What is the residence examination processing period?
This refers to the number of days from application to disposition (issuance or permission) in the residence examination. In general, it takes a very long time from examination to disposition. For this reason, the Ministry of Justice has been publishing the average number of days for each residence status for the three procedures: application for issuance of a Certificate of Eligibility, application for permission to extend period of stay, and application for permission to change residence status, since about seven years ago (2017).
The publication pace is now monthly
Previously, the average number of days for three months was published every quarter, but from October this year, the average number of days for one month has been published every month. This is probably because, with the increase in the number of applications, there are large monthly fluctuations, and quarterly figures are no longer useful as a reference.
It’s just a guide
However, since this is a compilation of local government offices across the country, it is only a guideline. The number of cases should be completely different between urban and rural local government offices. For example, the application for a Certificate of Eligibility for a “spouse of a Japanese national” that I recently submitted to the Sendai Immigration Bureau was announced to take 74 days, but in reality it took 64 days.
Description on our office website
The Nishiyama Immigration Office’s Office website provides an easy-to-understand graph showing the changes in the processing period for residence examinations, so please refer to it.
