Denied PR, next step advice?

27 comments

1. From spouse or from 10 year?

2. I went through spouse and didn’t show them much money at all. Maybe 400k. Manages to get it though.

3. Prob should focus more on getting a new job if we’re being honest… never heard of an ALT PR before

4. On what grounds did you request PR? Do you have 10 years in Japan? From your question, I think you’re not here as Spouse of Japanese National, right?

5. 3 million salary (gross amount) is the unwritten minimum for individual applications. If you’ve fallen short of that in the last 3-5 years, that’s not a good look for your application.

   How long have you been here? Are you married to a Japanese spouse? How many years are on your visa? If it’s a 1-year visa that’s immediate denial, too.

6. I don’t think the amount of money in your bank account matters too much to them. They’re more interested in your ability to consistently earn a decent salary. Below ¥3m is low.

   I got my PR around 10 years ago, and back then all my bank account had was dust and credit card debt because I was an immature idiot who spent all the extra money on toys and gadgets (I’m still an immature idiot, but now I save).

   Other details that are relevant but that you don’t mention in your post:

   – How long you’ve been in Japan

   – Whether you’re married to a Japanese national or not

7. >I’m currently working as an ALT,

   Unfortunately, an ALT is not going to be seen as a skilled enough profession to pass Article 22. Not without being married that is.

   Not to mention that you fall quite a bit below the required income for PR.

   Your best bet? Marry a Japanese person or get away from ALT positions. Immigration isn’t likely to look favourably upon the need for a second job to pass the income requirements. Not to mention it still means you’d be an ALT as your main source (which is likely the main issue)

8. On a work visa you can’t apply for the special permission unless you already have an offer for the job you’re applying for the permission to do (I believe your potential employer is supposed to do it for you.)

   Also, you can’t get it for just any old job like you can on a student visa. It has to be another skilled job.

9. Outside of the obvious statement, which is to get a better job, and more skills… because I understand that won’t happen in the short run. You should still aim to do that, but a few improvements you can make instantly are:

   (1) if you haven’t already, start an iDeCo. This will help make your application more robust because it shows that even though you’re an ALT earning below ¥3 million, that at least you’re planning for retirement here to not be a burden on the state in your old age.

   (2) if you have any registered overseas dependents, remove them as your registered dependents. They will push up the income requirement even higher for you.

   I don’t think having an additional part-time job will really help. For PR, Immigration look at the long-term bigger picture.

10. You can get around the sufficient assets requirement if you have someone with sufficient assets who can sign on as your financial guarantor.

11. hi, ALT here. Married to Japanese and got denied. Reason was “the wife forgot to pay her taxes on time, once, 5 years ago”

    We spent so much time and money trying to get it, so dissapointed, not sure we will try again.

12. Reading through this. I have a question. How on earth do people survive in Japan on 3,000,000 Yen a year gross in Japan? What is take home after tax?

13. Former ALT here and I got PR as an ALT. I didn’t meet the 3mil threshold. Only extra things I had was N1 and some advanced martial arts certs (3-dan and some competition podium finishes). It really does seem up to the individual looking through your application. Sucks that it went the other way for you. Hopefully you can find a job as some sort of step up and apply again in the future.

14. ALT work for 10 years. Jesus.

    Good luck OP. I hope you’re able to find greener pastures.

15. Dude… you’ve been here ten years and your salary is under 3mil?

    Be honest, if you were immigration would you say “yeah, *this* is the kinda guy we want staying in our country forever!”

16. Brutal.

    In my personal opinion, it’s:

    1. Your job. After this many years, you really should have a proper job by now.
    1. Stability. Your position as an ALT can unfortunately be replaced by whoever walks in next. This will give immigration ants in their pants.
    1. Government coffers. You’re probably not contributing as much as you could be in tax. Immigration have a hardon for tax contributions.
    1. Stability. You are not married. Which means no kids. Which means that you will unfortunately be an even bigger burden on society than usual in your dotage.
    1. Stability? Do you own a home yet?

    Nice one on actually having some savings. That’s important.

    To fix this, you need to:

    1. Get a “proper” job that pays a decent amount. Look up the national average, and plus one.
    1. Get married.
    1. Make children.
    1. Buy a shaque d’amor.
    1. Present the allure of rock hard stability.
    1. Try again.

