Re: [tlug] From an enthusiast TLUG follower

[Benjamin Kowarsch <trijezdci@example.com>]

On Fri, 28 Aug 2020 at 14:03, Edward Middleton <edward.middleton@example.com> wrote:

I think its just the immigration office in Japan.  I have always found
the ward office, tax office and health insurance to be really helpful.

My experience with emigration has been fairly consistently bad.  When I
first moving to here (20 years ago) after all required paperwork was
lodged by my sponsoring company they insisted they needed some
supplemental documentation (had to be original) and it had to be lodged
by the end of the week.  I sent it the next day international delivered
at great expense and it somehow didn't arrive in time and I was delayed
starting by 6 months.

I think I have had my fair share of this at immigration but I have also had

positive experiences.

In my experience, you need to produce paperwork for anything that is

out of their ordinary processes. You can explain why this or that is the

way it is and they might in principle agree but if they do not have a

process for it, then they don't know what to do and that then leads

to a negative outcome.

However, most of the time, Japanese authorities do have a process for

things that are put in writing and especially when it is backed up by

supporting documentation.

There is somebody at each authority who is in charge of dealing with

such out-of-standard processing cases, but they will only be involved

if you put your stuff in writing because the ordinary folks there do not

wish to put unnecessary workload on whoever it is who deals with the

"special" cases.

But if you make an effort to put in writing and even better have plenty of

supporting documentation, they will pass it on to whoever deals with

"special" cases and then the outcome may well be positive.

Let me give you one example.

There is a rule now that the photograph you supply at immigration must

not be older than 3 or 6 months (not sure exactly which). If you had your

sairyu card renewed recently and the photo is the same because you

wanted to use up those photos you made then, they will be able to tell

that the photo is at least as old as the renewal date on your sairyu card

plus the expected processing time.

When I renewed my sairyu card however, the ward office got back to me

and had an issue with the photo so I had to supply another photo. Once

that photo was supplied they issued the card very quickly. At immigration,

they then looked at the renewal date and estimated 4 weeks or so of

processing time and determined that the photo must have been older

than that minimum period. But I had anticipated that and produced a

letter to the immigration office in which I explained the matter and I

also produced a copy of the letter I had received from the ward office

asking for a better photo, plus the receipt for the photos from the machine.

When the immigration officer then looked at my sairyu card and said the

photo was too old, I produced the letter and supporting documentation

and explained the matter. She then said she would pass this on but

could not guarantee that it would be acceptable and I might have to

supply a new photo in the end after all, that I could just go downstairs

to make a new photo to avoid the uncertainty. I thanked her and declined.

A few weeks later, I got a positive response. Only, it had taken longer than

usual which was to be expected since there was the extra process of

having that department dealing with out of the ordinary stuff look at

my case. But I accepted that delay.

Sometimes there is even a further step as the department dealing with

out of the ordinary stuff may ask for additional supporting documentation.

So, whenever you have any dealings with Japanese authorities where it

is to be expected that the usual flow of processing will not work, then I

recommend you try this approach I described.

Apart from making their work easier, it is also a matter of courtesy.

If you come to them and ask for something "out of the ordinary" it

will mean extra work for them. So, at the very least you should be

able to show that you didn't just show up asking for extras but that

you did make an effort yourself, that you didn't merely save yourself

effort and shifting that effort to them without investing any of your own.

And this is not necessarily limited to Japan.

regards

benjamin