The Shizuoka Shinbun article on 2024/06/28 says “Foreigners living in Japan are finding it difficult to obtain an elderly dependent visa, which is necessary when bringing elderly parents with no relatives home from their home country, and there are voices of confusion. Some residents of the prefecture with permanent resident status who were unable to obtain permission cried out in pain, “I just want to take care of my parents. I don’t know what to do.” According to the Immigration Services Agency, there is no status of residence that can be obtained based on being the parent of a permanent resident, and there are exceptional cases in which it is granted based on humanitarian considerations“.
Spouses and children of permanent residents have a residence status of “spouse, etc. of permanent resident,” but this does not include parents.
However, it is not accurate to say that “there is no status of residence that can be obtained based on being the parent of a permanent resident, and there are exceptional cases in which it is granted based on humanitarian considerations“, but if it is stated correctly, the sentence should be “The status of residence that can be obtained by being the parent of a permanent resident is Designated Activities, but the requirements for permission are strict.
Positioning of “Designated Activities” in the overall status of residence
Overall composition of residence status
The overall structure of the approximately 30 statuses of residence is as follows.
- What is given based on the activity trying to perform (activity type)
- Activities defined individually for each status of residence and do not require the Minister of Justice to designate them for individual foreign nationals.
- (Example) “Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services”, “Student”, etc.
- Activities require the Minister of Justice to specify the activities of individual foreigners => “Designated Activities”
- Activities whose contents are defined in a public notice established by the Minister of Justice (designated activities with notification)
- Activities whose contents are NOT defined in the public notice specified by the Minister of Justice (designated activities without notification)
- Activities defined individually for each status of residence and do not require the Minister of Justice to designate them for individual foreign nationals.
- What is given based on status (status type)
- Those whose status are individually defined for each status of residence
- (Example) “Spouse etc. of a Japanese national”, “Spouse etc. of a permanent resident “.
- Those whose status do not fall under the individually defined status of residence, but where the Minister of Justice approves residence based on special reasons. => “Long-Term Resident”
- Those whose status is defined in a public notice established by the Minister of Justice
- Those whose status is NOT defined in the public notice prescribed by the Minister of Justice
- Those whose status are individually defined for each status of residence
Definition
As summarized above, “Designated Activities” are activities specifically designated by the Minister of Justice for individual foreign nationals, and simply put, “Designated Activities” is the general status of residence covers activities those are not defined in any other defined status of residence.(The same applies to “long-term residents” in the status type.)
In addition, in order to obtain the “Designated Activities” status of residence, for “designated activities with notification”, the procedure is to apply for a certificate of eligibility, similar to other resident statuses, but this procedure cannot be used for “designated activities without notification”. First, you will need to enter the country for a short-term stay and apply for permission to change your status of residence to “designated activities without notification”.
Permit Requirements
Requirements for permission for “designated activities without notification”
As a general rule, only “designated activities with notification” are permitted. however, due to humanitarian or other special circumstances, “designated activities without notification” may be permitted. The case described in the article is generally referred to as the “bringing parent” type in “designated activities without notification” .
Predictions as to whether or not an individual status of residence will be granted can be derived from the Immigration Control Act, the landing permission criteria in the Enforcement Regulations, published guidelines, and the “Examination Guidelines*”, which are the internal examination standards of the authorities.
*The Examination Guidelines are not published on websites, etc., but can be obtained by requesting information disclosure. (I am referring to the one obtained by the Administrative Scrivener Association.)
However, the standards for “designated activities without notification” are not clear, and the relevant sections of the “examination guidelines” disclosed in response to information disclosure requests are blacked out.
In the practice of lawyers and administrative scriveners, we predict whether or not permission will be granted for each type of specified non-notification activity, based on “precedent cases”.
Requirements for permission for “bringing parent” type
The requirements for permission for the “bringing parent” type, derived from “precedent cases” are to meet all of the following, according to “Shinnihon Hoki, Koji Yamawaki, Detailed Explanation on Immigration Control Law Practice”.
- The foreign national is over 65 years old *
- The foreign national does not have a spouse outside Japan, or even if he/she does, he/she is living separately and cannot expect to live together.
- There are no suitable dependents other than the child in Japan.
- The child (including the child’s spouse) living in Japan is earning a certain amount of income and fulfilling tax obligations (including cases where the child has filed a proper income declaration and is exempt from taxation).
*Recently, there is information that he/she must be over 70 years old.
Conclusion
In the case described in the article, it seems likely that one of the above requirements was not met. The article states, “As the number of residence statuses for permanent residents is updated every year, immigration authorities is aware that there is a need to bring elderly parents”, so I hope that the screening criteria will become clearer in the near future by including them in “Desiginated Activities with notification” or “Spouses, etc. of Permanent Residents.”