I contacted an immigration lawyer here in Kyoto. For a bit over 130,000 yen they offer:
– Document preparation support (I will tell you what documents you need to gather, where/how you can obtain them, I will check if the documents you have already collected are ones required for the application.)
– Preparation of a Reason statement (I will draft a statement letter explaining why you would like to apply for PR in English and Japanese after our meeting and email exchanges. This is, of course, highly personalized and based on our conversations.)
– Preparation of other documents required for a PR application at the Kyoto Immigration Office
– Preparation of additional statements (if necessary)
I’m not sure…… doesn’t quite seem worth it in my opinion. However, in my situation, I will kind of ‘need’ a acceptance or denial within 7 or so months, as I’m eligible to apply at the end of August, and my contract will end at the very end of March (I don’t want to re-sign another contract just to wait out a potentially longer application process for various reasons – mainly because I do plan on leaving Japan for an extended period of time from early/mid next year). Because of my situation (where I really should have everything lined up to avoid a delay) I’m curious if there’s any benefit in my using a service like this.
Thanks in advance!
19 comments
An immigration lawyer will make the documents gathering and so on much easier but it will not speed up the application itself once it reaches immigration.
I used one. I didn’t like the idea of filling out all the forms and making multiple trips to the immigration office. They did it all for me. Just had to go to their office to sign things. Was very little stress.
The thing is all the documents needed are clearly stated in the immigration website so any person could make a sufficient judgement what docs they need for each of their own case.
Now would it be worth it to hire a lawyer to draw that requirement for your case? That’s really up to you whether it’s worth the convenient. If you value your own time for 130,000 then go for it.
And I agree with other post, after you’ve submitted, it’s out of the lawyer’s hand. God only knows how long will it take to pass. So for OP’s case I would say not worth it. Just do it yourself and look for another job between. You can tell immigration you change job during PR application (I did it).
I was able to gather all required documents within one day. I went to immigration first to double check my understanding of what was required, and wether screenshots would be ok and so on. Ran around town between tax office and city hall etc. Had to double check something, so I went back to immigration to ask. (You can guess I do t live in Tokyo lol).
I submitted it a week later when I had the time.
I applied at the end of March. I got PR this June. It only took three months!
Not worth it, unless you make that amount in a day or two of work.
Does anyone know a good lawyer for this in Tokyo? Preferably around the same price as OP stated.
For 150,000, I gave an immigration lawyer power-of-attorney forms for me and my partner and he collected and prepared everything for me except for my employment verification form. DM me if you want his info.
If u don’t have time to do it by urself is ok, speed and result is same if he do it or u do it.
Wow, ¥130,000+. Over 10 years ago but did everything myself and never even thought to check on using a service.
Some comments say you don’t have to go to the immigration office – yeah, that is a pain but if you use a service I think there would also be a decent time investment on interaction, confirmations, etc.
7 months hard deadline is difficult, after COVID there are lots of cases pending and my PR last year was around 8.5months processing time, my colleague submitted just 1 week afterwards had waiting 10months for the approval.
You don’t need a lawyer. I did it myself without any issues. Just read/translate and visit the appropriate offices. It took me 2 weeks.
Maybe I should start charging cause it really ain’t that hard.
The one thing you can never get back is time. If paying a lawyer saves you a lot of time, headaches, and stress (And you’re in a financial position where you can afford it), you should probably go for it.
I’ve seen places that do it for 50k and then another 50k if accepted. I’m going to do it as I’m afraid of making a small mistake and waiting another 6 months
Considering they do this for a living every day, they know how to prepare the statement, make the documents quickly, go to Shinagawa (or the immigration office in your area) when needed, and can contact immigration and get a straight answer if something is needed. As you don’t have to worry about the process, most offer some guarantee of a free reapplication or payment only if you get PR, it’s not an outrageous price.
I live in Kyoto, applied myself (with partner’s help with a few things). It was pretty easy, just stressful to make sure I had everything – I think I must have checked about fifty times and even made photocopies of the entire application packet just in case, but it took less than a week to go from nothing to submitted. If you don’t want the stress, go with a lawyer, but if you have an easy application (no concern about pension and taxes, been here the required amount of time, most recent visa over 3 years) then you should have no worries either way.
That seems high to me. I went with an immigration lawyer just because my situation was a little difficult. Mine seemed to offer similar services to yours but was only 70,000 yen, AND he went to the immigration office to submit it on my behalf, which you don’t seem to list from your person. Granted I live in the countryside so many things will be cheaper, but 130,000 for that seems too expensive.
Only you can answer that… But pay someone over 100,000 yen to drop some documents off.. what do you think?
Ehh, I did it myself. It takes time, but if your Japanese is ok it’s not hard.
Mine took about 7-8 months to come back, although it was slightly delayed by a change in the documents needing to be submitted by the guarantor, and the guarantor not being around to provide them.
It is worth it. You basically buy to your lawyer a 130,000 yen train ticket to the immigration bureau so he gives the application for you. But it is the way it works here. Regarding the letter, I recommend you to write that you intend at some point to buy – for example- a house in Japan.