Hey everyone,
Today I went through the process of extending my tourist visa ( or technically temporary stay sticker since it’s not really a visa).
I’ve been in Japan for almost the maximum 90 days displayed on the sticker in my passport, I went to the immigration office in Osaka about 2 weeks before it was due to expire.
Apparently it is available for only a handful of passports. I believe it is the following: (Ireland, UK, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Mexico, Liechtenstein)
It was really hard to find solid information on what to do online as a lot of it is conflicting and it isn’t really advertised that it is possible.
I came across a post by SakuyaHiwatari which really helped me figure out what to do. With it being almost a year ago, I wasn’t sure if the process or rules had changed, seems like they haven’t.
The process took me about two hours and I applied at the Immigration office in Osaka where I’ve been staying.
It was actually much more simple than I expected, there was no interview, nobody asked me any questions. They just took the papers and then called my number when they were done.
You do need to buy a “revenue stamp” to process the documents which will cost you 4000 yen, cash only. They will give you a sheet and tell you when you need to go and buy it.
Nobody at the immigration office spoke English but luckily I can speak Japanese. It might be a good idea to take a Japanese friend if you can’t speak Japanese.
**What you need:**
\- Your passport.
\- 4000 Yen in cash.
**What steps I took:**
1. Went to the immigration office in the morning.
2. Spoke to the guy at the door with all the application forms and told him I wanted to extend my tourist stay for a UK passport. (They have a bunch of different application forms for different reasons but the sheet for extending the temporary stay was in a separate folder on his desk that he had to get out for me.)
3. He gave me 3 sheets of paper stapled together, one is for your info, passport number and etc. the second is for your reason to want to extend, to write down how much money you have and how much longer you want to stay, whether you have a flight home booked, flight number and etc. The third is a sheet of lined paper to write about why you want them to extend. I wrote a couple of basic paragraphs about wanting to see other parts of Japan that I’ve not had a chance to see yet and where I’ve been so far. (It is definitely important to be honest here but also emphasise you want to travel around Japan.)
4. I handed the papers in to the counter and they took all the documents and my passport, they gave me a card with my number on it.
5. They called my number, double checked I have 4000 yen in cash and then gave me another number to wait for at a different desk.
6. They called my number at the third desk, told me everything was accepted and gave me a sheet of paper to go and buy the “revenue stamp” in the next room over for 4000 yen.
7. I bought the “revenue stamp” waited for them to call my number again and handed it in to the desk.
8. They gave me back my passport with a new sticker in it next to the previous sticker which is labelled “Extension Permit”
9. Left the immigration office and had some celebratory sushi on the way back to where I’m staying.
It was much more simple and straightforward than I was expecting!
They didn’t ask me for any bank statements and they were also fine with me not having a flight home booked.
I’m not sure if they read any of the stuff that I wrote but I wrote everything honestly just in case.
1 comment
Note to others, don’t expect to be done in “just” 2 hours. Queues in the immigration office can get long. I guess it also depends on the season and city. And mornings are surely better than afternoons.