Re: [tlug] From an enthusiast TLUG follower

[Edward Middleton <edward.middleton@example.com>]

On 28/8/20 2:52 pm, Benjamin Kowarsch wrote:
> On Fri, 28 Aug 2020 at 14:03, Edward Middleton 
> <edward.middleton@example.com <mailto: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.

Only positive experience I had with emigration was when I asking for 
information about applying for permanent residence (the desk without the 
2+ hour line) and they told me I should apply straight away, at which 
point I had to explain that according to their rules I wasn't yet eligible.

> 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.
..> And this is not necessarily limited to Japan.

Well there is something wrong when someone experience in dealing with 
bureaucratic BS can't cleanly navigate through a simple work visa 
application and I can navigate through reasonably complex tax issues 
(for which I have not qualifications) with the tax office.

This is not to say things are any better in Australia.  I was shocked at 
how hard it is to renew an Australian passport in the Australia capital 
when you are not an Australia resident, and that was before COVID-19.

Edward