On the plane:

On you travel to japan, the air steward will offer the applicant two cards to fill out; a landing card and a customs declaration card.

For the landing card the applicant must need his/her passport number and flight information, as also an address in Japan. The address can be wherever you plan to stay initially. The applicant doesn’t have a specific address or unkown address can just put the city or area. There are also some other forms in the immigration area at the airport.

If you are in japan with an official entry visa for a mid to long-term stay and you’re arriving into Narita, Haneda, Chubu or Kansai, you should get your residence card at the airport itself.

These cards are only issued at specific ports of entry:

·         Narita Airport near Tokyo

·         Haneda Airport in Tokyo

·         Chubu Airport serving Nagoya

·         Kansai Airport, near Osaka

·         Shin-Chitose Airport near Sapporo

·         Hiroshima Airport

·         Fukuoka Airport

If you are arriving into a smaller airport means you will have to go to your local city hall as soon as possible to get residence card there. The wordings stated “The residence card will be issued later” will be stamped on your passport when you arrive in Japan, and so your residence card will be sent from the immigration office to you after application. It will take around 10 days.

At the airport:

Once you show your visa to a staff member at the airport, they will direct you to the appropriate station for the further procedure.

·        You will give your fingerprints,

·        Have your photo taken,

·        And you will receive your new residence card.

If you are coming on a student visa, you should also have a work permission form provided by the school. If you provide the documents at the station, the officer will stamp your residence card with the work permit. If you miss to do this here, then you will have to go to the immigration bureau in your area and it will take much longer time to process.

Registering at city hall:

After you receive your residence card, next step is to register your residence at your local city hall, which is also called your local municipal or ward office or “shiyakusho”. This is the office that governs the ward or district where you’re living. It is fairly easy to locate your city hall but it should be taken care that the appropriate office might not be closest to you, depends on where you are in the administrative area.

Required documents:

residence card
passport
copy of your address to write down on the form (in English is OK)
The registration must be done within 2 weeks on arrival. If the applicant don’t have permanent address he/she can apply with the temporary one and later on can update in residence card.

Once you arrive the office inform a staff member that the purpose you are here to register your address. Fill in some forms, the clerk may ask you questions in Japanese. Some city halls have interpretation services or English-speaking clerks (especially in areas with lots of foreign residents), but if you’re uncomfortable it might be a good idea to take a Japanese speaker with you.

After a wait for some time, you will get your residence card with your address written on the back. In addition to that there will be an information pack about living in the area. After you finish the process you will receive your social security and tax number (individual “My Number”, see below) by post at a later date from the city hall.

If you lose your residence card you should have to go to a police box called as “Koban” to report the missing of your car. There they will give you a proof of paper which states that you reported the missing. Then you should take this to immigration in your area with a new photo, fill out form with correct detail. Then there they will make a new resident card for you on same day