Life in Japan is bureaucratic(-ly stupid) more than most places, but sometimes it's just stupidly stupid. Case in point; the Immigration Department. I recently went to change my work visa to a 'Spouse of Japanese national' visa. Although my work visa was a three year one (and still valid for about two years), and although I applied for a three year spouse visa, I was given a one year visa. I was told that this was standard procedure, although their website makes no mention of this. I guess I can live with paying the 6,000 yen fee for a new visa in one year not three"
I thought. The Immigration official then told me they'd decided to change the length of my re-entry permit too. A re-entry permit (also 6,000yen) is necessary if I want to leave Japan and then return on my still perfectly valid visa (umm, what's the point of the visa again?). It was valid until July 2004, but Immigration decided to re-issue it as valid until March 2004. The reason I was given for this theft was because it would be strange
for the re-entry permit to still be valid after the visa expires. Say what?
And what can I do about it? Nothing
Posted by Oli at April 8, 2003 11:39 AM