presence is not thought to be conducive to the public good" sort of thing when someone checked why his visa was refused. From there ........off you go.

It could quite well be very unfair, but something he was involved with wasn't acceptable.

[wagyl]

I don't think this needs to become a character assassination, but this guy might not be the best poster guy. I too have the feeling that any application for a work visa did not satisfy vague "we can't find a Japanese person who could do this job" criteria http://paulsalo.com/2014/05/31/sell-bor ... rk-abroad/ http://socialmediacamp.ca/archive-speakers/paul-salo/ I start to wonder if his middle name begins with a Q.

[Russell]

I always thought it was impossible to apply for a working visa while being in Japan on a tourist visa.

Am I wrong?

[Samurai_Jerk]

I always thought it was impossible to apply for a working visa while being in Japan on a tourist visa.

Am I wrong?

You could apply while you were in Japan but had to leave for another country to get it which is why a lot of people used to do a Korea run. However, they changed that more than a decade ago.

[wagyl]

I always thought it was impossible to apply for a working visa while being in Japan on a tourist visa.

Am I wrong?

You could apply while you were in Japan but had to leave for another country to get it which is why a lot of people used to do a Korea run. However, they changed that more than a decade ago.

Please be specific: changed which bit? What is the current situation? That you can not apply while within Japan? Or that you no longer need to leave the country to get it?

[kurogane]

Yes. You are right on both accounts from what I heard last month.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I always thought it was impossible to apply for a working visa while being in Japan on a tourist visa.

Am I wrong?

You could apply while you were in Japan but had to leave for another country to get it which is why a lot of people used to do a Korea run. However, they changed that more than a decade ago.

Please be specific: changed which bit? What is the current situation? That you can not apply while within Japan? Or that you no longer need to leave the country to get it?

Sorry. You no longer need to leave the country.

[yanpa]

I always thought it was impossible to apply for a working visa while being in Japan on a tourist visa.

Am I wrong?

You could apply while you were in Japan but had to leave for another country to get it which is why a lot of people used to do a Korea run. However, they changed that more than a decade ago.

Please be specific: changed which bit? What is the current situation? That you can not apply while within Japan? Or that you no longer need to leave the country to get it?

Sorry. You no longer need to leave the country.

Confirmed. I changed from a "tourist" to a proper working visa in 2008, application placed in Japan, no requirement to re-enter. I can't recall if the application was associated with special leave to remain until it was processed.

[wagyl]

Confirmed. I changed from a "tourist" to a proper working visa in 2008, application placed in Japan, no requirement to re-enter. I can't recall if the application was associated with special leave to remain until it was processed.

And see what happens? Six years later they are buying up our land, impregnating our women! We have to guard the front gate to the country carefully!

[Russell]

And see what happens? Six years later they are buying up our land, impregnating our women!

And they even do that in Japanese cars...

[wagyl]

Well, who wouldn't be overcome by the romance of the Shikoku coastline?

Yanpa probably had to do it on the back of a pushbike, though.

[kurogane]

Sorry. You no longer need to leave the country.

Yes, this is also correct. But you are also not allowed to apply while on a tourist visa waiver thingy. But you no longer need to leave the country to obtain the visa you are not allowed to apply for whilst in it. I kid you not; that was from a labour lawyer (but not a foreign worker/immigration specialist, to be fair).

I can't find it on YT, but it all reminded me of the Incubator episode from MASH.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Sorry. You no longer need to leave the country.

Yes, this is also correct. But you are also not allowed to apply while on a tourist visa waiver thingy. But you no longer need to leave the country to obtain the visa you are not allowed to apply for whilst in it. I kid you not; that was from a labour lawyer (but not a foreign worker/immigration specialist, to be fair).

I can't find it on YT, but it all reminded me of the Incubator episode from MASH.

Sticking with the military theme Japan really can make you feel like Yossarian sometimes.

[yanpa]

Sorry. You no longer need to leave the country.

Yes, this is also correct. But you are also not allowed to apply while on a tourist visa waiver thingy. But you no longer need to leave the country to obtain the visa you are not allowed to apply for whilst in it. I kid you not; that was from a labour lawyer (but not a foreign worker/immigration specialist, to be fair).

