PR Application Denied - follow up meeting

[captainspoke]

I'm not at all an expert, and only did mine long ago. Not sure if it was here or somewhere else, but I've at least read that if you are turned down, that you should wait a year (or longer) before reapplying.

Does anyone else have any comment on that?

[RetireJapan]

I got turned down once (applied based on bad information from the immigration office), so I got an apology and very clear instructions on what to do before applying again.

Second application was successful.

[OkiBum]

This might shed some light to your situation:

• My wife applied for PR last year and had her application rejected. (I am a Japanese national through Naturalization)

• We went to the immigration office to ask the reason for the rejection.

• A senior officer took out the time to meet us and was quite polite.

Reason: Late payment for Nenkin.

My wife while changing jobs had missed one month of Nenkin payment a year earlier.
We made the payment for that one month after like 10 months or so. Didn't think it would come to bite us later.
We explained the situation and that it was a honest mistake and if we could appeal the decision. He said even if we were to appeal the decision, it would most likely not change.

His advice: The late payment shows in the system for 2 or 3 years. (I can't remember correctly). He said to wait it out and then apply for PR so that the late payment is out of their system.

We are in the waiting phase at the moment.

Let us know how your talk with the Immigration officer goes. Good Luck!

[fools_gold]

His advice: The late payment shows in the system for 2 or 3 years. (I can't remember correctly). He said to wait it out and then apply for PR so that the late payment is out of their system.

That's useful to know. Like the OP, I had a big gap in my nenkin payments for after coming to Japan but I had been paying in regularly for a few years prior to my PR application.

[Beaglehound]

This might shed some light to your situation:

• My wife applied for PR last year and had her application rejected. (I am a Japanese national through Naturalization)

• We went to the immigration office to ask the reason for the rejection.

• A senior officer took out the time to meet us and was quite polite.

Reason: Late payment for Nenkin.

My wife while changing jobs had missed one month of Nenkin payment a year earlier.
We made the payment for that one month after like 10 months or so. Didn't think it would come to bite us later.
We explained the situation and that it was a honest mistake and if we could appeal the decision. He said even if we were to appeal the decision, it would most likely not change.

His advice: The late payment shows in the system for 2 or 3 years. (I can't remember correctly). He said to wait it out and then apply for PR so that the late payment is out of their system.

We are in the waiting phase at the moment.

Let us know how your talk with the Immigration officer goes. Good Luck!

The late payment thing seems like a harsh criterion to me, it’s not hard to miss payments through forgetfulness, not fully understanding what you’re supposed to do etc. Fair enough if you are a serial ‘offender’ but there should be some discretion applied IMO. Best of luck to your wife next time.

[seb]

The late payment thing seems like a harsh criterion to me, it’s not hard to miss payments through forgetfulness, not fully understanding what you’re supposed to do etc. Fair enough if you are a serial ‘offender’ but there should be some discretion applied IMO. Best of luck to your wife next time.

I put payments for later when I had money issues (low income period in the middle of my freelancing career) and the deadline on the bills was for 3 years later. I got a call after 3 months of skipping from the pension office saying "that's the expiration date of the bill ticket, not the deadline for the payment". oooookaaaaayyy...

anyway, now I know if I get a nice 3 year visa this year, I should still wait 1.5 years before applying, since that's how long I am 100% sure I didn't pay past the deadline.

[captainspoke]

Over on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comm ... plication/

[TJKansai]

It's been decades so hard to remember the details. I do know I never paid into nenkin as an eikaiwa teacher, but once moving to a uni position never missed one (automatic). I think I got a 1yr spousal visa a couple years after getting married, then a 3yr and immediately applied for and got PR, perhaps just a few months later. Might have had 1st child by then.

[ExpatScot]

This might shed some light to your situation:

• My wife applied for PR last year and had her application rejected. (I am a Japanese national through Naturalization)

• We went to the immigration office to ask the reason for the rejection.

• A senior officer took out the time to meet us and was quite polite.

Reason: Late payment for Nenkin.

My wife while changing jobs had missed one month of Nenkin payment a year earlier.
We made the payment for that one month after like 10 months or so. Didn't think it would come to bite us later.
We explained the situation and that it was a honest mistake and if we could appeal the decision. He said even if we were to appeal the decision, it would most likely not change.

His advice: The late payment shows in the system for 2 or 3 years. (I can't remember correctly). He said to wait it out and then apply for PR so that the late payment is out of their system.

We are in the waiting phase at the moment.

Let us know how your talk with the Immigration officer goes. Good Luck!

Thanks to everyone for the advice. After going to the immigration office yesterday the reason given for rejection was exactly the same as OkiBum said above, my wife had paid her nenkin late a couple of times in the last 2 years. She only paid one or two days late both times as she was waiting for her salary to come through but that was seemingly reason enough. Anyway, if we still want to go for PR, we'll just have to wait about 2 years till that is off her record.

If anyone is interested, the actual meeting with the immigration staff wasn't really a meeting at all, he just gave us the reason for why we were rejected over the counter, it took about 2 mins. We actually went there with an immigration lawyer (cost 11,000) as my wife wanted to make sure she got all the details correct. He was a nice guy and gave us some good advice but probably wasn't really necessary for such a simple case, he did however put my wife at ease which was my main reason for inviting him.

[adamu]

my wife had paid her nenkin late a couple of times in the last 2 years.

Thanks for following-up.

https://www.isa.go.jp/en/applications/p ... jyu01.html

The pension requirements seem to be a requirement of the "principal supporter". That seems to be a different concept to the "guarantor". The guidelines state that this route is for "Foreign nationals who are the spouse of a Japanese national, permanent resident, or special permanent resident" so my guess is that the "principal supporter" is the spouse. But I wonder if it could be possible to apply via this route with a different principal supporter who has clear tax/pension records for the last two years (mother/father-in-law, for example).