Job Discussion Forums

[Yawarakaijin]

What is the penalty for giving notice of change of residency past the 14 days given in regards to the Alien Registration card?

[Glenski]

Perhaps a severe scolding by a snotty OL. You might also have to deal with a difference in your health insurance payments, because your location is one thing they base it on.

If you are delinquent, just go in and apologize.

[Yawarakaijin]

Thanks Glenski. I was pretty sure it was'nt too severe. Well, I'm off to the ward office. Hope I get a nice OL.

[Brooks]

look I don`t think you have to worry.
In Sagamihara they are fairly helpful.

[furiousmilksheikali]

[fluffyhamster]

It would help if these city halls were open on weekends, or late on a weekday evening every now and then (I've never noticed one open outside the working week). Quite how they expect teachers who might not get much time off in which to report everything but their changes of underwear is beyond me.

[JimDunlop2]

Agreed. However, at least where I work, people are usually pretty understanding of errands that must be done from 8-4 Mon-Fri. It's not just the foreigners that have them, so it's not unusual for me to see Japanese teachers leaving school early to make a doctor or dentist appointment, or perhaps a trip to city hall or the post office or whatnot. It's not USUAL, so unless it becomes a strangely frequent occurence, I've rarely seen anyone get questioned over it.

Also, I've learned (at least from my foreign perspective) that a LITTLE polite assertiveness can go a long ways... For instance, if I need to leave early to make a doctor's appointment, I rarely ASK: "May I leave at 3:30 to go see my doctor?" But rather, "Today I have a doctor's appointment in the afternoon. I'm sorry, I couldn't schedule it for any other time so I need to leave at 3:30 today...." At least so far, no one has told me "no" yet...

[furiousmilksheikali]

[fluffyhamster]

Ultimately I guess there isn't much that the city hall can do when us naughty foreigners don't quite follow every last little regulation to the letter (and I'm not too bothered either about 'em). Probably the only people who get at all sniffy about stuff lagging behind are the visa guys.

[furiousmilksheikali]

[fluffyhamster]

Yeah, but the visa people do notice if things on your ID card don't tally with your present circumstances, and presumably could make life difficult if you weren't reporting changes of address etc for years.

[G Cthulhu]

[Yawarakaijin]

Just a quick update. As Brooks mentioned, and had always been in previous cases, the staff at Sagamihara city office are pretty helpful. I went in and apologized right away saying I had completely forgot the 2 week rule. The lady, whom I had dealt with before, simply lauged and said "dont worry about it, in Machida it would be a problem but not here".

Later though, while filling out the form she noticed the date of the move. She sucked in some air through her teeth for a bit and asked me if that was really the date I wanted to put on my move I said sure, its the truth. Well she came back with a couple guys and said there was a big problem...now I'm freaking out as I'm also about to go to get my visa extended. She basically states that according to the date I had written I had essentially lied to immigration on my first visa extension. Now I'm freaking out because thats not the case. After a bit of to and fro it turns out it was just a simple misunderstanding of dates. I moved May 1st and not January 5th (which would have made me a liar to immigration)

So as it stands, and there is no excuse for it on my part, in Sagamiono 10 months late in notifying them of a move..no problem. Making false statements in regards to place of residence while applying for a visa extension.. BIG BIG no no.

I thought it was pretty sporting of her to give me a change the date of my move before she called over her buddies who thought I had misrepresented myself when applying for my first visa extension

[JimDunlop2]

THis is another one of those situations where people in a position of "authority" stick their nose into business that is really none of their business.

The municipal government administers the "gaijin cards" and are separate from, and not the same thing as "immigration" who represent the federal goverment. As far as I'm concerned, you could tell the CITY any date you want, and no one would be any wiser.

It obviously isn't that serious, otherwise they wouldn't be so lenient about the 2-week thing... But it seems to me that in Yawarakaijin's case they chose to be d!cks about the whole affair.... Which in Japanese bureaucracy is very common.

If you indeed chose to "lie" to immigration, why is it a city representative that makes it her business to report you to them for doing so? Has she been deputised by the police to do this?

[Yawarakaijin]

I'm not quite sure how much of a say the city office has in regards to immigration but it did not bother me too much. As I said she even gave me the option to change my moving date to avoid any hassle.

The conversation did not progress too long before we realized she had just transcribed the dates in her head or I had written them down in the wrong order ( day month year, month day year , who knows ) In all honestly im not sure what the penalty was going to be or what would have happened next had I really lied about my place of residence when I first applied for my visa extension and the city office had caught me.

Anyways I was in and out in under 15 minutes, very nice.