Immigration Lawyer, Beyond Watabe office

30/09/2026

Update for PR application

The new guideline for PR is officially announced. It will be implemented after April 1st in 2027 except the financial requirement. The financial requirements are applied to the applications that were submitted after April 2026. But how it is applied is still unsure.

https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/10_00279.html

Multilingual service is not ready yet.

〒100-8973　東京都千代田区霞が関1-1-1　中央合同庁舎６号館 ℡045-370-9755（代表） （法人番号：7000012030004） ※開示請求等の手続についてはこちらをご確認ください。

27/09/2026

Sunday Post on September 27th, 2026

3 days left in September. Final count down is starting for October when the new visa fee starts. Tokyo Immigration is a kind of chaos. It is extremely crowded with foreign applicants and Immigration lawyers. Immigration officers there are overwhelmed with their workload.

I plan to visit Tokyo Immigration on Tuesday 29th and Yokohama Immigration on Wednesday 30th. I am writing this post on Saturday 26th at office. I am still waiting for some application documents that are sent back to my office from our clients. In order to submit applications on Tuesday 29th, I need to receive the documents by noon time on Monday 28th. I need to come to my office tomorrow Sunday to receive documents. Yes. I gave up weekends in September.

Today, I submitted 3 online applications. When I tried to log in, the announcement came up to the screen: the currently the site is not available because of too many traffic. Please wait for a while. It seems many Immigration lawyers try to apply online for their clients on weekend.

When online application started, I had technical difficulties for typing information and took some time to get accustomed. Now, my office has already learnt how to prepare efficiently for on line applications. So, I take less time than before for each application.

I think after October, online applications will become our major method in stead of in-person application at Tokyo Immigration because the visa fee is cheaper for online applications.

New visa fee, new requirements for PR application, harder inspection for working visa, abolishment of Trainee system and starting the new system called Ikuseishurou and etc. Japan’s Immigration administration is in a transitional phase now.

It might be tough for foreign residents in Japan but at the same time, tough time will come for us, Immigration lawyers. Can you afford lawyer’s fee besides such a high visa fee? If my client family, assuming family of 4, get 3 year visa, they need to pay about 200,000yen to get new residence cards. Getting 3-year visa is wonderful for 1 year visa holders. But, it is big BUT.

And the spread of AI will also have a significant impact on our work. Recently, I sometimes am asked: I inquired my case with AI and it says brah brah. What do you think about AI’s opinion?

Well, AI is problematic. You can get lots of information with AI. And for many occasions, AI is very helpful. I also use AI sometimes. But relying on AI too much would cause some trouble for you. It is because for Immigration field, everything is case by case up to your situation. Any situation is not totally same to others. AI can provide general information that can be applied to many cases but not for all. Not for your specific situation.

Moreover, in order to use AI, you need to provide necessary information from your side at first. Providing necessary information is not easy because you are not sure what is really necessary information. If you miss to provide some information to AI, it would give you the perfect answer within the range of limited information.

And checking AI’s answer is very tough. If it is Immigration matters, you should check all related laws, actual operations, recent tendencies and so on.

The other day some showed me Riyusho, reason statement that is made by AI. And he asked me if this Riyusho is ok for his application. “Kono riyusho de daijoubu desu ka?” I didn’t know his residing situation at all. How can I said it is daijoubu or not? In order to his question, I need to do hearing from him about his all situations. Preparing his Riyusho from the beginning for myself is much easier for me.

I have various matters to think after October 1st. But anyway, for 3 days, let me focus on preparing applications that should be submitted by September 30th.

That’s it for today.
Happy Sunday to all! No wars! No violence!!

20/09/2026

Sunday Post on September 20th, 2026

We are having long holidays in Japan called Silver Week. September 21st, 22nd and 23rd are national holidays. So, from Saturday 19th, many of you have 5-day off. The name of Silver Week comes because the third Monday of September is ‘Respect for the Aged Day’. Since it is the second longest holidays next to Golden Week in May and because of silver hairs of elderly persons, it is calked Silver Week. Public services including Immigration will be closed till Wednesday 23rd.

