Job Discussion Forums

[meridian]

Hi,

does anyone know--

I was told that by turning in my alien registration card, this cancels any remaining time on my visa, which in turn cancels my residency status. Also, that by filing for non-residency, my visa will become invalid, even if it is not stamped out in my passport.

Can someone confirm this?

Or, is it possible to cancel residency without cancelling the work visa?

thanks

[PAULH]

Let me get this correct

You dont want to live in Japan any more, you want to cancel your residency and you want to hand in your gaijin card but you want to keep your work visa, which be definition is only valid if you live in japan, where you dont wnat to be?

Havent heard this one yet, but if you hand in the gaijin card when you leave the country, dont get a reentry visa, your work visa is canceled if you re-enter the country. No work visa, you cant work or live here.

Two questions:

why do you want to cancel residency but keep a work visa ?

why do you wnat to give back your gaijin card?

[meridian]

Hi Paul, I think you actually answered my post on the other forum as well-

so what happened was, I finished working a year in Japan and left without handing in my card. But I've been paying into the pension plan, and in order to claim the pension refund (which is quite a bit of money), I have to NOT have residency in Japan. So that is why I want to return the card.

Since I was supposed to hand in the card at the airport upon leaving, and didn't, I've been advised to send it by mail to the airport with a copy of my passport and letter explaining the circumstances- but I'm a bit nervous because I'm getting the impression that it's in some grey area where maybe they are not really supposed to do it.

So I'm asking about the work visa, mainly because I just don't want to complicate things by sending them more info or asking for things that I don't really need- One person told me I needed to also send proof of not working there anymore and ask for them to cancel my work visa/ another person said it wasn't necessary.

I currently have a 3 year work visa with 3 year re-entry permit. So I was also just wondering how it works- I didn't think that work visa was necessarily tied to alien registration card, and that cancelling card in turn cancels out the visa? I may return to Japan within that time (also as an Instructor) - it seemed to me that I should be able to work on the same visa? But maybe I'm wrong.

[PAULH]

[meridian]

Thanks for the information.

This has nothing to do with "having a cake and eating it too,"
I'm just in need of some objective advice and a better understanding of how the system works.

And honestly I'm still a bit confused. What do you mean, by "have it both ways?" Since I dont know if I will come back or not, I figured I should just get the pension money out now. I guess, if I went to work again, I would probably be enrolled in the pension plan again- but it's not like this changes the amount of money I'm getting back. It seems to me just a matter of timing and unknowns- so -in turn, I don't really understand what problem immigration officials would have with me leaving Japan, cancelling residency and claiming my pension refund, but since I have re-entry permit and visa (assuming I came back when they were still valid), going back to work, later if I decided to do so.

It seems like there is some missing piece of the puzzle that I am ignorant about, but I still don't know what it is. Is the visa SUPPOSED to be cancelled when one cancels residency? Or is the visa something independent of that?

[PAULH]

Meridian, let me fill in the pieces for you.

If you are paying into a Japanese pension fund (like I am to the tune of about 40,000 yen a month as well as helath insurance) I would have to stay in Japan for 25 years to actually collect my pension from the government. The payments each month have to be consecutive and continous for 25 years. If I go back to my country and still want to get a pension i would have to keep paying into a Japanese bank account even though I live overseas. Seeing as most JET teachers are working for a government sponsored organisation for a 3 year period, there is no expectation they will be here for 25 years, yet it is taken out of their salary, and they have no choice. JETS complained because they had to pay 20,000 yen a month for the pension with no chance of collecting, so about 5 years ago the government said that if you leave Japan, return to your country, you can claim back what you paid in premiums based on how long you had paid in. If you had worked 3 years you get back about 900,000 yen.
Howvere you must have left Japan to collect this.

For example I work at a national university and at the end of my contract my school will pay my repatriation expenses and plane fare once my contract expires. Once I go back to New Zealand I can claim up to 3 years of pension. if i pay in for 10 years, i only get back the first 3 years so in many ways it is unfair but that is the law as it stands. Otherwise to collect I have to pay in for 25 years to get any money back. Im not sure, but i think if you collect the pension you would have to start at the beginning again and the first years you paid in would not count as part of your 25 years. Either you pay into the pension fund continuously for 25 years or leave the country and get your refund, you cant have both pension repaid to you and then come back to Japan and work.

You may have to show the authorities that you have permanently returned to your country before they will refund it to you- if you have a reentry visa, and a valid work visa this may be very hard to prove.

The pension is not a savings pplan for foreigners but provides for Japanese in their old age- becuase of political pressure they created this loophole to allow foreigners to collect if they went back to their own countries. Howvere to hang onto your work visa, reentry visa AND collect your pension is abuse of the pension system and having it both ways.

Anyway as a means of investment, there are better ways to invest your money and make money on it than putting it back into the Japanese pension system but thats another story.

[PAULH]

PS

Im not sure what you mean by cancel residency. If you have a valid work visa and a re-entry permit it means you are still resident in japan and plan to live here. I had an american friend who just spent 6 months living in Australia because of health problems though he ha sa PR visa. he is still a japanese resident. Im not sure exactly what there is to cancel, as all you are is a number or file on some computer in the immigration files or at your city office. What is there to quit when you cancel residency? Do you simply become a 'non-person'? I have never heard of immigration cancelling visas unless it was obtained fraudulently in the first place, or you commit a crime requiring imprisonment and then they boot you out of the country. Either that or you get hit by a truck and die.

You may not be living here when you go back home but in the eyes of officialdom you are still a resident as long as you have a gaijin card and a re-entry visa. Thats my understanding anyway.

[PAULH]

HERE IS A PAGE THAT MAY SHED SOME LIGHT ON THE PENSION ISSUE:

http://www.kyoto-su.ac.jp/~trobb/pension.html

HOPE THIS HELPS

PAUL