Permanent Residence Applications with an Annual Income Below 3 Million Yen

The Annual Income Requirement for a Permanent Residence Application

A Permanent Residence application involves a variety of requirements, one of which is the income requirement. While the exact income figure is not officially published, an annual income of at least 3 million yen is generally required.

The document used to verify whether the income requirement is met is the taxation certificate issued by the municipality. In other words, several years’ worth of taxation certificates, calculated back from the time of the Permanent Residence application, must be submitted. If you have consistently met the 3-million-yen annual income threshold based on these taxation certificates, your chances of clearing the income requirement are high.

If the 3-million-yen threshold has not been met on a taxation-certificate basis, there is a high possibility that a Permanent Residence application will be denied. However, even if an immediate application is difficult, the path to Permission for Permanent Residence may still open up by allowing some time to pass.

This page explains Permanent Residence applications in cases where the annual income is 3 million yen or less.

Period Covered by the Taxation Certificates

As a general rule, the taxation certificates submitted for a Permanent Residence application cover the most recent 5 years. In other words, income of 3 million yen or more is required for all 5 of the most recent years’ taxation certificates.

However, depending on the applicant’s situation at the time of the Permanent Residence application, the period covered by the required taxation certificates may be shortened. The baseline of 3 million yen itself is not lowered. The conditions under which the period is relaxed, and the resulting number of years, are listed below.

Conditions Under Which the Income Requirement Is Relaxed, and the Resulting Number of Years

If you fall under any of the above, the income requirement can be satisfied by submitting 3 or 1 year’s worth of taxation certificates. Therefore, even if your annual income is currently 3 million yen or less, in some cases you may be able to satisfy the income requirement by building up a few more years of track record.

Household Income in a Permanent Residence Application

If the 3-million-yen income requirement cannot be met by the applicant alone, depending on the situation, the review may be conducted based on household income. If household income is used in the review, it may be possible to obtain Permission for Permanent Residence even with an annual income of 3 million yen or less.

A case where household income is considered is when the Permanent Residence applicant holds a status-based Status of Residence such as Spouse or Child of Japanese National, or Spouse or Child of Permanent Resident. In such cases, the spouse’s annual income can also be combined for the income review.

On the other hand, when the Permanent Residence applicant holds a work visa such as Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services, the income requirement must be satisfied by the applicant alone. Additionally, if the spouse resides in Japan on a Dependent Status of Residence or similar, it is difficult to have the spouse’s part-time income earned under Permission to Engage in Activities Other Than That Permitted by the Status of Residence Previously Granted combined.

How the “Consistent Income of 3 Million Yen or More” Is Interpreted

As explained above, one standard is consistently earning at least 3 million yen or more. For example, suppose that three years ago you had a period of unemployment during a job search and could not clear the 3-million-yen threshold, but in another year your income exceeded 6 million yen, so on average you would clear 3 million yen or more.

In this case, the key point is whether the income requirement has been met, and if there is even one year falling below 3 million yen, it is highly likely to be judged as not having satisfied the income requirement. You must have consistently earned 3 million yen or more in every single year.

In other words, an annual income of 3 million yen or more is required every year. If there is even one year below 3 million yen, the income requirement is not considered satisfied, even if the average exceeds 3 million yen.

When This Year’s Income Can Satisfy the “Consistent 3 Million Yen” Income Requirement

As explained above, submission of a taxation certificate issued by the municipality is mandatory for a Permanent Residence application. However, a taxation certificate cannot be issued until May of the year following the year in which the income was earned at the earliest. In other words, it takes about 5 months from the end of the income year (January to December) before that income is reflected in the taxation certificate.

In such cases, by submitting the withholding tax statement (gensen choshu hyo) issued by the employer, it may be possible to obtain Permission for Permanent Residence without waiting for the taxation certificate to be issued in May. Those wishing to apply for Permanent Residence immediately should submit the withholding tax statement for the most recent 1 year.

When proving the most recent 1 year’s income by submitting the withholding tax statement, it is desirable to have the corporate seal of the employer affixed to the document. This is because withholding tax statements can be easily forged, so to ensure that the submitted document is treated as authentic, you should, wherever possible, have your employer affix the corporate seal.

These days, fewer companies hand out withholding tax statements directly, and printing them from a computer has become very common. In this case as well, you should have the corporate seal affixed to the printed withholding tax statement.

Even when submitting a withholding tax statement as a substitute for the most recent taxation certificate using the method described above, the most recent taxation certificate may become issuable during the review period. Because the review period for a Permanent Residence application is long, even if you apply with a withholding tax statement without waiting for the taxation certificate to be issued, the time when the taxation certificate becomes available may arrive during the review.

In this case, the Immigration Bureau will almost certainly request the latest taxation certificate as an additional document. When such a request is made, please submit it promptly.

Summary

This page has explained Permanent Residence applications for those with an annual income of 3 million yen or less. The key point is that while it is difficult to obtain Permission for Permanent Residence if there is even one year within the relevant period with an annual income of 3 million yen or less, there are cases where this can be covered by the applicant’s status-based circumstances or by household income.

There is still a possibility even for those who think their situation may be too difficult due to having a year with an income of 3 million yen or less. If you are uncertain about your situation, please feel free to contact our office.