Office Cosmopolitan handles Permanent Residency procedures. If you have any questions, please ask Office COSMOPOLITAN.
Advantages of Permanent Resident status A foreign resident who is qualified for Permanent Resident status has the following advantages.
- Extension of period of stay is unnecessary. Unlike under other kinds of residence permission, Permanent Resident status allows a person to stay in Japan for an indefinite period and thus eliminates the
need for extension of period of stay.
- Limitations on activities are removed. Under the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law, a person staying in Japan with residence permission except for Permanent Resident, Spouse or Child of Japanese National, Spouse or Child of Permanent Resident and Long Term Resident is not allowed to operate a business which generates income or to receive money related to an activity other than the one based upon which he/she is permitted to stay in Japan. Nevertheless, a person with Permanent Resident status is not subject to such limitations on his/her activities in Japan.
- Other advantages (not specified in the Immigration Law) Financial institutions including banks usually require a foreign resident to have Permanent Resident status when executing a housing loan agreement with such resident. Therefore, we recommend a foreign resident who plans to take out a loan to buy a house to apply for Permanent Resident status.
Please note that a foreign resident with Permanent Resident status still needs to have reentry permission after a temporary travel abroad.
Requirements for Permanent Resident status
In the examination to permit Permanent Resident status, the following requirements are carefully examined.
- General principles An applicant needs to have lived in Japan continuously for not less than ten years. A person who entered Japan as a student and started to work after completion of study needs to have lived in Japan for not less than five years after his/her status of residence was changed to that of a working visa.
- Spouse or a child of a Japanese national or a permanent resident A spouse of a Japanese national needs to have lived in Japan for not less than three years after marriage. In case such person married and lived with the spouse for certain time period in a foreign country, such person needs to have married the spouse for more than three years and stayed in Japan for not less than one year. It is required that a normal and substantial marriage life be sustained without breakdown of the marriage or a separation incidental to such breakdown. A child of a Japanese national is required only to have lived in Japan for one consecutive year or more.
- Long term resident An applicant is required to have lived in Japan for consecutive fire years or more after obtaining Long Term Resident status.
It can be said that an applicant who satisfies the above principal requirements has succeeded in finishing the first stage of the acquisition of Permanent Resident status; however, whether or not permission is actually granted is determined as a result of an overall evaluation of the applicant’s conduct during his/her stay in Japan.
Office COSMOPOLITAN supports permanent residency procedure with a great deal of experience from a pointed advice to receiving the permission.