Is Applying for Permanent Residence on Your Own Risky?

Applying for the Permanent Residence Visa on Your Own

For those who have lived in Japan for many years and wish to continue living here, many likely wrestle with the question of whether to submit the “Permanent Residence visa” application to the Immigration Bureau on your own, or to engage a professional administrative scrivener, when applying.

The Permanent Residence visa application is a status that allows you to reside in Japan indefinitely without having to apply for renewal of the period of stay, and is therefore an extremely important procedure for the foreign national concerned.

Our office is an administrative scrivener office specializing in Permanent Residence visa applications, and we have worked with many people struggling with obtaining the Permanent Residence visa. There are, of course, many people who apply for Permanent Residence on their own without using an administrative scrivener and successfully obtain approval.

On the other hand, there are also many people who applied for the Permanent Residence visa on their own and were unfortunately denied. Indeed, many clients come to our office wishing to engage us for reapplication after being denied on a self-filed application.

The Approval Rate for Permanent Residence

In 2020, the Permanent Residence approval rate was about 50%, meaning that, unfortunately, one in two foreign nationals who applied was denied. Because Permanent Residence is the right to reside indefinitely in Japan, the Japanese government also exercises careful judgment as to whether to grant Permanent Residence to a given foreign national.

In addition, various conditions are set forth by law. Unless you clear all the conditions related to obtaining Permanent Residence and submit a complete application with no deficiencies in the application form or attached documents, you cannot obtain approval.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Engaging an Administrative Scrivener for a Permanent Residence Application

For those considering whether to file a Permanent Residence application on their own or engage an administrative scrivener office, we explain the advantages and disadvantages below.

Disadvantages of Engaging an Administrative Scrivener

There are 2 disadvantages of engaging an administrative scrivener.

① Costs Are Involved

Naturally, engaging an administrative scrivener involves fees, and many people struggle with the cost. The typical market rate is around 100,000 to 150,000 yen. This is by no means a small sum, so many people, after considering an administrative scrivener, ultimately decide to try filing the application themselves.

② It Is Difficult to Identify the Right Specialist

There are approximately 50,000 administrative scriveners nationwide (as of 2022). The work of administrative scriveners covers an extremely wide range, and to begin with, there are many who are not particularly familiar with Permanent Residence visa applications. A Permanent Residence visa application requires carefully examining various factors — your background, income, pension, insurance, taxes, and the reasons you wish to obtain Permanent Residence — before applying.

If there are deficiencies or unclear points in the contents of the documents submitted or in the attached materials, the risk of denial increases. Therefore, you must identify an administrative scrivener well-versed in visa application work and engage them.

Advantages of Engaging an Administrative Scrivener

There are 3 advantages of engaging an administrative scrivener.

① They Know How to Obtain Approval

Since the final decision is made by the administration, no office can guarantee 100% approval. However, based on past experience handling hundreds of visa applications and a thorough understanding of the Immigration Control Act, they are at a level where, given each individual’s situation, they can determine what documents to collect and what content to include in the written statement of reasons in order to obtain approval.

② You Save Time and Effort

A Permanent Residence visa application requires obtaining various documents from municipal offices, tax offices, the Legal Affairs Bureau, and so on. There are also many documents to prepare (the Permission for Permanent Residence application form, the written statement of reasons for wishing to obtain Permanent Residence, the letter of personal guarantee, and other written statements tailored to individual circumstances). For a foreign national applying for a Permanent Residence visa for the first time, doing all of this from scratch takes an enormous amount of time. By engaging an administrative scrivener, you can also avoid the trouble of going to the Immigration Bureau to file the application yourself.

③ Making the Optimal Choice Toward Obtaining Permanent Residence

If you are denied on a self-filed application, you must reapply. In reapplication, you need to confirm the reasons for denial and recover from them. If you do not address those issues, or if there are inconsistencies between the previous application and the reapplication, there is a risk of being denied again.

