Changing Visas.

[spyder]

Hey all,

I am currently on a Working Holiday Visa (I'm from Australia), and it is coming to an end soon. I think I will need to stick around a bit longer just to sell off the rest of my stuff, move out of my place, and ties up some loose ends etc.

Is it possible for me to go to immigration and change my status to a "Tourist" without leaving the country, or am I going to have to do a "Korea Run" or something similar to do it?

I know the best place to find out is immigration, but before waking up early and waiting there for half a day, I thought I would ask here first, as there is bound to be someone who will know.

Thanks for your help!

-Scott

[Charles]

I am currently on a Working Holiday Visa (I'm from Australia), and it is coming to an end soon.

Time to go home, ozzie. You knew this day was coming.

[spyder]

Thanks for the informative response :/

[FG Lurker]

Thanks for the informative response :/

Charles is an idiot. It is best to ignore about 95% of his posts. The remaining 5% have some useful information, sometimes.

When I had my last working holiday visa (10 years ago now) it wasn't possible to get a tourist visa extension and I had to make a run to Korea and back. Time has passed though so there is a chance this has changed. You should call immigration to check.

Going to Korea and back does NOT guarantee that you will get back into Japan however. If immigration thinks you are coming back to work then they will likely not let you in, or will only give you a very short-term visa (7 days, 3 days...maybe 30 days). I nearly did not get back in to Japan when I did it, it was only the $5000 in TCs plus showing my bank balance that convinced them to let me back in. This was after talking to them in a little white room for about 30 minutes!! I had to explain in detail what I wanted to do and why I wanted a 90 day tourist visa after just having a "tourist" visa for the past year.....

[spyder]

Thanks for your reply.

I was talking to a friend at work today, and apparently her friend was able to change to a tourist visa while in Japan, so maybe things have changed.

The bank balance you showed them: was that an international bank account, or the bank account that you had in Japan? I have quite a bit of money in my Australian account, but hardly anything in my Japanese account, as I send it all back. Also, why did showing this balance change their mind? Was it due to the fact that you could show that you would be able to support yourself without work?

Thanks again for your helpful reply!

[Ptyx]

As a general piece of advice, do not believe hearsay about immigration issues. You should always check by yourself and always be wary of what you're telling the immigration officers.

That said, i had a working holiday visa and i changed to a regular working visa at the end of it. In my case the "korean run" was inevitable. My working holiday visa was not renewable or extendable or convertible, it was a one year visa and to get a regular working visa i had to do the whole process from scratch as if i never set foot in Japan in the first place.
So i had to get out of the country twice, once at the end of my WH visa and a second time to get my working visa which can only be delivered by a japanese embassy.
One of the deciding factor is your nationality. Working holiday visas are different depending on where you got it from.
German working-holiday visa holders can extend their visa by a year, french working-holiday visa holders cannot.
I had no problem at all leaving the country and coming back on a tourist visa. They will destroy your gaijin card when you leave the country though.

[DrP]

http://www.tokyotonite.com/directory_japan.html You'll find the links to the ministry of foreign affairs and a couple of visa service providers. Typically a change (downgrade) of visa status requires a re-entry into the country.

[FG Lurker]

I was talking to a friend at work today, and apparently her friend was able to change to a tourist visa while in Japan, so maybe things have changed.

The best thing is to contact immigration and ask.

The bank balance you showed them: was that an international bank account, or the bank account that you had in Japan?

It was my Japanese account.

Also, why did showing this balance change their mind? Was it due to the fact that you could show that you would be able to support yourself without work?

Yes, exactly. Especially since I had no ticket out of the country at the end of my tourist visa I wanted to show them that I had the money to support myself as well as that I could afford to buy a ticket home at the end of the 3 months.

The key points that I told immigration are actually somewhat similar to your current situation. However since it happened 10 years ago I have no idea how things are right now in 2007.

I told them:

• that I went to Korea to visit a friend who was living there
• that I left most of my (large/heavy) luggage with friends here in Japan so I could take it directly back to Canada with me when I returned
• that I still had considerable funds in my Japanese account, plus the TCs I was carrying (and I needed to get the money out of my J-account before going back to Canada)
• that I had plans to travel in Japan to various places (with a list) to see certain festivals or to visit friends (again with a list)

They kept asking me the same questions in slightly different ways, probably trying to see if my answers would change. They seemed very suspicious that I was coming back to work. As this was 1996 there were a lot of Canadians here building houses in Kobe after the quake so this probably added to their suspicion.

I may have over-prepared for my return to Japan, but I was really worried that I wouldn't get back in. I really did have a large amount of luggage here still and I had to get the money out of my J-account, plus I still hadn't finished moving out of my apartment! (Obviously I didn't mention this to immigration! Having an apartment is not really compatible with a tourist visa.)

In the end a lot comes down to the inidividual immigration officer that you see when you return. He's the one who decides on the spot if you get in or not, or if they're going to ask you a million questions in a little white room like they did to me...

You'll probably get back in, but it would be good to be prepared for the 20 questions scenario.

[spyder]

Thanks heaps for all the informative answers.

I will go down to immigration and ask them.

FG Lurker: Thanks for the advice - I will take some of these things into account with I go and see the immigration fellows.

If anyone else has any information, please let me know!