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Good opportunity to learn
about
Japanese
visa in Saitama
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What can you
do if you are under overstay or illegal-stay?
Many foreign
clients have quite often come to our firm to consult about their status of overstay or
illegal stay in Japan. They shall be, of course, given deportation orders once
it was exposed to the immigration authority even though they still wanted to continue
staying in Japan without it being deported. @In
such cases, it should be worthwhile to examine possibility of " Permission
of Special Status of Residence". We
herewith described about details of the legal procedures concerned.
Legal
Resource
It
is one of the measures based on the Article 50 in the Immigration Control and Refugee
Recognition Law, that the Minister of Justice can exceptionally admit residence
of those suspects concerned in case that there are such particular reasons to
allow it.
Nature
in Legality
It
is not a right but a part of the deportation procedures to such illegal
suspects. It should be regarded as "extenuation" to ask the Minister
of Justice for relief by stating an objection to a judgment of deportation
delivered by the Immigration Bureau. Therefore, it is not an application for the
acceptance and thus there is not such a method as prescribed application
procedure.
Who
to Appeal
Those
who bring formal objection for deportation orders having been in illegal status
of overstay, non-possessing of intelligible passport or with camouflage
passports. In other words those who are not legitimate to reside in Japan.
The
Jurisdiction
The
Immigration Bureau under the Ministry of Justice
Possibility
of Permission
Those
who married a Japanese or permanent residence and Japanese children are supposed
have high probability to be admitted. Also, those who are residing in Japan for
a long term may be permitted, too. For other cases than the above, I would not
say it is impossible but it should be very difficult in reality.
Necessary Documents
There
are not such prescribed documents to prepare but to be case by case. Such
documents proving solid reasons for you to reside in Japan are demanded. For
your reference I listed up ones in the case of marriage with the Japanese as
most likely cases. In addition you should have to submit other documents as far
as required by the authorities. Needless to say, all they must be prepared in
Japanese or with Japanese translation.
*
Statements
* Passports
* Alien
Registration Cards
* Copy of
Certification of Alien Registration
* Copy of
Registration of the Spouse, or a Certificate of Marriage
* Resident's
Card of the Spouse
* Marriage
certificate of an Embassy
*
Certificate of Birth and its translation
*
Certificate of Job
* Resume of
the suspect and the spouse
* ID Card
* Maternity
Record Book
iif the spouse
was pregnantj
*
Certificate of Local Tax Payment
*
Certificate of Income Tax Payment
* Copy of
Bankbook
* Copy of
room-rent contract or Registration Certificate
* Map
from nearest
station to home
* Snapshot
iseveral piecesj
* Appealing
Letter
* Other
documents
Flowchart
of the procedures for special permission or deportation
Here
is the flowchart of procedures whether for your to be deported or given a
permission of special status of residence.
>> See
the chart
As
you see in the flowchart, upon receiving sentences of recognition and judgment
on your illegality you would need to further appeal for an oral trial and
objection respectively. Sometime immigration officers may hold out some papers
to let you renounce rights for such appeals, and recommend you to sign on them.
Note that once you had signed on the papers you shall lose opportunities to go
for further procedures to get a special permission.
Needless to say, that you need to make such appeals by preparing reasonable
documentations in accordance with the immigration law of Japan.
What
to do if you just overlooked the expiry date of your visa?
We quite often have such foreign clients, who are quite upset having found that
they were already overstaying due to a simple mistake overlooked the expiry date
of visa. We do understand that you did overstay just by a mistake but with
regret you are already under illegal status.
Nevertheless, unless it had already been longer than 1 month since the expiry
date, donft worry that seriously. You should appear at the immigration bureau
within 1 month, and then you shall be forgiven and able to renew your visa with
the procedures much simpler than the above.
However, if it had been longer than 1 month you would have to go through the
legal procedures as descried as above in principle. In that case you are
recommended to prepare those documentations
well explaining why you made such a mistake in a lawful manner when appearing at
the immigration
bureau already. Otherwise, you would have to go there again and again in order
to regain a visa.
Also, if you were found by police officers as overstay and arrested having
failed in appearing at the immigration bureau on your own, it could no longer be
deemed as a simple mistake but found as more serious suspicion of illegal stay.
Anyhow, the later you found such a mistake, the worse your position on
illegality would becomec.
Custody
Even if you
appeared at the Immigration Bureau on your own you are still in a position to be
taken into custody due to your illegality. However, the authority would not do
that in reality as far as they did not see such a risk on you to run away.
Investigation
of Illegality@
Things to be
investigated would be as follows.
