First, if you have Business Manager Visa in Japan and wish to obtain permanent residence status, you must live in Japan for a minimum of ten years. And out of that 10 years you must have a working status visa such as Business Manager Visa, Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Service, Skilled Labor etc., for the last 5 consecutive years. Also, you must have a Business Manager Visa with a period of stay of 3 years or more. If you have a visa with a period of stay of 1 years or less, you are not eligible to apply for Permanent Residence Status.
Above are the minimum requirements you need to meet, here are 3 tips that you may need to be extra careful about if you are considering apply for Permanent Residence Status from Business Manager Visa.
1. Director’s compensation is set at no less than 3 million yen per year
Once you establish your company and become CEO, you are entitled to receive a director’s compensation. You might want to set this amount as low as possible to save on taxes. If you are working for a company as an employee your monthly salary is considered as your annual income. However, once you become CEO of your company, your monthly director’s compensation is considered as your annual income. Even though there is no official criteria for the annual income that you need to meet in order to apply for status of permanent residence, ideally your annual salary should be higher than ￥3,000,000 if you are single and not supporting any family member. If you are supporting family members then your annual salary should have roughly an additional￥700,000 per dependent. Submitting a Taxation certificate for the past three to five years is mandatory for Permeant Residence application. By submitting this certificate, immigration can grasp your annual income.
2. You company must be in the black
To apply for Permanent Residence Status from Business Manager Visa, you are required to submit your company’s financial statement. This is because it is one of the reequipments to have sufficient assets or ability to make an independent living in Japan to apply for Permanent Residence status from Business Manager visa. It means basically you company must be in the black.
3. Has been enrolled in Social Insurance system for past 2 years
Since July 1st 2019 Japan Immigration Bureau has revised the necessary documents to apply for Permanent Residence status. You must submit documents to prove that you have paid into Public pension and paid the required fees for Public medical insurance for the past 2 years. Meaning if you are not paying into these, your permanent resident application will be denied with a high possibility. In addition to this once you become CEO of your company, and if your company is listed as a company which must be enrolled in Social Insurance system by law, you are responsible to enroll your employees in the appropriate employees’ health insurance and employees ‘pension insurance system.
