What is the application agency system?
Applications for residence status, such as an application for a Certificate of Eligibility, an application for permission to change residence status, or an application for permission to extend period of stay, are made by the foreign national himself or his/her representative (an employer, etc., in the case of an application for a Certificate of Eligibility), however, the application can also be made by a licensed Gyoseishoshi, etc., upon request.
This is based on the application agency system, and is defined as follows by the Immigration Services Agency:
About the application agency system
- In principle, applications for permission to extend the period of stay and procedures for changing information on a residence card require the applicant to appear in person at a Regional Immigration Bureau.
- As an exception to the rule of the applicant appearing in person, there are cases where an application is made by a legal representative or other representative, and in order to ease congestion at the counter due to an increase in applications and notifications and to reduce the burden on applicants and notifiers, an application agency system has been established that allows “certain persons” to act as intermediaries for applications, etc. made by foreign nationals themselves.
The above “certain persons” include us, Gyouseishoshi.
There are documents that employers do not want the applicant (foreigner) to see
Now, when applying for various residence statuses, most applications require additional documents in addition to the application form. Among them, for “employment-related” residence statuses such as “Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services” and “Skilled Work”, you will be required to submit the “statutory report summary table such as the withholding slip of salary income for the most recent fiscal year” and the “most recent financial statement” of the host organization.
Total table of statutory reports such as withholding slips for salary income
The statutory report summary table is as shown below, and is used to declare the amount of withholding tax from the total salary of all employees for one year. Among various residence applications, this form not only shows the existence of the host organization, but also has a very important meaning in submitting it, since if the total amount of withholding tax is 10 million yen or more, the organization will be classified as category 2 (out of 1-4) or higher, and most of the documents to be submitted will be exempt, and the period of stay given to the applicant will be longer.
Employers don’t want to show the applicant the summary table of legal records or the most recent financial statements.
The most recent financial statements (balance sheets and profit and loss statements) are not disclosed to the public or employees unless the company is a large listed company. Therefore, when applying for employment-related residence status, the host organization can request us, Gyoseishoshi, to handle the application without showing these documents to the applicant (foreigner).
The international work of Gyoseishoshi is usually understood in the sense that it is precisely because the work is difficult and complicated that Gyoseishoshi is utilized, but in fact there is another side to it, like I explained in above.
Postscript
When applying for a Certificate of Eligibility, the receiving organization (employer) usually prepares the documents and submits the application on your behalf, so this problem does not arise.
On the other hand, when applying for permission to change residence status (“change”) or permission to extend period of stay (“renewal”), the accepting organization cannot act as an agent and in principle the applicant must apply themselves.
In the first place, I think that the problem with the system is that the above documents are required for “changes” and “updates.” This is because if information that “should not be disclosed to employees” is not disclosed, employees will not be able to apply for “change” or “renewal”.
Well, it’s a good thing that this brings more work for us, Gyoseishoshi…