hello..im currently planning to apply to ritsumeikan asia pacific university for my undergrad. My long term plan is to get a permanent residency or citizenship in japan. The university agencies of my country are saying that i can be eligible for citizenship after 5 years where 2 years are counted from my undergrad program and the remaining 3 years will be counted from my work visa after i finished my undergrad program. I want to know about japanese policies on permanent residency and citizenship for international students. im very lost on this topic and hope anyone comes forward to help me regarding this topic.
pls forgive me for my english.im not quite good at it yet
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**Questions regarding permanent residency and citizenship in japan**
hello..im currently planning to apply to ritsumeikan asia pacific university for my undergrad. My long term plan is to get a permanent residency or citizenship in japan. The university agencies of my country are saying that i can be eligible for citizenship after 5 years where 2 years are counted from my undergrad program and the remaining 3 years will be counted from my work visa after i finished my undergrad program. I want to know about japanese policies on permanent residency and citizenship for international students. im very lost on this topic and hope anyone comes forward to help me regarding this topic.
pls forgive me for my english.im not quite good at it yet
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There are these new things called embassies. They really come in handy for this type of question and you’re bound to get much more accurate info than here on reddit.
Regarding citizenship I can tell you that it doesn’t make sense to even think of it before you move to and experience Japan for a few years to see if you truly feel like you belong there.
Regarding naturalization, you can read the law yourself here:
https://www.moj.go.jp/ENGLISH/information/tnl-01.html
Regarding permanent residence, you can read the requirements here;
https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/applications/procedures/16-4.html?hl=en
In both cases I would say you’re getting ahead of yourself. How do you know you’ll want to stay forever if you’ve never actually spent any significant time here?
Japan doesn’t allow dual citizenships, so if you were to get a Japanese citizenship, you are supposed to give up your home country’s citizenship. That means if things don’t work out for some reason in Japan, you will have to get a visa in your home country or re-nationalize.
Permanent resident is a totally obtainable route that also lets you stay here forever. I recommend it more than citizenship. Through highly skilled points, you can reduce the 10 year requirement to 3 or even 1 year.
Don’t worry about the time requirements, there is no rush. If you are getting PR or citizenship, you are planning on staying here forever. You can live here a long time on regular work visas. The only real benefits of PR and citizenship is the ability to get cheap home loans and visa independence.
My advice, instead of worrying about this stuff, you should be worried about getting a job after you graduate. Your biggest hurdle as a new graduate of Japanese university will be Japanese language. If you are totally fluent in Japanese, you can participate in normal shinsotsu job hunting. If not, your options are very severely limited and chances are you will have to go back home.