Renewing Zairyu Card (as a PR)

Easy but not effortless

My zairyu card was due to run out in a few weeks, so I popped into immigration on Thursday to renew it. In the seven years since I renewed it last, the process has become slightly smoother, but it is still not as effortless as it could be.

Before you go to the immigration office

For starters, although it is now possible to apply for some visas online in Japan, it is not yet possible for a permanent resident to renew a zairyu card online.

However, the process to do so is relatively simple, quick, and thankfully free (other than the cost of getting a photo).

In order to renew your zairyu card as a PR, you need to take your passport (this caught me out -I had to go home to get mine), your old zairyu card, an appropriate photo (3x4cm), and an application form.

You can see all the details here, and download the application form in PDF or Excel format. The latter means you can fill it in on a computer and print it out 🙂

At the immigration office

I chose… poorly, and went to immigration in the afternoon on the day before Golden Week. Oooops.

Fortunately ‘busy’ for the Sendai Immigration Office means that there were about ten people waiting 😉

Renewing a zairyu card for a permanent resident is a fairly trivial administrative procedure, so as long as you have passport, zairyu card, photo, and correctly filled-in application form you should be in and out without too much trouble.

I arrived at 14:55, went to the initial reception where they checked my application and kindly cut my photo out for me, then had my application file checked by the main reception.

15:09 I was called to the counter and an immigration officer took my application.

15:19 I was called up, given my new zairyu card, and had my passport and old zairyu card (with a hole punched in it) returned.

The new card is valid until 2029, by which point there is a decent chance I will be a citizen. I won’t miss this experience, relatively painless though it is.

How about you? What was your experience of renewing a zairyu card like?

18 Responses

  1. Pretty much the same for me at Kobe Immigration Office. It was quite crowded, about 40 people waiting and took about 45 minutes for the whole process. I printed out the online form beforehand, confirmed what I needed, so the whole process was pretty smooth.

  2. I love going to my immigration office!! There’s a woman there working and she speaks English. She’s so nice. So we’ll get chatting about my kids or whatever book in English we’re reading.
    We are pretty rural too so 3 people waiting would be too full.
    Anyway, Can’t wait to go back and see her. I should ask for her number to keep in touch but didn’t want to cross the line seeing that’s she immigration.

  3. In the pic accompanying the title, at top… On the right is that someone’s passport number right there in the clear?!?

    My renewal was 5/2020, nobody there. Had it all prepped, might’ve taken 10-15min.

      1. That is the number of my expired zairyu card. Don’t think it is going to be of much use to anyone.

  4. Just out of interest … does your passport need to be valid (i.e. not
    past its expiration date). I noticed the other day that mine had expired
    (haven’t had any opportunity to use it during the covid era…).

    1. That didn’t come up (my passport has a few more years on it, thankfully), but I did see if I could do the procedure without a passport -didn’t want to go home and get it.

      They said it was possible if you had a good reason like you lost it or it was stolen. ‘I left it at home’ was not deemed to be a good reason!

      I would call up and ask before going in. Presumably it will be okay, you might have to write a short letter explaining the situation.

  5. Hello,
    Question:
    What are the pluses and minuses of a workers visa compared to a business owner visas? If someone had the option between the two.

    Thank you for your time?

    1. Sorry, I’m not an immigration specialist 😉

      Presumably it will depend on what kind of work you want to do.

    1. I am hoping this ludicrous policy will be eliminated by the time I claim my pension, but I always thought the option of going back to ‘reset’ it was an interesting idea. I wonder how long you would have to live in the UK (or The Phillippines) to have it reset permanently?

  7. I’m curious to know what is behind a decision to become a citizen. It seems like a lot of work. What makes it worth the work?

    1. Citizenship is similar to permanent residence, so there is not much practical difference.

      One big thing is that citizens have the right to return to Japan (2020 showed us that was not the case for PR in exceptional circumstances). You also can’t really lose your citizenship, but can lose PR.

      Citizens can vote, and have legal recourse if discriminated against due to their race. Citizens can run for public office.

      The downside to citizenship is having to renounce your existing citizenships (in the majority of cases).

      I think at the end of the day it is a personal and emotional decision. People will naturalise if it feels right for them.

  8. Crazy you wrote this today. I have the application for extension printed out in front of me. I’ll be going in next Monday. I always go to IMM super early to be one of the first in line. Although not sure if that helps in this situation as I’m wondering if new cards are handed out in the afternoon regardless?
    Also, is there only one paper application to hand in or more than one?
    lastly (sorry), if I go there to renew my own, do I need a represenative signature on the application? Kind of confusing.
    Thanks for your Retire Japan site. I read it every Monday.

    1. Ha, ha, good timing.

      In my experience new cards are handed out as soon as your application is processed, so getting there early should mean you get the card sooner.

      Just the one simple paper form, and the representative section is for a lawyer or family member who goes on your behalf, so no need to fill that in if you go in person.

      Good luck!

  9. My experience (in Feb 2022) .
    It took about 2+ hours at Tokyo Immigration (30 mins walk from Shinagawa station); long queues, hard-to-find counter (at least for me, for renewing perm residency).

    They had 2 types of ticket numbers being called out, making it hard to know which counter was calling, lots of background noise making it hard to hear some of the announcements. Had to go ask when my number wasn’t called.

    I brought a few photos (the least ugly ones I had) but when I sumbitted, the guy said, “ou cant use that! It’s the same as the one on your (7 year old) card” –duh! — OK, my bad! I should have checked. I went to off to get new photo, then back to queue, then all was OK, and they actually were friendly.

  10. Please refresh my memory: I have a PR but may have to go back to Europe for a couple a of years. Can my PR be revoked?
    What if i just come back to Japan on time to renew the Zairyu card (PR one) before expiration and then go back to Europe?

    1. My understanding of this is that it is a grey area. PR are supposed to live in Japan, if you stop living in Japan you should give up PR.

      Re-entry permits (the formal ones that last for five years) are to leave Japan for a specific, time-limited event like working abroad or caring for a sick relative.

      In practice I think you can just get a five-year re-entry permit and as long as you come back in time to renew you might be okay. But they could choose to interpret the rules more strictly. What would you put as your address in Japan at that point, for example?

      Like I said, kind of a grey area.