*
Employment record and career of the suspect
* Purpose
and situation of entering into Japan
* Process of
becoming illegal stay and what you have been doing
* In the
case of marriage the process to get marry and life
*
Reason why you hope to reside in Japan
Application Procedures
Once
you appeared at the immigration bureau you will be examined by immigration
police officers, immigration officers about facts of your illegal stay in Japan.
Also, special officers will examine you whether your illegal stay should come
under deportation, or not. Of course (?), you will be judged to deportation.
On due
course you shall then be given a deportation order accordingly, yet you could
still appeal to the Minister of Justice whishing to further stay in Japan upon
making allowances for circumstances. This is what Permission of Special Status
of Residence means.
In the
process of the violation examination, usually you shall be restrained when
judged that your stay was illegal. However, once you did appeal and apply for
"Temporary Release Permission " and "Permission to Expansion of
Range of Activity " you could be exempted from such restraint and released by
paying bails. As for the range of amounts of the
bails, there seems to be various cases from JPY 300,000 to 600,000. Such bails
will be refunded to you unless you did not escape to anywhere. It would take 1
year or longer till you get a temporary release.
Since
April 1999 those heads of each local immigration bureau have been authorized to
give permissions for those cases on their own in the viewpoint for attempting to
be more prompt in the administrative process concerned, as far as those cases do
not influence to critical issues such as politics, diplomacy and securities etc.
However, it is still a fact that it takes considerable time for you to get a
final permission
Postscript
You may
think to attempt getting a permission of special status of residence by
disguised marriage it will, however, rather lead you to a serious trouble. Meanwhile, the chance
of getting permission would likely be high if your marriage status were true.
Also, there seems to be some cases that can be admitted to unmarried persons who
have been residing in Japan as quite long as 10 years or longer. Such criteria
whether, or not, to permit can hardly be clear since the immigration authorities
never disclose such things, yet we would assume that the chance of permission
would rather be narrow still, in case of unmarried.
For your
reference here is the written notice distributed to those who appeared at the
Immigration Bureau on their own:
|
Suspects
|
Illegality
|
Period
of illegal-stay
(years)
|
Status
of life
in Japan
|
Types
of visa given
|
|
A
woman from South-East Asia
|
Illegal-entry
and working
|
6
|
Married
to a Japanese citizen
|
Spouse
of Japanese
|
|
A
woman & her child from South-East Asia
|
Overstay
|
8
|
Not
yet married but living with a Japanese citizen. The child suffering from
intractable disease
|
Long-term
Resident
|
|
Parents
& their child from South-East Asia
|
Overstay
|
16
|
The
father suffering from intractable disease. Married after appearance.
|
Long-term
Resident
|
|
A
woman from Latin-America
|
Overstay
|
11
|
Married
with a Long-term
Resident after arrest
|
Long-term
Resident
|
|
A
man from South-East Asia
|
Illegal-entry
and working
|
16
|
Married
to a Japanese citizen and has their child and live together
|
Spouse
of Japanese
|
|
A
man from Latin-America
|
Illegal-entry
and working
|
15
|
Single
but suffering from intractable disease.
|
Long-term
Resident
|
|
A
man from East-Asia
|
Overstay
|
14
|
Overstaying
as a student
|
Student
|
|
A
mother and her child from South-East Asia
|
Overstay
|
18
|
Married
to a Japanese citizen and has their child and live together.
|
Long-term
Resident & Child of Japanese
|
|
A
woman from East-Asia
|
Illegal-entry
|
1
|
Once
deported and illegally re-entered. Then, married to a Japanese citizen.
|
Spouse
of Japanese
|
|
A
9-year old child from South-East Asia
|
Illegal
stay
|
9
|
An
abandoned child born in Japan and being raised by Japanese.
|
Long-term
Resident
|
|
A
man from Latin-America
|
Overstay
and working
|
6
|
Married
to a legitimate same nationals and then got arrested.
|
Long-term
Resident
|
|
A
man from East Asia
|
Illegal-entry
and working
|
33
|
A
65 year-old single having no family in Japan
|
Long-term
Resident
|
|
A
mother and her child from East Asia
|
Overstay
|
10
|
Divorced
from a Japanese and then had a child of another Japanese without marriage.
|
Long-term
Resident & Child of Japanese
|
|
18
Parents and 2 children from South-East Asia
|
Overstay
and Illegal-stay
|
16
|
An
overstaying couple gave births to 2 children in Japan.
|
Long-term
Resident
|
|
Others
|
|
Suspects
|
Illegality
|
Period
of illegal-stay
(years)
|
Status
of life
in Japan
|
|
A
man from South Asia
|
Overstay
|
3
|
Entered
with a Student visa but left the school afterward and arrested as
overstay. Having married to a Japanese citizen but judged as a disguised
marriage.