News to me, unless things have changed since 2008.

[Mike Oxlong]

What's really the case here?
Another CJ? Or, did this guy really get screwed?

I'm sure being a QT Pie helps occasionally in his fumbling dating life, but where the rubber meets the road...

Go home and tell mum n' da yer a failure.

[matsuki]

I always thought it was impossible to apply for a working visa while being in Japan on a tourist visa.

Am I wrong?

You could apply while you were in Japan but had to leave for another country to get it which is why a lot of people used to do a Korea run. However, they changed that more than a decade ago.

Please be specific: changed which bit? What is the current situation? That you can not apply while within Japan? Or that you no longer need to leave the country to get it?

Sorry. You no longer need to leave the country.

Confirmed. I changed from a "tourist" to a proper working visa in 2008, application placed in Japan, no requirement to re-enter. I can't recall if the application was associated with special leave to remain until it was processed.

I did the same in 2008 but had to do a Korea run to get a new tourist visa as my 90 days was almost up, while waiting for the work visa to be processed. (..or while the company attorney dragged his feet?)

[yanpa]

I always thought it was impossible to apply for a working visa while being in Japan on a tourist visa.

Am I wrong?

You could apply while you were in Japan but had to leave for another country to get it which is why a lot of people used to do a Korea run. However, they changed that more than a decade ago.

Please be specific: changed which bit? What is the current situation? That you can not apply while within Japan? Or that you no longer need to leave the country to get it?

Sorry. You no longer need to leave the country.

Confirmed. I changed from a "tourist" to a proper working visa in 2008, application placed in Japan, no requirement to re-enter. I can't recall if the application was associated with special leave to remain until it was processed.

I did the same in 2008 but had to do a Korea run to get a new tourist visa as my 90 days was almost up, while waiting for the work visa to be processed. (..or while the company attorney dragged his feet?)

As a UK citizen I could have extended another 90 days

[matsuki]

...or been captured, chopped up, and served with some wasabi on cold white rice

[kurogane]

　　
Sticking with the military theme Japan really can make you feel like Yossarian sometimes.

Yes, I think that is the better theme or trope, but sometimes it can get a bit overplayed. And besides, The Incubator episode is some of the best television ever.

HAWKEYE: But you have 2 incubators!
SUPPLY SERGEANT: Yes, but if I give you one I'll only have one left.............

Anyways, that immigration advice I received about the tourist visa waiver left me so shocked and awed I could only laugh. And it was all very sincere, I am sure.

You cannot apply for work while on a tourist visa, but if you do you don't need to leave the country to change status.

There is actually something very sophisticated and mature in that ability to believe that up is also down, but I am too logocentric to figure out what it is.

[yanpa]

Hmm, presumably the "tourist visa" is not meant for people coming to Japan to explicitly look for work, but if you just happen to be offered a job the process seemed pretty flexible. I need to dig out my old passport, but I'm pretty sure I did get a temporary leave of stay while my application was being processed and wasn't able to leave the country (without voiding the application), and the stern warning not to work before the application was completed, nudge nudge wink wink.

[legion]

I wonder why they rejected that guy, after all he is a good clean white person ......

Sorry, but without some background it is hard to sympathize and also not much of a cautionary tale.

[Grumpy Gramps]

Can only speculate that there might be a reason, why he has no PR after 15 years in Japan (plus ten in China; not sure, whether that counts for something ). But as others said already, without facts, there's no story.

[havill]

"Beware of people with visa woe stories that avoid specific details"

Like:

• what exact status of residence he had,
• what status he was applying for,
• who is his employer / source of income is, and
• what their qualifications are that they wrote and listed on the application. Oh, and
• what the exact date(s) — start and end — of all of these events were.

One thing all these public sob stories (MQT, CJ, etc) have in common is that they always avoid telling these details. Usually because they're damning.

My guess is that immi did not consider "old abandoned apartment property flipping" to be a legit business worthy of an investor status or anything else.