Opening an SBI NISA Account in 2020

[Moneymatters]

I imagine people have had different experiences with opening an SBI account for NISA and the SBI process may have been refined and improved over the years. Therefore I thought I'd capture my recent experience just in case it was of use to someone else considering to embark on this journey.

Follow SBI website instructions for Foreigners to call SBI by phone and request an application pack.
Easy conversation in Japanese. Provide Name, Address, phone number. Might get asked if you are American.
Spend additional time ensuring they capture your name in Katakana correctly.

Pack arrives within about a week.
Four forms to complete. Realize you didn't need to worry about getting the name correct on the phone as none of the forms are pre-poplated.

1 NISA 口座申込書 For opening the NISA account
2 証券総合サービス申込書 For opening the SBI Shoken account and capturing your bank details for a connected account. This has an お客様受付番号.
3 お客さまのご登録情報等のご確認（個人のお客さま）For identity related information, 在留カード details and such.
4 特定取引を行う者届出書 OECD/CRS related declaration of nationality stuff.

Send all above forms with front/rear copies of 在留カード and My Number Card (or the card informing you of your My Number) in the supplied Envelope.

Wait 6 weeks.

Receive a letter back with item 1. and your scanned IDs returned along with a note saying 2. was missing.
(No mention of 3 or 4 although they were all in the same envelope. You are sure because you took pictures of before you sent it.).
No blank copy of 2. is included in this package.

Phone SBI.

Attempted to provide 受付番号 mentioned above. Realize they have no desire to hear that. They will ask for your phone number instead.
If you ask "which phone number?" they will say. "The one you detailed on your application"
Fight the urge to say "The application I submitted 6 weeks ago or something more recent?".

Spend 20 mins on the phone explaining the above and requesting a blank copy of 2.
Also request blank copies of 3 and 4 as they can't confirm if they received those. And as they haven't returned then we must sadly assume they are also lost.

Receive no apology, or anything close to one, despite paperwork with your bank details having gone missing.

Your goal at this point should be to just resubmit the whole pack again by post or in person like Michael Douglas did at "Whammy Burgers" in the Movie Falling Down.

Avoid pitying look from wife who completed her application entirely electronically in the space of 5 days.

[RetireJapan]

I apologise for wholeheartedly enjoying that post

[Ori]

Oh, yeah, they are the worst.
Actually, my initial application process was OK, but Junior NISA creation and the recent ID re-verification (or whatever that was) was not fun at all.
I keep my non-NISA investments at Rakuten and they are definitely not so stupidly and inefficiently bureaucratic.

[Ori]

Ben, I've just had an idea. Maybe you could create a pinned topic where people could vote for the brokers and write reviews as well?
If I knew how bad SBI was, I would never open an account with them.

[Moneymatters]

I’m also finding the humor in this and will endeavor to provide updates as things progress baring such situations as my incarceration.

Wife and son are on SBI so I want at least my NISA portion on the same platform. But may consider someone else for a broker account.

Rakuten are in the running for my lucrative business and are currently feverishly processing my ideco application.
I followed the instructions and picked the following month as the first time to draw payments. A week after submitting the completed application they sent this message.
（審査期間：1～2ヵ月）がおこなわれます。

Never realized the heady world of high finance was such seasonal work.

[Kanto]

I’m also finding the humor in this and will endeavor to provide updates as things progress baring such situations as my incarceration.

Wife and son are on SBI so I want at least my NISA portion on the same platform. But may consider someone else for a broker account.

Rakuten are in the running for my lucrative business and are currently feverishly processing my ideco application.
I followed the instructions and picked the following month as the first time to draw payments. A week after submitting the completed application they sent this message.
（審査期間：1～2ヵ月）がおこなわれます。

Never realized the heady world of high finance was such seasonal work.

Everything with iDeCo takes time, regardless of the company.

Each individual company has to contact the JIS & T , which in turn has to contact the relevant government organizations.

They have one of the best selection of funds though. Their iDeco selection even has some Vanguard products.

Honest truth though, I joined with them because they are less likely to reject you for not having perfect Japanese.

[RetireJapan]

Sounds like the situation has changed slightly, and the three big online brokers are not all the same.

I've been pretty happy with Rakuten and Monex, and my wife has had no problems with SBI (but then again, she is Japanese).

Would I be right in thinking that Rakuten (and maybe Monex) are a better choice to recommend to people?

Think I will create that post.

[adamu]

It does sound frustrating that they can't accept foreigners' applications online, and then make mistakes when you do the offline application.

I was fortunate enough to apply enough years ago that I didn't have any problems opening the account. I can't remember the application process.

The change of address / change of employer process for iDeCo recently was pretty painful though, lots of different packs of forms that you need to order online, and then post in, all of them with ID verification. I didn't get any confirmation that they received the forms or that the change was processed (same for the recent account re-verification mail), but the changes are visible online, so they seem to have proceed it.

[Moneymatters]

Everything with iDeCo takes time, regardless of the company.

Each individual company has to contact the JIS & T , which in turn has to contact the relevant government organizations.

They have one of the best selection of funds though. Their iDeco selection even has some Vanguard products.

Honest truth though, I joined with them because they are less likely to reject you for not having perfect Japanese.

Thanks for that. I suspect I’ll be getting more opportunities to brush up my Japanese with them! Which can be generously described as “effective”.

[Moneymatters]

<Continuation from the initial Post>

I'm adding this for purely cathartic purposes and possibly for posterity in the vein of Robert Scott's diaries. Whilst at the same time realizing I'm probably having more of a Lawrence Oates experience. "I'm applying to SBI now. I may be sometime."

After waiting a 5 days I did receive replacement blank copies of the 3 forms they claimed to have never received and duly set aside time and a bottle of wine to repeat the application this coming Saturday.

Today I have just received my "missing" completed forms back!
Having been separated from my NISA application, they had been undergoing eagle eyed scrutiny by those bastions of banking integrity within the secure walls of SBI Towers.

Rather embarrassingly, on first inspection the reason for their return appears to be entirely my fault!!
The enclosed compliment slips says I had neglected to include any identifying documentation! DOH!

Hang on a minute. SBI themselves returned my identifying documents back to me last week!! No wonder they couldn't find them! If only they'd held onto them a bit longer!

Among the many questions I'm left with, such as, "Are SBI employees allowed to use power tools." and "Is drinking on the job really OK over there.", is, how frequently are us helpless foreigners making applications without supporting documents?

The envelopes they provide even have these little tick boxes to ensure you include all the required documents including proof of identity. Surely. Although I'm less sure of anything regarding SBI with each passing day. Surely, the first thing you'd do on opening that envelope is, put down your Tequila slammer and look to see if the tick boxes were indeed ticked.

BTW, has anyone else noticed that only us foreigners get to repeatedly send entire starter packs of identity theft material via the post? With the various accounts and rebates I'm progressing, my 在留カード copies are rarely not in transit.
Still, at least once this is sorted they won't routinely ask me to verify my identity and residency status. ha ha.

If someone still reading this, is bold enough to attempt an application to SBI, might I suggest you either:

a) Before you post anything, call and tell them what you are about to post. Get a person's name and post it to their attention sending by registered delivery.

b) Completely separate your account applications. They clearly are overwhelmed by a simultaneous NISA and Broker account creation.
Start off simple. Baby steps. Just apply for a Broker account. Once that's safely in place, proceed cautiously with your NISA application.

I'm still having the wine. Whilst I consider how to respond to these competing requests from SBI in a suitably passive aggressive manner. I suspect it will be an envelope in an envelope and a wine stained compliment slip of my own!

<To be continued>

Did I mention I have a middle name?