行政書士法人BEYOND
Revocation of status of residence (visa cancellation)
Your life in Japan is based on your visa. You might not want to even imagine what would happy once your visa is cancelled. Be aware of the law and understand the law. Never break the law.
Article 22-4 of the immigration law in Japan says the Minister of Justice may revoke your status of resicence when any of the 10 facts are found. When the immigration notices you might have visa cancellation reason, they start their investigation. As a result of investigation, you might be:
1. deported
2. designated the date of departure
3. allowed to continue to stay
The below are the 10 facts, for which Minister of Justice may cancel your visa, stipulated in the law.
1. You are actually to be banned from landing, but the immigration inspector has misjudged the eligibility of the grounds for refusal of landing by deceit or other wrongful means and you have received landing permission. This includes landing with re-entry permit.
2. You have received visa-related permission by deceiving the activity you intend to do in Japan by deception or other wrongful means.
eg: falsifying your own background necessary for visa
eg: declaring you will be working as a engineer while you actually intend to do simple labor
3. In cases other than (1) or (2) above, if you submitted false documents (not reflecting the fact) and have received visa-related permission. This inclues even when you are not aware.
4. You have got special permission to stay by deception or other wrongful means.
5. You are not doing what you are supposed to do under your visa and doing (trying to do) other activities without a reasonable excuse.
6. You have working visa but have not been doing a suitable job for more than 3 months without a reasonable excuse. This includes the period while staying outside Japan with re-entry permit.
7. You have spouse visa and have been staying in Japan more than 6 months inspite of not bing a spouse any more.
eg: staying with spouse visa after divorce or spouse's death
eg: staying with spouse visa living separately
8. You haven't registered your address for more than 90 days after entering Japan with mid-long stay visa without any reasonable excuse.
9. You haven't registered your new address for more than 90 days after moving, without any reasonable excuse.
10. You declared a wrong address to Immigration
Last year more than 1000 foreign residents’ visas were cancelled by the reasons above.
Some of you might get scared at noticing your visa might be cancelled. Or many of you might think there are lots of such foreigners and they are staying in Japan without any problem.
Immigration is always busy. Only when they notice you might have violated immigration law with some strong evidence, they would start the procedure for visa cancelation. Since they take long time and efforts for one case, they don’t start an investigation easily.
But please make sure your stay is a legal one.