I was at Tokyo immigration on the last Thursday 17th and Friday 18th. It was kind of chaos especially in from to of P counter, department of inspection for PR and spouse, long term visa. There were no rooms even for standing. When I arrived there at 8:50 am, my number was 127. As you know, it is because of new visa fee that will start on October 1st. At Tokyo Immigration, you need to do pr-screening at P counter before submitting PR applications. Many people rush to apply PR now. And there were also applicants who tried to investigate his/her application status because Tokyo immigration, especially PR/Spouse/long term visa department is very slow now and they take more than 3 months even form simple extension. I understand how they are worrying but asking application status cause another delay. Please refrain from asking and try to be patient. Immigration also announces to refrain from asking application status. Please see the site below.

Confirmation of the progress of residence applications | Immigration Services Agency

My office still has nearly 30 PR applications and 30 visa extension applications by September 30th. I need to go to Tokyo Immigration on Thursday 24th, the next day after Silver Weeks. I can imagine how crowded it will be. Well, it might be beyond my imagination. Anyway, I have to go there. It is my job. Come on Junko, you can do it.

We are in the Silver Weeks. But I think there is no Silver Week for many immigration lawyers. My office is now like a battle field. I hope I could take offs after October instead of terrible September.

Immigration officers might be packed, too. I got a call from Tokyo Immigration and she told me to come to Tokyo Immigration to get the result of changing visa status application on Friday 18th with the applicant. 18th was the last day of his grace period. Generally, when I receive such a call, it means the application is disapproved. It was the changing visa status application from designated activity visa (refugee applicant) to long term visa after getting married with long term visa holder. I went Tokyo Immigration with the applicant and his wife. I already had explained his application would be disapproved in advance in order him to be ready for hearing Immigration’s explanation.

But, big but, at the P counter, we found his application was approved and he could get the new residence card of long-term visa. The information that the officer told on the phone was totally wrong. I guess she made such a mistake because she was too busy. It was good surprise for them, anyway. But if so, I could have picked up his new card on Thursday and I didn’t need to visit Tokyo Immigration in such a chaos for the consecutive 2 days.

Well, I need to back to piles of applications on my desk now.

Happy Sunday to all. Happy Silver Week! No wars! No violation!
Please enjoy holidays instead of me.

13/09/2026

Sunday Post on September 13th, 2026

Last week, I submitted 10 PR applications at Tokyo and Yokohama Immigration. We still have about 25 PR applications, 30 extension applications and 8 changing visa status applications to go before October 1st when the new visa fee starts. 17 days including long holidays from 21st till 23rd. We need to gear up ourselves more.

I suppose many of you already have seen the chart of new visa fee. If not, please check the attached picture. As you see, there are big hikes. But today, I want to see the difference between the application in person at Immigration counter and online. There is a significant difference, isn’t it? Do you know why?

It is because if online applications become the major method, Immigration could save lots of time and efforts. So, they want to facilitate online applications. Not only in the Immigration fields, nowadays various public procedures/operations have shifted to digital ways in Japan. Actually, Japanese government is behind from other countries in this matter. They need to promote digitalization.

Do you have any idea how you could apply a visa on line? Please check the Immigration site below where you can get the general information and manuals in details.

https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/applications/online/onlineshinsei.html

If you have PC at home and have basic knowledge for manipulating it, you might be able to handle by yourself. But as you see, the manual is more than 150 pages. Moreover, there are many technical issues you need to overcome. So, I am afraid, online application might be a high hurdle for many of you.

My office has mainly applied for our clients at Immigration in person so far now at Tokyo immigration. For clients who stay out side from Tokyo area, we support their applications on line. Or if we don’t have enough time, I apply online even for Tokyo Immigration. For online application, since any physical documents and signatures are not necessary, we could save time.

Now, we plan to shift our operations to online because cheaper visa fee is definitely the benefits for our clients.
For online applications, you need to pay the fee on line, too. Lat week, Immigration released a warning announcement for the fraud of online payment. Please take extra care in order not to get involved into such frauds.

https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/11_00107.html

I can imagine how you are upset with this high visa fees. If you are family of 4 with 3 year visa, you need to pay 256,000 yen for visa extension.

At the same time, Immigration’s inspection becomes harder for any visa status. If you apply for visa extension or changing visa status without well-prepared documents, your application might be disapproved and you would get 30/31 day visa to leave. These are challenging time for everybody.

