Yet another permanent residence question!

[ttjereth]

Okay quick and easy to answer question, but I couldn't find an answer digging through the other million or so threads that turn up results for some variation of "permanent residence" or the other.

I applied for perm. residence awhile back and just got the postcard back today.

The postcard doesn't tell you whether you got it or not, but it does have the "bring 8000 yen for permanent residence permission" box checked.

Does this mean I got it, or do they check that box even if you are turned down and just kind of laugh at you when you get there?

[GomiGirl]

Yes! Congratulations on becoming truly fucked.

Postcard good, letter bad.

[DrP]

Yeah - welcome to the land of truely 'no direct answers'. You have to bring the 8000 and build consensus with the clerk. At that point of nebulous agreement, an additional meeting will be requested to discuss the apparent discrepencies either of you may have in the interim. At which time, you should go back to the start of the procedure to re-afirm all points and schedule a later meeting with appropriate agenda points to manage any issues arising between the course of your current implied situation and the previous reiterative discussions to following the points yet undiscovered shall be managed accordingly. There ya go! Lick the stamp and kiss your ass goodbye!

[ttjereth]

Yes! Congratulations on becoming truly fucked.

Postcard good, letter bad.

Awesome! Thank you very much for the info.

Now I just have to pray that my new passport arrives by the deadline on the postcard or else have to explain to them that my passport is currently being renewed and could they please not revoke my permanent residence immediately after granting it to me

That was really quick. I applied in like mid-June, so just about 3 months.

[ttjereth]

Yeah - welcome to the land of truely 'no direct answers'. You have to bring the 8000 and build consensus with the clerk. At that point of nebulous agreement, an additional meeting will be requested to discuss the apparent discrepencies either of you may have in the interim. At which time, you should go back to the start of the procedure to re-afirm all points and schedule a later meeting with appropriate agenda points to manage any issues arising between the course of your current implied situation and the previous reiterative discussions to following the points yet undiscovered shall be managed accordingly. There ya go! Lick the stamp and kiss your ass goodbye!

It will be lovely visiting the immigration office for the last time except for the occasional re-entry permit

[CrankyBastard]

[quote="ttjereth"]It will be lovely visiting the immigration office for the last time except for the occasional re-entry permit ]

Oh Gawd! You poor bastard! You don't understand!
It's PERMANENT!!!!!!!!

[kusai Jijii]

Oh Gawd! You poor bastard! You don't understand!
It's PERMANENT!!!!!!!!

Sorry to break the news, but you still need a re-entry stamp in your visa as a PR (unless, of course, you never intend to leave Japan for a short trip - in which case you truely are a fucked gaijin!)

Oh, and another thing, an eijyuken (PR) isnt actually as permanent as some might think. If you are out of Japan for more than 365 consecutive days, it lapses.

[bunga]

Oh, and another thing, an eijyuken (PR) isnt actually as permanent as some might think. If you are out of Japan for more than 365 consecutive days, it lapses.

Wow, really? Thanks for the info, I never know this.

[ttjereth]

Sorry to break the news, but you still need a re-entry stamp in your visa as a PR (unless, of course, you never intend to leave Japan for a short trip - in which case you truely are a fucked gaijin!)

Oh, and another thing, an eijyuken (PR) isnt actually as permanent as some might think. If you are out of Japan for more than 365 consecutive days, it lapses.

That's good enough to accomodate my dream of someday being able to spend half my time here and half back home and buying the reentry permits is still infinitely less painful than all the hoops I have to jump through for visa renewal, plus I only have to get it when the current one lapses and I am planning to leave the country, not the whole "you can for renewal now or we lock you up" crap

Also when we eventually move out of here, it will make getting a loan easier to buy the perennially ill-advised house in Japan.

[FG Lurker]

Oh, and another thing, an eijyuken (PR) isnt actually as permanent as some might think. If you are out of Japan for more than 365 consecutive days, it lapses.

Has this changed? It didn't used to be this way... As long as you came back before your reentry permit expired you were cool.

