Arriving in Tokyo

What to expect when arrive?

Residence card

Once you arrive in Tokyo airport, you will be issued a residence card, which looks like the one below. Please remember to provide these documents below upon arrival:

1. Passport, with your approved student visa.
2. Certificate of eligibility
3. Working permit application form**(if you wish to legally get a job in Japan)

**Optional.

Photo 1: Front of residence card

Photo 2: Back of residence card

At the back of the residence card(refer to photo 2), there should be your Japan residencial address written on it. Within 14 days of finding a place to settle down in Japan, you are asked to visit the nearest municipal office where you live with your resident card and notify where you live. For example that I live in Yoyogi-koen, and the nearest municipal office will be Shibuya-ku city office, and that will be the place I need to go! (Google comes in handy in this case, take note on their working hours as well, they might differ depending on the day)

Please note that if you fail to give notification of your place of residence without a justifiable reason within 90 days of landing, your status of residence becomes subject to being revoked. (I just copy & paste from the notification letter they gave me, so it’s legit)

Also, at the bottom of the back of the residence card, they will give you a stamp with the number “28” inside the sentence. This means that you are eligible to work up to 28 hours/week. But if you did not apply for working permit upon arrival, you will not received this stamp and the section will leave blank, of course. You can always apply it later , but I am not too sure where.

Written by,

Jieyee Long – 11361868

Bachelor of Electrical Engineering, with Diploma in Engineering Practice