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Pitarou
Joined: 16 Nov 2009
Posts: 1116
Location: Narita, Japan
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 Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 3:22 am Post subject: Visa rules set to get much tighter |
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If this article is accurate, the visa situation in Japan is set to become much, much tighter. You could lose your visa the instant you lose your job, with violations punished by fines and imprisonment. And who knew you had to tell the Immigration Agency that you were living with your boy/girlfriend?
Excerpts from the Japan Times article:
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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government has submitted a bill to revise the immigration control law that will ... [take] aim at what the government tentatively calls bogus visa holders, or giso taizai-sha (those staying under false visa status).
Under the current framework, bogus immigrants are stripped of their visa if apprehended, but they face no criminal penalty ... The law, if enacted, will subject those who obtained or renewed visas through “forgery and other unjust measures” to criminal penalties, including up to three years’ imprisonment and/or a maximum fine of ¥3 million.
The envisaged law will also expand the scope of foreigners subject to visa revocation.
Currently, foreign residents are allowed to retain their visa for three months after stopping their permitted activities. The bill calls for scrapping this three-month rule and ensuring that foreigners who discontinue their activities forfeit their residency status the instant they are caught engaging in something different or “planning to do so.”
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“... it’s often the case foreigners applying for a working visa don’t inform immigration of the fact they live together with someone they are not legally married to, because they thought the information was not relevant. But the reality is many of these omissions have been deemed by immigration serious enough to revoke one’s visa,” Yamawaki said. ... “under the intended law, even if you’re not being actively deceitful, you could still be prosecuted” |
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timothypfox
Joined: 20 Feb 2008
Posts: 492
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| Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 4:45 am Post subject: |
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| And Japan more firmly aligns itself to American domestic and international policing in the name of stopping criminals and terrorists. Criminals? Aren't those largely Japanese or is that being conveniently overlooked to bolster a more nationalist Japan? Terrorists? Umm.... don't see any really... I guess they will roll as soon as Japan changes from a nation of peace to a nation of war and American military lap-dog-dom. |
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Mr. Leafy
Joined: 24 Apr 2012
Posts: 246
Location: North of the Wall
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| Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 11:03 am Post subject: Re: Visa rules set to get much tighter |
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| Pitarou wrote: |
Excerpts from the Japan Times article:...
“... it’s often the case foreigners applying for a working visa don’t inform immigration of the fact they live together with someone they are not legally married to, because they thought the information was not relevant. But the reality is many of these omissions have been deemed by immigration serious enough to revoke one’s visa,” Yamawaki said. ... “under the intended law, even if you’re not being actively deceitful, you could still be prosecuted” |
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Deceitful about what? I lived there for a decade and I don't recall any visa or other form asking who I lived with. As I recall, it clearly asked about family members only.
BUT Maybe I just forgot because I always lived alone and it wasn't relevant. Where are you supposed to inform them of this? |
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rxk22
Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629
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| Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 1:29 pm Post subject: |
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| Wow. I am cool with strict immigration controls. But what does this even intend to fix? Seems arbitrary at best |
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TokyoLiz
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1548
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 10:55 pm Post subject: |
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| The bit about cohabiting, who are they referring to? A new visa applicant? |
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nightsintodreams
Joined: 18 May 2010
Posts: 558
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| Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 11:45 pm Post subject: |
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Yea, that bit is worrying. I've been here six years, if I decide to move in with my girlfriend, do I have to contact immigration and tell them about it? Or can I just wait until my next VISA renewal?
Seems a bit of a strange thing for them to need to know. |
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marley'sghost
Joined: 04 Oct 2010
Posts: 255
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| Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2015 1:05 am Post subject: |
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I think they should crack down on these bogus visas. Like the "technical" one that Chinese "intern" shucking oysters in the article is working under. Or those "nursing interns" they ship over every few years to clean bedpans with the promise that if they can pass a Japanese proficiency test (about a 1 percent success rate if I remember) they can stay. If they were just honest about what these visas are for in the first place they could save themselves all this hand wringing.
Looks like we'll be hearing more about how "gaijin crime" is increasing again...... |
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ssjup81
Joined: 15 Jun 2009
Posts: 664
Location: Adachi-ku, Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2015 6:22 am Post subject: |
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| This is nerve racking. I have a humanities/international/engineering visa... I have to renew it next year since it was only a one year this time given my job situation and the close expiration this year. ギリギリ. If this goes through, I doubt they'll be granting people like me with three or five year visas in my current line of work, as we're pretty expendable. I don't always want to do this type of gig either...it'll make changing jobs difficult... |
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Rooster.
Joined: 13 Mar 2012
Posts: 247
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| Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2015 5:43 pm Post subject: |
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What're the chances of this passing?
This is only going to hurt Japan as well as those reliant on visas. This is a horrible idea.
At what point was it deemed necessary to police who stayed with who? There was never an option to even mention that. |
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Lamarr
Joined: 27 Sep 2010
Posts: 190
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| Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2015 6:58 pm Post subject: |
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| The bill calls for scrapping this three-month rule and ensuring that foreigners who discontinue their activities forfeit their residency status the instant they are caught engaging in something different or “planning to do so.” |
That doesn't mean though that if you quit your job, you'll automatically lose your visa and get imprisoned or fined. You'll only lose your "residency status" if you quit your job and then get caught at least "planning" to do work not permitted by your current visa. Technically, that's the way it works now, but I guess this bill is intended to enforce that more strictly.
Also, the fine and imprisonment only appears to apply to people who forge their visas somehow. |
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nightsintodreams
Joined: 18 May 2010
Posts: 558
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| Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2015 11:25 pm Post subject: |
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| I still really want to know more about this whole "living with a partner" without informing immigration thing. Has anyone heard of this before. If I move in with my girlfriend, do I have to inform immigration immediately? |
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Chroniclesoffreedom
Joined: 13 Jan 2015
Posts: 261
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| Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 2:21 am Post subject: |
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You mean you can lose your visa the moment you get fired or quit your job? I know china and South Korea are like that. But I read somewhere else Japan is a place where your visa is actually your own. I mean, before you could quit your job and find another job as long as your visa is valid.
Are they changing that now to become more like South Korea and China? Meaning that your employer controls your visa? Therefore owns you? |
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Pitarou
Joined: 16 Nov 2009
Posts: 1116
Location: Narita, Japan
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| Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 6:45 am Post subject: |
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| Chroniclesoffreedom wrote: |
| Are they changing that now to become more like South Korea and China? Meaning that your employer controls your visa? Therefore owns you? |
That's pretty much what the article implies. But I wouldn't put too much weight on that one article. |
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Lamarr
Joined: 27 Sep 2010
Posts: 190
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| Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 9:26 am Post subject: |
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According to the wording of that article, it doesn't say you'll automatically lose your visa if you quit your job. You'll lose it if you are caught planning or engaging in "something different" than your "permitted activities".
I presume "permitted activities" means the kind of work allowed under your visa. So if you come in as a teacher on a humanities visa, then say you were going to quit teaching and were planning to work as a musician for instance - for which you're supposed to get an entertainment visa - and tried to engage in activities as a musician under your humanities visa, then you would lose your visa "the instant you are caught". I don't think anything would happen to you if you carried on teaching, or doing anything else permitted under a humanities visa. That's my understanding of it.
Imprisonment and fines would only apply to someone who forged a visa.
Last edited by Lamarr on Wed Sep 09, 2015 2:43 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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RustyShackleford
Joined: 13 May 2013
Posts: 449
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| Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 2:33 pm Post subject: |
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Gaijin tarento are set to be devastated by this.
WHY JAPANESE PEOPLE?
thank you |
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