Highly Skilled Professional Visa
How to invite foreign parents to Japan?
- 2024.05.17
-Accompanying visa of Highly skilled professional Many foreigners in Japan apart from their families in their home country due to studying or work are considering inviting their parents to Japan. However, unlike spouses and children, the means to call foreign parents to Japan are quite limited, and the application is more difficult than other statuses of residence. This time, we would explain the methods of inviting foreign parents to Japan.
How to invite foreign parents to Japan?
Here are three ways how foreigners living in Japan invite their parents to Japan from foreign countries.
Short-term stay visa
Though a Short-term stay is one of the residence statuses to enter Japan, you may need to apply at the Japanese embassy or consulate abroad instead of the Immigration Bureau of Japan.
You may need to submit the documents proving the reason and relationship between foreigners in Japan and the reason for inviting their parents, the financial ability to pay travel expenses as a guarantor, as well as the documents related to residence and identification in Japan to the Japanese embassy in the home country, and will be issued after the examination.
Usually, the period of stay of a “short-term stay” visa is either 15 days, 30 days, or 90 days and it cannot be extended or renewed basically. However, as an exceptional case, it may be possible to extend or renew due to humanitarian reasons.
Specially Designated Activities visa (Elderly parent)
Specially Activities visa is one of the most difficult visas to obtain among all the statuses of residence in Japan. Strictly speaking, there is no status of residence of inviting parents living abroad to Japan and living with them officially in the current Immigration Control Act.
The “elderly parent visa” that you may have heard of is actually a status of residence for foreigners living in Japan to invite their parents who have difficulty living alone in their home country to Japan and take care of them with a “Specially Designated Activities” visa as a humanitarian measure.
Accompanying visa of Highly skilled professional (HSP)
In addition to the above status of residence, there is another way to invite
parents to Japan as a special treatment for foreigners who have Highly skilled professional visas, which has been getting a lot of attention in recent years. Foreigners who have the status of residence of Highly skilled professional are allowed to accompany their parents with the purpose of assisting them during pregnancy and taking care of children up to 7 years old under the condition that they meet certain requirements. While the elderly parent visa only allows one person to enter Japan, the
accompanying visa of Highly skilled professional allows both parents of either Highly skilled professionals or their spouses to enter Japan at the same time.
Comparison of conditions for inviting foreign parents to Japan
Here is the table to summarize three ways to invite foreign parents to Japan.
| Short-term stay visa | Elderly parent visa | Accompanying visa of HSP | |
| Conditions to apply for |
①The guarantor’s address must be in Japan. *As a reference, more than 3 million yen annual income, or 1 million yen savings |
①The parents must be more than 70 years old. ②The parents must not have any family members in their home country. ③Have sufficient financial ability to take care of the parents in Japan. ④The parents must live alone in their home country. ⑤The parents must be called with the purpose of supporting them ⑥The supporter (Japanese side) must reside in Japan ⑦ There must be the circumstances such as the parents having illnesses and so on |
①HSP or their spouses must be pregnant or have a child under the age of 7 ②HSP annual household income must be more than 8 million yen ③The parents must live together with HSP ④Only parents of either HSP or the spouse are applicable |
| Advantages | ・Simple application procedures ・Short application period |
・Obtain more than 1 year status of residence ・Able to join social insurance after entering Japan and basically is extendable |
・Obtain more than 1 year status of residence ・Able to join social insurance after entering Japan ・Easier than Elderly parent visa |
| Disadvantages | ・Short-term stay only ・In principle, can’t be updated or extended |
・Application requirements are strict (No family in the home country, the parents can’t live alone, the Sufficient financial ability of the supporter is required) ・Besides the difficulty of the application is higher, the issuance/approval rate is extremely low |
・It’s extendable, but can’t be extended from the point when the child is over the designated age or HSP is changed to PR |
Summery
It is said that living with their parents in Japan is quite difficult for foreigners living in Japan.
As mentioned above, there are three ways to invite parents to Japan, we assume that it is extremely difficult to decide which method is the best for your situation, and how to apply for it by yourself.
Despite how hard you work on preparing the application documents, once your application is refused, it could have a negative effect considerably on your application afterward. To avoid this situation, it is desirable to let the experts take care of it. You can ease the burden of preparation or collection of the documents on you, also, you will get accurate information and advice as well, so please feel free to contact us if you have any concerns.
We are Yanagi group, which have offices in Osaka (Abeno and Tennoji), and our affiliated offices in Tokyo (Shibuya and Ebisu) are also available for an on-site consultation. We have handled many applications for permanent residence permits, naturalization permits, work visas, college student visas, management visas, etc., as well as visa renewal procedures related to the status of residence with the Immigration Bureau (Immigration Bureau) as a one-stop service. Our experienced administrative scriveners are also available to help you with any problems you may have. We also have staff members who can speak each of the native languages and can assist you in obtaining a visa.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about your status of residence or visa, even if they are trivial.
Toll free number: 0120-138-552
For English speaker: 080-9346-2991
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Editor of this article
- Ryota Yanagimoto
- Administrative Scrivener/Judicial Scrivener
At the age of 24, he passed the national examinations for judicial scrivener, administrative scrivener, and wage service manager at the same time.
While working as a full-time lecturer at a major prep school, he independently opened a legal office related to judicial scriveners and administrative scriveners,
and he has experience as a judicial scrivener and an administrative scrivener for more than 15 years so far.
He has been actively contributing to various industries such as publicly listed companies, real estate companies, financial institutions, elderly care services, and professional organizations by conducting seminars, lectures, and talks.
And now he has a record of over 60 presentations so far.
Furthermore, as the president of a Japanese language school announced by the Ministry of Justice and Acts, and an advisor to a real estate company (capable of handling foreign clients),
he has been involved in various aspects of industries related to foreigners.
It is recommended to consult with experts when it comes to visas, naturalization, and residency matters.
Our office has specialized experts in visa and naturalization applications who are available to assist with free consultations (limited to the first session) and inquiries related to various visa applications and naturalization applications.
Additionally, we have foreign staff proficient in English, Chinese, and Korean languages with specialized knowledge, and they are present to provide support. They can accommodate consultations and inquiries in each language. Feel free to use our free consultation and inquiry services from here.
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