[kusai Jijii]

I'll happily stand corrected if I'm wrong, but that was what I was told by the immigration offficials when I got mine in January of '03.

In any case, we are in agreement about the need for PRs to have re-entry permits, right? I've been forced to pay that 'bloody gaijin tax' as a PR.

[kusai Jijii]

Allow me to modify my initial post! It looks like Lurk was right.

According to the Debito website (which, regardless of what you think of him personally, is pretty good on the legal info side of things)

"If you have PR, you cannot lose it unless you leave the country and do not return within the time period on your Re-Entry Permit. So get your Sainyuukoku Kyoka for as long as possible (around three years) if you're going overseas for a stretch."

In any case, my brief Googling reconfirms the following:

1) You DO need to get a re-entry visa to get back into Japan even if you are a PR holder

2) Your PR will, in fact, nulify should you be outside of Japan and your re-entry visa expires. But it is not the case (as I mistakenly posted earlier) that the maximum you can be out of Japan is 365 consecutive days (provided, of course, that your re-entry permit has over 365 valid days on it;) )

Thanks for the red flag Lurker.

[omae mona]

[quote="kusai Jijii"]
2) Your PR will, in fact, nulify should you be outside of Japan and your re-entry visa expires. But it is not the case (as I mistakenly posted earlier) that the maximum you can be out of Japan is 365 consecutive days (provided, of course, that your re-entry permit has over 365 valid days on it]

I'll also add: you don't have to wait for the re-entry permit to come close to expiration before you renew it. You can 'reset' it back to 3 years at any time just by visiting immigration and coughing up the 7000 yen. It does invalidate the old one, so you're throwing away part of the money you paid last time.

[ttjereth]

It's official. I have moved from being a third class citizen to a second class citizen in all but any practical apects.



3 months to receive permission from the day I applied and on my first try, do I get a cookie?

For anyone who wonders, I've been here for 8-9 years now, been married to the same Japanese wife for 4 of those.

I also stuffed my application with a copy of a newspaper article and an award I received for saving a train conductor from a hammer wielding lunatic a few years ago. Not sure if it had any effect

As an aside, I wonder what some of the people who go to Tokyo immigration are thinking when they pick out their outfit for the day. From the handful of passports I glimpsed on perpetrators it seemed to be mostly Filipinas and mainland Chinese women, but man some of them pick some skanky outfits to go to immigration.

By skanky I don't mean dirty as in covered in dirt, but more along the lines of "20 dollars for one hour big boy" type skanky. Ass and chest half exposed, tiny little cut off shorts with thigh high hooker boots.

Does that give them a better chance of getting whatever paperwork they are filing approved?

[amdg]

Ass and chest half exposed, tiny little cut off shorts with thigh high hooker boots.

Does that give them a better chance of getting whatever paperwork they are filing approved?

They're in the "entertainment industry", no? Congrats on your PR.
My last visa (3 year) took two working days to come through, so when I apply for the PR I'll see if I can beat your 3 months?

[unkosando]

Congratulations!!

[ttjereth]

[quote="amdg"]They're in the "entertainment industry", no? Congrats on your PR.
My last visa (3 year) took two working days to come through, so when I apply for the PR I'll see if I can beat your 3 months? ]
Certainly entertained me while I waited.

I just renewed my marriage visa when I applied for the PR, kind of a waste of money, but at least I don't have to do it anymore. I was really surprised at how fast it was. The immigration office told me 6 months to a year for any kind of reply, so approval in three months was nice.

Just renewed my passport as well, and that took a little less than 3 weeks. I figure some sort of bureaucratic karma is going to catch up to me when I go get my gaijin card updated and I'll be stuck there for 2 days or something...

Thanks, and good luck with your application.

[ttjereth]

Congratulations!!

Thanks

[Greji]

By skanky I don't mean dirty as in covered in dirt, but more along the lines of "20 dollars for one hour big boy" type skanky. Ass and chest half exposed, tiny little cut off shorts with thigh high hooker boots.

