I Got Back to 1 Year of Work Visa Due to a Stupid Mistake

Hi everyone, as the title said.
I just got my new residence card and it said 1 year. Asked Tokyo immigration office and they said that the reason is I didn’t submit “notifications of company change”.

The problem is, I did it online via their portal, right after changing job.
However, I chose the category of “company name change” instead of “signing new contract”. So probably they didn’t accept that?

Have anyone ever had the same case?
Is it worth trying to fight them? Or I must accept that and reapply next year?
Have you ever been successful in fighting to change your period of stay?

by Ok_Lettuce_1209

18 comments
  1. If it makes you feel better. Im in charge of visa documentation and on my own damn application, on the company information I accidentally put 1 year instead of no period which landed me a 1 year visa after consecutive 3 years. You cant fight it

  2. If alt you were lucky to get long one in first place. At previous place I worked there were almost no one with more than a 1 year. Only office workers but they were either pr or married.

  3. I don’t see any value in “fighting them” when they’ve got you bang to rights, as it were. Filing the paperwork incorrectly is a major sin here, like it or not.

  4. I also forgot to file that, and I got a 5 year renewal. I immediately did it after they told me, and I THINK I did it right… that portal isn’t very easy to use.

  5. ‘Fight’ them? Fight? The immigration office? For a mistake you made?

    Yeah. You go fight them.

  6. I made the same mistake, but my branch (connected to Nagoya) was relatively flexible. They had me (my company on my behalf, in reality) fill in some additional paperwork (a worrying extra step I had not needed before), and I got a verbal request to complete the notification after the fact, which I then did online.

    I was able to renew my 3-year visa in my case. However, my renewal came just after the probationary period for the new company ended, so I was locked into the job during the renewal process. Might you have still been in your probationary period in your case?

  7. Lol I did exactly the same mistake. Was on a 5 year visa 2 times in a row, and recently only got 3 year after renewal, maybe because of that.

  8. i always not report my company change nothing happened though. i still get the same number of years. maybe they took that company name change mistake as a malicious declaration. not sure though.

  9. whatever reason they gave is arbitrary bullshit. comparing other people’s situations, mistakes, accomplishments, qualifications, etc. etc. just gives me wildly different outcomes. i think they really are just throwing darts.

    oh, and that online reporting site is garbage. didn’t work for me, either. first and last time i’ll ever not go in person and try to get physical proof of confirmation, and even then i still have trust issues because immigration is so unpredictable.

  10. It seems like your question is whether it’s better to go there and fight it or just wait a year and apply for a longer period next time. Either way, you have to take the time to go there. If you plan to stay long term, not much is going to change. I suppose re-entry is more of a hassle with a short term, so there’s that. Also (this just occured to me) I think having a certain visa length does not prevent you from applying for a longer length within that period. You don’t have to ‘fight’ the current visa length; you just apply for a longer one. I say that because I applied for a permanent visa during the time I had a fixed length visa.

  11. isn`t it the norm/procedure that whenever you change company they tend to give out 1 year visas due to “instability of work” ? That is why some people tend to stay at the company they work until renewal then quit after getting their extension.

  12. I’m in the same ship with the job change, but I can’t even log in to the online portal, my password and name gets rejected despite both of them being correct.
    Also went to a different branch of immigration office because it was closer to my work and got rejected there because it’s not in the area where my living address is registered. Doesn’t all immigration information just get reported to the main bureau in Tokyo via their internal system/database?
    Now I probably have to take a day off at my new job just to submit one paper….

  13. Getting 3 years vs. 1 always struck me as more of a random astrological phenomenon. Are you saying you can get 3 years if you submit certain forms?

  14. It isn’t so weird though, is it? You made a mistake and get consequences.

    I don’t see how you could see changing company as a “company name change.”

  15. Sounds like they’re getting a tad stricter.
    Had a friend do the same like 15 years ago.
    Nothing happened. They just told him not to let it happen again.

    Sucks with the one year visa tho. Shinagawa immigration is, as we all know, not the most fun part of Tokyo

  16. The same thing happened to me, I used the online submission but for the next renewal they claimed I didn’t.

  17. Hey, I did the very same mistake as you one year ago 🥲, and I got one year visa even though I owned five years visa before.

    You can’t do anything about it unfortunately:’)

    Fast forward one year later now, today I just applied for visa renewal again with my company. Hoping to get at least 3 years this time so I can apply for PR 😂

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