Visa application specialists carefully interview each person about their situation, identify points requiring attention before applying, and first work on putting the situation in order toward obtaining Permanent Residence. They also prepare the application form and the written statement of reasons in detail, reducing the risk of denial to the greatest extent possible.

Cases Where It Is Better to Engage an Administrative Scrivener Office for a Permanent Residence Application

In what kinds of cases is it better to engage an administrative scrivener office for a Permanent Residence application? There are various situations, but we particularly recommend that foreign nationals who fall under the following categories consider engaging an administrative scrivener office.

When You Do Not Even Grasp the Requirements for Permanent Residence Approval

The Guidelines for Permission for Permanent Residence (legal requirements) are posted on the Immigration Services Agency of Japan’s website. However, among the legal requirements, the “income-related requirement,” for example, is stipulated as “having sufficient assets or skills to make an independent living.”

Specifically, what level of annual income or savings actually constitutes “sufficient assets to make an independent living”? The Immigration Services Agency does not explicitly state, for instance, that an annual income of XXX million yen or more satisfies the requirement. On this point, it is most reliable to engage an administrative scrivener office that has handled numerous Permanent Residence applications and has a grasp of the specific figures.

When You Have Periods of Long-Term Departure from Japan

To obtain Permission for Permanent Residence, you must have “resided continuously in Japan for 10 years or more.”

* Spouses of Japanese nationals, Highly Skilled Foreign Professionals, and so on have special provisions regarding the general “10 years of residence” rule.

In general, if within these 10 years there is a year in which you have left Japan for 100 days or more, the “continuously” count is considered broken, and counting restarts from year 1 the following year. On the other hand, reasons for long-term departures vary from person to person — simple visits home, overseas business trips, returning to one’s home country for childbirth, and so on.

On this point, even if you have made a long-term departure, if there are reasonable grounds for the reason for departure or special unavoidable circumstances, there are cases where it can be recognized. You explain the reason for the long-term departure properly, and attach supporting materials concerning those special circumstances. For those whose departures have been frequent and whose continuous period of residence may have been broken, we recommend consulting an administrative scrivener office at least once.

When You Have Periods of Late or Unpaid Taxes, Pension, or Insurance Premiums

If you have periods of late or unpaid taxes, pension, or insurance premiums, you may as well assume that the Permanent Residence application will, in the first instance, be denied. On this point, engaging an administrative scrivener office will not change past late or unpaid payments, so the result will not change. We are often asked, “Can it be saved if a good written statement of reasons is prepared?” — but the conclusion is that it cannot be saved.

On the other hand, the advantage of engaging an administrative scrivener office in such cases is that, when there have been late or unpaid amounts, they know from which point to start counting, how long a period of proper payment of various public dues is required to satisfy the approval requirements, and as a result they can advise you on the best timing to file the Permanent Residence application.

For Those Wrestling with Whether to Engage a Specialist Administrative Scrivener or Apply for Permanent Residence on Your Own

An application for Permanent Residence is a major procedure. Many people may struggle with which administrative scrivener to engage, or with financial constraints, even while wanting to entrust the matter to a specialist.

In such cases, many administrative scrivener offices now offer “free consultations,” so one approach is to first use a “free consultation” to discuss the anxieties and concerns you currently have.

Our office also offers free consultations, where we confirm our clients’ concerns, anxieties, and current situations, and provide optimal advice regarding obtaining Permanent Residence.

Free Consultation

When applying for a Permanent Residence visa, it is important to apply with a firm grasp of the points emphasized in the review. Due in part to the major changes in required documents in 2019, the impression is that the Permanent Residence visa review has become stricter year by year. We recommend first consulting an administrative scrivener with a high level of expertise regarding Permanent Residence visa applications.

At Administrative Scrivener Corporation Touch, we listen to each client’s situation in a free consultation and select the optimal approach toward obtaining the Permanent Residence visa.

Free consultation appointments can be arranged with our office by (1) telephone or (2) the inquiry form. We will be happy to support you with any concerns or worries regarding the Permanent Residence visa, so please feel free to contact us first.