Does that give them a better chance of getting whatever paperwork they are filing approved?

Only if they give the required number of strokes to the old boy's johnson, while he is reviewing their paperwork　for approval. Haven't you ever wondered what those interview rooms were used for?

[ttjereth]

[unkosando]

This is what I don't miss about Japan.

Here in India, 100 rupees and this whole problem would go away.

[FG Lurker]

If it is a problem I suspect it will be easier to change your passport than change your gaijin card.

Even if you do change your gaijin card there is no need to change anything else. I have 3 phone lines here at separate addresses, plus my mobile, and I don't think any of them has my name spelled correctly on the bill. The phone company (gas company, denki, etc) really doesn't give a crap as long as you pay your bills on time.

[ttjereth]

This is what I don't miss about Japan.

Here in India, 100 rupees and this whole problem would go away.

Probably wouldn't fly here in the land of form over function.

[ttjereth]

[quote="FG Lurker"]If it is a problem I suspect it will be easier to change your passport than change your gaijin card. ]

That is a very good point and one I will investigate fully. Thanks for the idea.

As for the changing everything, those were the kuyakusho peon jackass' words, not based on any actual information other than what he said. Not sure what the reality would be, but I know that all 3 of my bank accounts required (and still require almost everytime I need to something at the bank itself) my gaijin card, so if it changes I'm sure they will jump on it which would then require changes made to all the stuff deducted directly from the bank.

Beauracrats here are so dedicated to sticking to book whenever it is most inconvienent for their customers that it really that it often nearly drives me insane. I have quite a few examples of amazing "anti-logic" from when I worked for the government out in the boondocks.

[maraboutslim]

I suspect doing nothing is the best course of action. But if you have to change anything, I'd leave all the Japanese stuff alone and just go get a new US passport without the space.

[ttjereth]

I suspect doing nothing is the best course of action. But if you have to change anything, I'd leave all the Japanese stuff alone and just go get a new US passport without the space.

Since I managed to escape the office without going through any of the changes this time, and since I now have PR and shouldn't have to mess with my Gaijin Card again until I once again move away from ghastly Tokyo, at which point I will be dealing with an entirely new set of government pricks who probably won't care because it will be in the inaka, I am more or less naturally flowing in the "ignore and forget" direction

[maraboutslim]

Well, that is, after all, the Japanese way!

[Ptyx]

ABout the skanky entertainers, they don't care and they're right. The people you talk to at the immigration office are not the people who decide if you're going to get your visa or not.
The people who actually stamp/sign you papers are well hidden in a safe room, they never get out.
The people you see at the immigration office are of no importance whatsoever they're just here to make sure you are not wasting the people in the safe room time. That is to say they just check the paperwork and get the cash. You could be Ayman al-Zawahiri they wouldn't care less.

[momotobananaoishii]

The people who actually stamp/sign you papers are well hidden in a safe room, they never get out.
The people you see at the immigration office are of no importance whatsoever they're just here to make sure you are not wasting the people in the safe room time. That is to say they just check the paperwork and get the cash. You could be Ayman al-Zawahiri they wouldn't care less.

Then why are there so many people on this forum talkin bout how they had such a good report with such and such at immigration add that's why they got this and that fast or got approved for PR blah blah blah?

So it really doesn't matter what attitude you give anyone at any office concerning visa renewals and PR apps? We really don't have to goma goma suru?

[Mulboyne]

Then why are there so many people on this forum talkin bout how they had such a good report with such and such at immigration add that's why they got this and that fast or got approved for PR blah blah blah?

So it really doesn't matter what attitude you give anyone at any office concerning visa renewals and PR apps? We really don't have to goma goma suru?

If you go in with a bad attitude then the person you deal with will certainly pass that on if they are not the person actually in charge of authorizing your PR. A good attitude can smooth the way. There is a chance that you will meet the person who does have the final say in your approval. It's a good strategy to treat everyone as if they might be able to affect your situation.