Permanent Resident Visa

[jbdt]

HI everyone,

I'm going to apply for Permanent Residency in mid February and would like to ask those who have applied for PR before whether they also had to apply for another 5 year visa while the PR application was being processed. I have been told I need to have a valid visa while a application is being processed and my online search couldn't confirm what exactly that means. My current visa expires late April so I am a little concerned given the typical time it takes to process a PR visa.

If anyone could shed any light that would be great!

Thank you,

JBDT

[adamu]

Sounds like it would be sensible to just renew your visa first, then apply for PR. They might even tell you to do that if you try to apply with only a couple of months left. You can apply for renewal 3 months before expiry.

The only risk is that if you get a 1 year visa, you won't be able to apply for PR.

[RetireJapan]

I would apply for PR and see what they tell you about your visa when you hand in the application.

[Cheeseman]

I believe that “permanent residency” is not a visa and is dealt with separately.

[adamu]

I believe that “permanent residency” is not a visa and is dealt with separately.

If we want to get pedantic...

Technically a visa is the piece of paper that gets stuck into your passport by the Japanese embassy before you come to Japan. It's only valid for entering the country the first time. After that what you have is a "residence status" which is what the residence card shows. You extend and chage your residency status, not your visa. However, most people just say visa for simplicity.

Permanent residence is just another residency status. It's not different to the other statuses legally. You're right that the application is dealt with separately though. However, none of this information is useful to the OP, who probably already knows this.

[Cheeseman]

Sorry, I wasn't trying to be pedantic.
The point I tried to make is that if you have one particular status that is due for renewal and also want to apply fro PR, you will need to apply for both. At least this was how it was when I did it.

[Tony]

... if you have one particular status that is due for renewal and also want to apply fro PR, you will need to apply for both.

When applying for PR, I believe they check if you have at least 6 months left on your current residence status or not, if you do, they're happy to start processing your PR application, if not, they may ask you to renew your current residence status before applying. Of course ymmy according to the immigration office, the immigration officer accepting your application, the way the sun is shining during the vernal equinox and any other number of random factors.

[eagleyes]

April sounds a short time. I would apply first to renew the visa for a period of 3 years at least before trying to apply to PR.
PR take a long time to be processed anyway.

[gaijinkun]

Immigration will ask you to renew your current viza first.
They will screen your PR for at least 6 month and give you result.
From last summer they changed a bit required document list + they will ask your kazei nozei etc for last 5 years.
If you salary is less than 3.5 mil a year (including previous last 5 years) they will refuse to grant PR. If you have a family in Japan you should have more income.

[adamu]

Thought I would come back to this since I am doing some research into permanent residency myself, and found this:

なお，永住許可申請中に在留期間が経過する場合は，在留期間の満了する日までに別途在留期間更新許可申請をすることが必要です。

Which translates to:

If your residency status is due to expire during an application for permanent residency, it is also necessary to apply to renew your residency status separately before it expires.

http://www.moj.go.jp/ONLINE/IMMIGRATION/16-4.html