Leaving while visa application in limbo?

[Mulboyne]

Visa denied!! New plan of action... Not sure on reason just yet - just got the letter yesterday.

Pain in the arse. Sorry to hear that, GG.

[GuyJean]

Visa denied!! New plan of action... Not sure on reason just yet - just got the letter yesterday.

Damn!.. I was joking about the nude pictures comment.. But it might be worth a try..

GJ

[This is a pen]

There is one solution that I have not seen posted here yet.


Have you consider getting a new boy friend??:rolleyes:

[Oradea]

GG, that really sucks, But, I`m sure you will get something sorted out in the end. Good luck.

[GomiGirl]

UPDATE:

After 4 submissions of visa docs, countless visits to the Shinagawa Hall-o-Hell(TM), the boy's visa has been approved. This has been on-going since February and has been very stressful. In the end, we had our own personal Immigration officer who was very kind and helpful and understanding. He insisted that we submit the final docs directly to him and not to the main window where it seems the current SOP is to reject anybody without a university degree irrespective of work experience.

So about 10 days ago we went down again with the final lot of documents and tried to speak directly to our guy and the nazi cow at the S counter desk was trying to dissuade us from seeing him saying that he wasn't the "tanto" and that we had to submit to the main desk. We were not going to do that so we went away and rang our immigration consultant and it seems that the nazi cow saw that we were not terroists after all and found our little man. He was so sweet and took the forms and the fabulous red postcard arrived in the mail yesterday.

The boy took himself off to immigration before they changed their minds and he is now in possession of a shiny new 1 year work visa from today.

What a trial. I guess it was a case of not taking no for an answer and keep providing the documents that were asked of us. In the end we had to produce many more docs not originally on the required list. These were a lease document for the Golden Gai premises where he is working, photos showing him working, photos of inside the premises, menus, website photos etc etc.

It seems that immigration is really a "case-by-case" and if you get rejected you need to just keep cool, be polite and friendly and get yourself a person on the inside who can oversee the documents through the system. This guy really was trying to make sure we were successful and I am sure that it was because we were always well presented (in shirts, suits etc), polite and calm despite the frustration of being told different things each time. Plus to be timely - ie not wait until the last day to submit docs or request change of status.

Just to give you the summary of events:

Early Feb 2007 - submission to change from WHV to work visa (international services) as a new employee with a new company in the hospitality industry. Boy has the required experience in both home country and London. We were asked to provide further document showing more detailed job description. Provided in timely manner. Rejected after 2.5 months. Met with officer who said that we needed to submit in a different category - skilled worker as a chef - International cooking expert. Thought this odd but hey - they make the rules. Visa changed to "Designated activities - preparation to leave Japan" so he could remain while new docs were being prepared.

Mid May 2007 - New forms submitted as Skilled worker - chef. Waited another 2-3 months and this was rejected. Reason - not the correct experience for a chef (duh - we knew that but were just following their advice). Told that new application needed to be back to International Services but more in the publicity angle etc etc. Visa changed to "Designated activities - preparation to leave Japan" so he could remain while new docs were being prepared.

Sept 2007 - New forms submitted as International Services with a slight change in resume showing more duties in previous jobs aligned with management and PR as well as the hospitality side of things. Rejected 6 weeks later - reason was that he didn't have enough work experience but we argued that he had 16 years experience. This is when our friendly immigration officer took pity on us and said that we were only to deal directly with him from now on.

10 days ago - new forms submitted - International services again with lease documents etc.

Today - shiny new visa.

Each time we submit the forms we have to get the tax lawyer to draw up the new forcasted P/L as this is a new company with no tax history. As well we needed the company registration documents that have to be ordered from the council plus lots of other guff including resume (translated), work certificates (translated), references (translated) and study history from technical college but as this was not a university they really didn't count for much despite that the sort of work that is involved is not covered by a university degree.

Fortunately each time I drew up the documents, I made a copy of all documents submitted so I could easily refer back to make sure I wasn't changing the story each time.

Long post, but I just wanted to put it all down in case there is anybody else who needs to refer to this in the future.

DON'T GIVE UP.. be pleasant but tenacious.

[omae mona]

GG - congrats! That's great news.

By the way, I agree with your comments about how to get things done at J-immigration. I've had very similar experiences with helping somebody, initially rejected, get their visa temporarily extended and eventually approved a different way. Like you said, it's a matter of being persistent, patient, and friendly. My opinion is that the folks working there really *want* to grant visas, and if you work with them they'll try to figure out a way to grant it within the narrow guidelines they've been given.

[GomiGirl]

GG - congrats! That's great news.

By the way, I agree with your comments about how to get things done at J-immigration. I've had very similar experiences with helping somebody, initially rejected, get their visa temporarily extended and eventually approved a different way. Like you said, it's a matter of being persistent, patient, and friendly. My opinion is that the folks working there really *want* to grant visas, and if you work with them they'll try to figure out a way to grant it within the narrow guidelines they've been given.

Thanks mate.

It is true I think that being friendly with these guys is the best way. Getting frustrated and angry at the system is easy to do but not helpful to your cause. These guys are working under such strict guidelines and if you are a clean and respectable looking candidate, they are going to try to help you.