|
|
A
man from Africa
|
Illegal
entry and working
|
4
|
Entered
with a false name & ID and married to@
a Japanese citizen and then given a
birth to a baby. But, divorced and arrested due to domestic violence
against the Japanese wife.
|
|
A
woman from East Asia
|
Other
crimes & overstay
|
6
|
Entered
with a Temporary Visitor and changed to a Spouse visa having married to a
Japanese citizen. But, repeatedly arrested by commitments of crimes as
theft, bodily injury and again as theft and overstay.
|
|
A
man from East Asia
|
Other
crimes
|
8
|
Stayed
with a Dependant visa. But, committed crimes as theft and fraud and
sentenced with 3-year imprisonment with probation.
|
|
A
woman from East Asia
|
Other
crimes
|
7
|
Entered
with a Spouse visa and divorced from the Japanese husband. And then,
married again with another Japanese citizen but without living together.
Meanwhile, committed a crime as prostitution and sentenced with 5-month
imprisonment with a probation.
|
|
A
man from Latin-America
|
Other
crimes
|
11
|
Stayed
with Long-term Resident visa as a Sansei. But, committed crimes as robbery
with bodily-injury, gun-possession, theft, drug-handling and sentenced
with 6-year imprisonment.
|
|
A
man from South-Asia
|
Overstay
|
9
|
Stayed
with a Skilled Labor visa as a cook, but the restaurant went bankruptcy
and become overstay. He had been married to a Japanese citizen when
arrested as overstay, but rejected for Special Permission because he had
already got another deportation record in the past and his Japanese wife
was also divorcing from him.
|
|
A
woman from South-East Asia
|
Illegal-entry
and working
|
9
|
Illegally
entered and working, and then married to a Japanese citizen. Appeared at
the immigration office on her own wishing for Special Permission and
arrested after that. But, her appeal was rejected because it was
discovered that they were not living together.
|
|
A
woman from East Asia
|
Overstay
& Illegal-entry
|
1
|
Once
given Special Permission during illegal stay due to marriage to Japanese
citizen. Then, divorced afterward and deported as overstay. But,
repeatedly committed illegal entries even after deportation and arrested
and sentenced 2-year imprisonment.
|
|
A
woman from East Asia
|
Overstay
|
6
|
Entered
with a Temporary Visitor visa and overstayed and working. Married to a
Japanese citizen and appeared at the immigration office on her own wishing
for Special Permission. But, her appeal was rejected because it was
discovered that they were not living together.
|
|
A
woman from East Asia
|
Unqualified
activities
|
3
|
Stayed
with a Dependant visa, but working on full-time basis without eligibility
for working activities.
|
|
A
man from Latin-America
|
Other
crimes
|
5
|
Stayed
with Long-term Resident visa as a Sansei. But, committed a crime as rape
with bodily-injury and sentenced with 2-year imprisonment. Even though he
was living together with a Japanese citizen, but she rejected to be a
visa-sponsor of him.
|
|
Others
|
-
Unquote -
As
for those examples given permission I think
it should be worthwhile to note, that in most of the a.m. cases given
Permissions of Special Status of Residence those suspects, who made the appeals,
had never committed any crimes nor illegal activities under Japanese laws other
than overstay nor illegal entry.
On the other hand, as for those examples
of rejection the immigration authority
rejected those appeals for Permission of Special Status of Residence in case
suspects willfully and repeatedly violated the Japanese laws in regard to
immigration control or committed other serious and atrocious crimes.
Also, Permission of Special Status of Residence cannot be given nor even be
considered if you were not eligible for any type of Japanese visa from the
beginning.
Since
introduction of the new check system at those international airports etc. in
Japan, which has enabled the immigration authority to check and identify
personal records of each foreigner entering Japan in view of immigration
control, my firm has often received inquiries from such foreigners who were
rejected to enter Japan by the a.m. illegality check system.
This is supposed to be because, that most of such foreigners were in attempt to
hide some illegal records in the past (i.e. overstay, deportation and other
crimes) and cheat the immigration authority by using forged passports, false
name etc. to enter Japan again but such attempts were failed by checking of
finger prints kept in the system.
Needless
to say, that no lawyer in Japan can help you to cheat the government authorities
concerned or to violate Japanese laws so that it does not make sense to ask
lawyers how you can break through the new check system and illegally enter Japan
again.
Instead I, as a qualified immigration lawyer, strongly recommend you to stay
away from any illegal approach to enter and stay in Japan but do it in some
lawful manner from the very beginning.
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