By the way, I had a lunch at the curry restaurant in the neighbor town yesterday and a chance to have conversation with a guy there. I found he is one of my FB page followers and he said that he checks my Sunday Post regularly. It is my pleasure to hear a voice directly form my followers. Guys, thank you for visiting our FB page and viewing my post. Let’s keep in touch.

Happy Sunday to all. No wars! No violence!

10/09/2026

Starting on Oct 1, the applicants who have made visa-related applications using on-line system will need to pay the visa fee on-line (internet banking, etc.).
Please be careful of scam emails.

Please read below very carefully.
https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/11_00107.html

【詐欺メールにご注意ください】
　オンライン申請（おんらいんしんせい）における在留許可（ざいりゅうきょか）手数料（てすうりょう）のご案内（あんない）メール（めーる）について、入管（にゅうかん）になりすまして手数料（てすうりょう）の納付（のうふ）を求（もと）めるメール（めーる）に十分（じゅうぶん）注意（ちゅうい）してください。

#入管 #福岡入管 #オンライン申請 #手数料 #詐欺

05/09/2026

Sunday Post on September 6th, 2026

Crazy September has started. My office has more than 30 PR applications and 30 visa extension application and 10 changing visa status applications all of which we have to submit at Immigration by September 30th. Literally, we are packed. Unfortunately, we cannot accept PR application from now on. Generally, preparing documents for PR application takes a month. There will be a Silver Week on the 4th week of September which start from Saturday, September 19th to Wednesday 23rd. We are going to have the tough schedule in the end of September.

In the last week there was a news that the number of foreigners who left Japan and used to have business manager visa was about 4 times in the first 6 months of 2026 comparing with before. I am afraid it is just beginning and the number will increase. It is said more than 90% of business manager visa holders cannot meet all requirements that started in October 2025 and will be forced to leave Japan after October 2028. There are some who spontaneously gave up business in Japan and left but I guess some failed the visa extension application. Their visa extensions were disapproved not because they don’t satisfy the new requirements but because they don’t run the company properly. I am surprised that many business owners don’t know the necessity of enrolling employment insurance, labor insurance. Moreover, they don’t know what they are. Business manager visa holders, it is the obligations for your company to enroll employment insurance and labor insurance if you hire a worker as well as social insurance, Shakaihoken. As for Shakaihoken, even if you don’t hire any, you need to enroll it by yourself. The evidence of enrolling those 3 insurances is required for your visa extension. If you want to survive at least for 2 years, you had better hire an Immigration lawyer for your visa extension. With the new high visa fee, you are supposed to pay a lot for one visa extension. You need to think over if it would worth or not.

By the way, in the last week, my office received 2 COEs from Tokyo Immigration. It is for spouse of PR and his step child. My client who has PR applied COE for his family in August 2025. There is no additional documents’ request from Immigration at all. After more than 1 year, his application was approved. I have some several COE applications that I submitted in September or October. I hope I could receive the results soon. At P counter in Tokyo Immigration where takes charge of COE applications for spouse visa and long term visa take more than 1 year now. If you are the one who applied COE for your family, you need to be very patient.

That’s it for today. You might think today’s post is shorter than usual. Yes. Tons of files are aside me now. I give up taking offs in September. There is no Silver Week for me. Let me cheer up myself. Ganbare~.

Happy Sunday to all! No wars! No violence!!

31/08/2026

JLPT N3
They will start accepting more applicants in Tokyo and Osaka tomorrow (Sept 2nd).

N3について、9月｛がつ｝2日｛ふつか｝（水｛すい｝）10：00より、【東京都｛とうきょうと｝】および【大阪府

30/08/2026

Sunday Post on August 30th, 2026

Happy September in a little advance.

I am afraid this coming September will be the busiest months since I opened my office 10 years ago. It is because of the new visa fee that will start on October 1st (see the attached chart from the Immigration). Everybody wants to submit visa/PR application before October 1st. What a big jump it is.

