Hi all,
Well, much more delayed than I should have, but I’m finally getting my act together and trying to pull together what I need for a Permanent Residency Visa application. I did my spousal visa renewal a few years ago, so a lot of this is familiar but there is some stuff that isn’t and so I’m looking for more info.
So here’s my situation:
I’ve been married to a Japanese citizen for almost 15 year and we have a 10 year old daughter. We’ve been living in Japan for the last 4 1/2 years. I work for a US company that pays to a US bank account that I pull from to pay expenses here. I’ve paid all my taxes ( and claimed all the US income as advised by the local Japanese Tax office consultations). I’ve paid into the National Health insurance since I moved here, and into the Pension system for the last two years ( I was paying US social security for the first couple years, and got the IRS certificate to show that and filed it with the Japanese Pension office when I joined here). I’ve otherwise made all payments on time.
So in general, I think I’m good for the PR application on the general standing front. So now I’m just getting into the details of what I need to actually collect for filing.
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I’ve started by looking around the Japanese site for the filing requirements and have found some info with more details on what I need from other sources, but I’ve kind of got more questions still.
So…
1. Can anyone recommend some good sites with information about the process? Discussion forums or Reddit spaces other than this one where folks discuss issues? I’ve not really found anything too detailed.
2. I’m not sure of my status as far as employment goes per the PR application process. I’m not employed by a Japanese company so I can’t get any of the ‘normal’ Japanese forms to prove employment. My principle income comes from a contract with a US based company. The instructions say I will need to prove my source of employment. Would I be considered a freelancer? Should I ask the company to send me something on company letterhead saying I’m working for them?
3. I though I might have some questions on showing the medical and pension payments, but I should go through my records first and see what I’ve actually got.
4. Of course, anyone having general advice for me, I would greatly appreciate.
Thanks all!
2 comments
The authoritative information is on the official government website. Go there, see what’s written there, and then post here again if there are things that don’t make sense.
I believe the employment question has a simple answer. What did you put on your taxes? For example, did you get a W-2 or a 1099?
It’s probably worth assembling as much of the paperwork as you can and at some point going down to the immigration office to ask them.
Are you here on a spouse visa? If so, look specifically at how to transfer from that to PR rather than 10yr/highspec points PR applications. It’s noticeably easier.