Adventures in Immigration, part II

The lastest chapter in my immigration adventures began in earnest this past weekend. I went to Nova on my day off to pick up my visa extension pack and... sign a new year-long contract. The visa extension pack is pretty awesome. It contains:

• a little booklet outlining the process in 4 easy steps
• a copy of the contract to submit to immigration
• a piece of paper with Japanese written on it that immigration officials like to see
• a photo copy of the forms I need to fill out, with a star by the required sections - which is great because apparently half of the form isn't important, AND
• key information filled in, like the official "status of my residence" (specialist in humanities), my "reason for extension" (to be engaged in a teaching position), and information about Nova, such as their "capital" (5 billion yen), "number of foreign employees" (4,611), and other such information that I don't know.

And in addition to the extension pack, at my request Foreign Personnel faxed me a map and directions to the two immigration offices in the Tokyo area, which was incredibly helpful.

Because of travel issues I outlined a couple of posts ago (I got 99 problems...) it was imperative that I start the renewal process immediately and my original plan was to do that on Friday, and if not Friday then Monday. But I realized something. When I moved in February I never updated the address on my Gaijin card, and without an accurate address there is no way the Japanese government would even accept my visa application. I never updated it because I imagined that it would be a huge convenience, and I certainly hadn't intended to submit any more visa paperwork. Not knowing how long the update would take worried me, but I knew it would take as long as it would take so early Monday morning I cycled over to the city office hoping that I wouldn't spend the whole morning there, and that it wouldn't take more than a week to get a new Gaijin card. Well, I was anxious for nothing. The whole process took maybe 10 or 15 minutes and I left with my card; all the lady did was write my new address on the back!

Crisis averted on the Gaijin card, but I knew I might not be so lucky at the immigration office... but still lucky to some degree. Nova cautions against going to immigration on a morning before work in case things take longer than expected, but as I start work at 1pm on Tuesdays I wasn't inclined to follow that advice. I also took a gamble on which office I chose. There are two bureaus in Tokyo - in Shinagawa, which is at least 45 minutes from my house, and Tachikawa, only about 20 minutes away. Foreign Personnel gave me directions to both offices but they weren't sure which one I should go to; the man I spoke with recommended Shinagawa just to be sure but in my head I was like, I'm already waking up early for this. I'm not going any further than I absolutely have to go! I got to the station without a hitch - I've been to Tachikawa before - but as I was wandering around the massive station area I started to doubt my choice. I thought crap - what if I really did have to go to Shinagawa... By the time I get there it might be too late to get anything done before work, and I don't want to wake up early again tomorrow... etc etc. I seriously walked around the station for a good 15 or 20 minutes before I found the correct bus stop, which I could have found in 2 minutes had I been paying closer attention. But the upshot was that I actually knew the Kanji (Chinese characters) for the bus route that I was looking for - even though I didn't know where it was I felt so empowered!

At the bus stop an Indonesian woman asked me if this was the correct bus to the immigration office; I told her that it was, and feeling a good samaritan moment I told her which stop we should get off at. As it turned out she'd been there before but had only forgotten which bus to take; and anyway when the bus started going an announcement was made in English, Chinese and Korean that this was the bus to the immigration bureau. The voice indicated which stop it was and right after the stop before said, 'the next stop is... get off here for the immigration bureau... please press the button next to your seat if you want to get off. If you don't press the button the bus will not stop.' I thought that last part was great; it's nice to know that even the most clueless Gaijin is being accounted for. The woman I met actually ended up helping me out. When we got off the bus it REALLY wasn't clear where immigration was located (there was a map on the bus that I didn't see - talk about a clueless Gaijin), and she wasn't going directly there but she made sure to point me in the right direction, which I really appreciated. The walk wasn't far, but there wasn't a whole lot to indicate that I was approaching an important government building so I started to get a little anxious about the distance I might possibly have to cover. I started thinking crap, maybe I shouldn't have tried to do this before work after all!

The Indonesian woman came in while I was still filling out the first section of my forms, and noticing that she took a number before completing her forms (albeit for a re-entry permit, not a visa extension) I decided to take the same gamble. I was feeling pretty good about it until I realized that I had made a few mistakes AND totally not realized there was a 3rd page to be done. And my number was up in two turns. I started to get a little frantic and just at that moment the woman came up to say good-bye. I thanked her quickly and said good-bye. I wanted to give her a better thanks but I was also really intent on trying not to screw anything else up with my paperwork. She kind of stood there for a few moments and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be making some kind of conversation, but by this time they were on the number right before mine and the information I needed I couldn't just copy from the sample form. Well, she soon left but as it turned out my frantic-ness was for nothing; the number before me took more than enough time for me to complete everything.

When my number was called I was still worrying that something would be wrong - I had everything: the paperwork, my Gaijin card, passport and a required tax form that came with my last paycheck - but still I was holding my breath that everything would be accepted. It was. And the immigration agent told me that I could expect to pick up my new visa in 3 weeks! I was definitely happy to hear that, and to boot the whole process took no more than 40 minutes so I had more than enough time to relax in Tachikawa before heading off to work.