By the way, I got an interview by a journalist, Eduardo Martinez from Kyodo news a few weeks ago and his articles have released in public recently. Let me share the links of his articles here. It is about the business manager visa.

https://english.kyodonews.net/articles/-/82719

https://english.kyodonews.net/articles/-/82801

There are various new requirements and new rules in Immigration fields. And I guess many people think Japanese government and Immigration has shifted the stricter policies for foreigners. Well, it is true for PR application and Business manager visa. But for other matters, I dare to say it is not true. Immigration just tries to follow the rules and requirements properly that already existed before. They are not the new rules. With some reason, laziness?, short of time, old manual or so, there are some cases that Immigration have overlooked.

The most significant examples are about applications for Engineer/Humanities/International (EHI) visa.

Case 1
Generally, if you work for the same company, you would get visa extension without any problem. It was Immigration who granted EHI for you with the same company before. But recently there are many cases of disapproval with such situations.

Many years ago, you got working visa by declaring your job was office job like an accounting, trainer, interpreter/translator. And now, Immigration notices that your actual job is not such an office job and disapprove the visa extension application and gives 30-day visa to leave Japan.

Case 2
If you changed a company after the last visa extension, you had better take extra care with your visa extension. Even if you think it is in the same field as before, you might be required the new documents like language certificates. Please note if you don’t use Japanese for your job at all, you need not submit the certificate for Japanese language. Instead, you might be required to submit the certificate of English if your mother tongue is not English. And moreover, you are required to explain in details about your new job to prove it is suitable to EHI. For example, if you work for a hotel, what you can do with EHI is only front job and desk job like planning and marketing or so on. Please see the attached picture.

Case 3
If you got EHI with false documents or inappropriate company, even if you work properly with a suitable job to EHI and for a good company now, your visa extension might be disapproved because of the previous visa application. My office had similar cases before and all got approved. But now, it seems Immigration treats such cases differently from before.

Case 4
About visa change application from student visa. Especially if you study at Vocational school, Semon gakko in Japan without diploma from own country, your new job should be matched to the subjects you study at Vocational school. If there is no interpreter/translator or Japanese/English class there, you could not get EHI as an interpreter/translator, 通訳翻訳.
Before if you graduate from business vocational school, you would get EHI with a front job at hotel but currently, Immigration checks the subjects at school harder than before.

Besides EHI, extension application for business manager visa is more difficult than before. But it is not because of the new rules. It is because immigration requires more documents than before to check if you run your company properly and many applicants miss to submit those documents in order.

My office rarely receives negative result for visa extension. But it is not because we have good tactics for applications. It is because we don’t accept a case that we think there is no possibility to get approved. I believe as an Immigration lawyer, one of the important tasks is to tell you the fact as it is if there are no possibilities for you to get a visa. There is someone who requests me to make documents to get approval no matter it is true or not. Definitely, I cannot do such an illegal activity.

After October 1st, you need to pay a lot when you renew your visa. I am afraid you might not afford to hire a lawyer for your visa extension. For many cases, you could get a visa renewal even if you prepare documents by yourself. But for some cases, you had better hire a lawyer. Please save the money just in case.

At last, one more information. It is not about visa but I think you had better know it because it might affect your visa/PR application. From September 1st, traffic rules for speed limit within the town area changes. Currently the speed limit is 60k/hour but it will be 30k/hour. Please see the attached flyer. Sorry I cannot find an English one. Safe drive!

That’s it for all today.

Happy Sunday to all! No wars! No violence!

28/08/2026

Revision of Government ordinance regarding visa fee change was officially announced on Official Gazette (Kanpou) today.
It will become effective on 1 Oct 2026 and will be applied to the applications submitted on and after.

The immigration also announced the change.

〒100-8973　東京都千代田区霞が関1-1-1　中央合同庁舎６号館 ℡045-370-9755（代表） （法人番号：7000012030004） ※開示請求等の手続についてはこちらをご確認ください。

25/08/2026

The cabinet decided on the visa fee revision (revision of Government ordinance) today.

The details have not been released yet, but we assume the new fee will be the one we shared before.
The new fee will be applied to the applications after October 1st, 2026.

政府は25日の閣議で、外国人の在留許可手続きに関する手数料の改定額を定めた政令を決定した。在留資格を変更・更新する際は期間に応じて最大7万5000円となる。現行の窓口での負担額6000円から大幅な引き上げとなる。永....