Examples of overstaying after expiration of visa
You need to acquire a Japanese visa in order to stay and reside in Japan for a long period. Japanese government issues a Residence Card (在留カード) to each of visa holders. On the Residence Card you can see the date of expiration of the visa.
However, there are some cases that non-Japanese people keep staying in Japan even after the expiration of visa:
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[Example 1]
If you join a family of a personnel or civilian employee of USA’s armed forces, who work at US bases in Japan, then you are permitted to reside inside Japanese territory without having Japanese visa. In this case you will be a resident of USA, not a resident of Japan, even you and your family have a home in Japan. So if you get married with a personnel or civilian employee of US armed forces, the you can keep residing inside Japan after the expiration of the visa. - [Example 2]
If you accidentally keep staying in Japan after the expiration of the visa, then it is an illegal staying. Japanese law orders persons who stay illegally to get out of Japan, of course. Japanese immigration office can detain persons who stay illegally in Japan for a long period. Even if you are detained by the authority, its period is regarded as an overstaying without a visa.
You need to claim lump-sum pension refund within 2 years after the expiration of visa
“You do not have an address in Japan” is one of requirements to claim a lump-sum pension refund (Lump-sum Withdrawal Payments). Please see the guidance of Lump-sum Withdrawal Payments. To clear this requirement you need to follow one of the three:
- (1) Expiration of Japanese visa
- (2) Ending a re-entry permit period and not returning Japan
- (3) Submitting Moving-out Notification
For details, please see this article of our blog.
If you are in a situation of the above 2 examples, then you already haven’t had a Japanese address while you are still in Japan.
In such cases the period to claim your lump-sum pension refund has begun since the expiration of your visa. So after you leave Japan you will have a claiming period of shorter than 2 years. In other words, you can claim your lump-sum pension refund even if you are still in Japan, because you don’t have a Japanese address anymore(*).
(*) According to the law you can do it, although we don’t have such a case so far.
In the past we got queries from non-Japanese employees, asking whether they could claim their lump-sum pension refunds in spite of having passed 2 years since the expiration of the visa. They had a period of staying in Japan after the expiration of the visa for some reasons. But even if they left Japan less than 2 years before, their claims were not accepted because their claiming period were counted from the date of the expiration of the visa.
YouAT LLC gives you services for Japanese pension and tax refunds
We YouAT LLC has more than 10 year’s history to support non-Japanese employees’ “Lump-sum Withdrawal Payments”, “Old Age Pension”, and income tax refunds.
We have staff of Labor and Social Security Attorney, Administrative Scrivener, and Tax Accountant.
Please feel free to contact us for Japanese Pension and Tax Refunds!
YouAT LLC website — > www.youat-jp.com/
Email –> info@youat-jp.com