    Edit: bloody typo

17. The Japanese Article you wrote says you didn’t qualify as a Refugee so perhaps you checked the wrong box somewhere?

18. Are you working with an ALT company? The same company for 10 years? Or direct hire with a high school?

    If you can, you could try some further studies at a Japanese university. [Kanda Gaigo](https://www.kandagaigo.ac.jp/kuis/grad/applicant/tesol/pdf/tesol_applicationbooklet_2022sp.pdf) offers some good ones and an TOEFL MA.

19. I think it’s because ALT work is generally seen as temporary work, perhaps if you could find a job teaching classes yourself preferably with a contract longer than 1 year.
    I’m assuming you renew your contract every year.
    It looks like other than your job you have no anchor in Japan, if you were to lose your job you would become a burden on society I think they would prefer you leave.
    If you had a Japanese spouse then they would be your anchor in Japan and likely get PR easily.
    Basically just need to set up better roots in Japan if staying the long term is your plan.
    I think even getting involved in a community run project will help.

20. I also got denied once. I can advice you to use one of those PR laywers. They seem like a scan but they get the job done. For example, they add information which isn’t required, such as a cover letter or a background summary on why/how you came to Japan.

    It was well worth the money imo

21. Have you considered going for naturalization?

    The minimum for that is only like 180000 a month.

22. Unrelated but would you happen to know if transportation reimbursement is supposed to be included in total salary from the company? My boss is saying it is now that I’m getting less per month because earlier in the year it wasn’t as far as my math is concerned.

    If it is, my question is I am supposed to report that amount on my tax return as salary but under transportation expenses which is also non taxable so I get a bigger refund?

    Is this the norm in Japan? Thanks

23. I don’t know if this was relevant to your case, but if you only had a 1-year visa, you’re automatically ineligible no matter how long you’ve been here. I *SQUEAKED* in on the last two months of my final 3-year visa, because I knew our next visas would be only 1-year.

24. What’s the length of your current visa?

25. Next step advice? Consult with an “immigration lawyer” to look over the specifics of your case, and give you clear direction what needs to be done.

    Anecdotal, but couple of years back, I consulted with three different “immigration lawyers” about getting PR in the future. I was an ALT at that time, and all three had the same advice for me – you need a better job.

    One of the supposed “unwritten rules” is that there is a minimum income that you need to be earning. No specific number has been officially published, but from their experience, they shared that they believe the amount scales with your age – and that you should be earning the equivalent amount of someone in your age bracket.

    So, a good ballpark would be to see what an average salaryman around your age group is taking home, and you should be about there too.

    [Previously (2006-01-01), the ISA published a list of cases where PR was granted, and rejected.](https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/publications/materials/nyukan_nyukan16.html?hl=en) IMO, the denial for case 12 shares what they think about ALTs.

    *Case 12: The applicant entered Japan as an Assistant Language Teacher and was engaged in English education for the first three years at a junior high school in Japan and, after that, for four years at a high school.* ***This application was rejected because the applicant***, *not having been deemed as a professor, assistant professor, or instructor who is a full-time employee or its equivalent of a university in Japan or an equivalent educational institution,* ***was not deemed to be a person who contributed to the improvement of academic standards of Japan’s higher education.***

26. Couldn’t find anyone already mentioning it in the comments, did you already go to the immigration office and asked for the reason? The letter is always quite general, but you only get closer to the real reason if you go there.

    If you’re rejected you can go there and you get a 1-on-1 (or 2-on-1 if you bring someone who speaks Japanese) with an immigration officer. You have to prepare your questions though, because they kinda only answer what you ask. That’s how it went for me when I was rejected.

27. The “reason” field of the denial notice always only includes a fairly broad statute reference. You should absolutely avail yourself of the detailed explanation you can receive at the Immigration Servicea Bureau.

    The papers they send usually include some information about when you can request this explanation (from what I’ve seen it’s often around 1 month or so after).

    You will get to sit down with an immigration inspection officer who will tell you specifically what sunk your application. You can ask them about your chances of success with reapplication and get an idea of what you need to work on.