Immigration News & Updates

On April 1, 2010, Japan's Immigration Bureau implemented a new guideline asking visa renewal applicants to present social health insurance cards. Since that time, most Immigration offices and officers have displayed a somewhat varied and rather lax stance. Some officials have been content to see a private health insurance card or certificate, while other applicants have not been asked to show any type of insurance card at all. On still other occasions, Immigration officers have suggested to renewal applicants that it is "in their best interest" to enroll in social insurance.

Immigration after April 1, 2010

On April 1, Free Choice and its supporters began visiting various Immigration offices to get a feel for how they were administering the new guidelines. Some offices have made pamphlets available to the public, placing them in display racks alongside other printed immigration notices. The pamphlets, which are supplied by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, provide information about the public insurance and pension plans. We were expecting officials to actually hand them out to applicants at the window; but from what we have seen so far, the pamphlets just sit in their racks (if they are present in the offices at all).

Prior to the new guidelines' implementation date, some Immigration offices utilized small posters on their walls to display the 'old' guideline. The Ministry of Justice directed all offices to remove the posters - and most of them did. The Kobe Immigration office, for example, replaced their old posters with the new guideline and added a twist of its own. A red line was placed under this sentence in the new legislation for more emphasis: "Failure to produce an insurance card will incur no negativity towards a visa application." They also seemed to noticeably change their tone. Before the deletion of Guideline No. 8, one official had stated, "This is the law and you have to comply." But now, that very same person has said, "The social insurance falls under the jurisdiction of the Labour office and we (Immigration) have nothing to do with it."

Kyoto Immigration still problematic, but . . .

When one of our supporters visited the Kyoto office after April 1, the old posters were still on the wall. The supporter spoke to a uniformed officer, who replied (in a very bureaucratic and authoritative tone), "You have to have this!" Free Choice has since submitted a report on this incident to a lawmaker close to the issue. His office will look into the matter and see that all Immigration facilities are brought up-to-date on the deletion of Guideline No. 8 as well as about how to properly implement the new guidelines.

Most Immigration offices in step with the new revised guidelines . . .

So far, we have visited the Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe and Himeji Immigration offices. Other than the previously identified Kyoto, they all seem to be emitting a rather encouraging tone over the issue. So, if you need to renew your visa but don't have public insurance, you can relax. You do not have to worry that you won't get your visa - well, not for that reason, anyway.

Regarding the pamphlets . . .

The Health Ministry pamphlets available at (some) Immigration offices basically state that you are obliged to enroll in one of the country's health insurance and pension systems. The pamphlets are printed in multiple languages, including Japanese, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Korean. The information covered is very basic and does not go into detail about such matters as pension treaties between Japan and other countries, etc. It does, however, mention that part-time foreign students working no more than 28 hours per week should join the national health insurance and national pension programs. We inquired with the MOJ why there was a 28-hour threshold when the Japan Pension Agency calculates the threshold based on three-fourths the time of a full-time staffer. Their answer was that the 28-hour threshold applies only to foreign students because they are not permitted by Immigration to work more than 28 hours per week under a student visa.

Please tell us your experience with Immigration . . .