On 2026 February 24th, Japan Immigration Service Agency announced the latest guideline for permanent residence status applications. The most significant change introduced by this guideline is as follows.
Tightening of the “Maximum Period of Stay” Requirement
One of the requirements to apply for Permanent Residence status is “Having a residence status with the maximum period of stay”, under the current Immigration operations if you have a residence status with a period of stay of 3 years or more, you are eligible to apply for Permanent Residence Status. However, from 2026 April 1st, this requirement will be tightening and you must have a residence status with a period of stay of 5 years.
One important thing here is if you are holding a residence status with a period of stay of 3 years as of March 31 2027, you have one attempt to apply for permanent residence status even after March 31 2027.
If you do not hear back from Immigration within the expiration of above 3-year residence status, you must apply for extension of your current residence status and if you are granted with 3-year residence status again, your PR application will be denied.
Here is an example.
Tightening of the payment deadlines for taxes, pensions, and medical insurance fees
Previously Immigration had been checking payment deadlines for city tax, Public pension and required fees for Public medical insurance but this was not officially part of their guideline. The new guideline explicitly states that those payments must be paid on time and any delay could be used as justification to deny your permanent resident application.
If you enroll in the National Health Insurance program(国民健康保険) and the National Pension Program(国民年金), you need to submit documents to prove that you have paid Public pension and required fees for Public medical insurance without any delay (such us receipts or copy of your bank book) . There was a case that permanent resident application got denied because the applicant could not submit all the required receipts to prove the on-time payments.
This applies to the city tax payment as well. If your city tax has not been deducted from your monthly salary, you must submit documents to prove your payments. Any lack of receipts could be used as justification to deny your permanent resident application.
Tightening of reporting deadlines to Immigration
Failure to submit the following notifications within the deadline (within 14 days) could be used as justification to deny your permanent resident application.
- When changing jobs or resigning
- When divorced or widowed
- When moving house
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