According to “Tokyo police mistakenly arrest Filipino man for allegedly overstaying visa” (Japan Today, March 4, 2024), The police station made an inquiry to the Immigration Services Agency through the International Crimes Prevention Division at the headquarters, and received a reply that the procedure (application for extension of period of stay or application for change of status of residence) was being carried out, but they overlooked it (application for permission to change residence status). He was arrested by mistake (on suspicion of illegally remaining in Japan).
<Standard processing period>
The Immigration Services Agency publishes the standard processing period every quarter, from the time an application is received until notification of the result of approval or denial.
As of December 2023, the standard processing period is 31.2 days for extension of period of stay for “Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services” and 35.1 days for change of status of residence, and 37.7 days and 56.2 days for “Specified Skilled Worker” respectively.
<Special period>
As mentioned above, it takes a long time from application to notification of results, so if you apply for one of these before the expiry of your period of stay, measures have been taken to prevent you from being illegally overstayed for two months after your period of stay expires. This period is called the special period.
Even if the period of stay has passed, if you have filed any of the above applications at the Immigration Bureau, your residence card will indicate that the application is in progress, proving that you are legally residing in the country.
However, there is no way to indicate it on the card when the application is made via online.
＜Summary＞
Although the government is promoting the spread of online applications, it is a big problem that police officers did not know this (even if it is not written on the residence card, if you are applying online, you are not illegally overstaying). I think it can’t be helped that this is seen as a human rights violation that is unfairly suspected.
It is clear that this was the police’s fault, and I would like them to take thorough measures to prevent this from happening again, but on the other hand, I think it would be better to always carry the reception number issued when receiving an online application.
This post is available in Japanese.