Overview
- The cabinet approved the ordinance on Tuesday, Aug. 25, finalizing a tiered fee schedule that replaces the flat ¥6,000 charge for residence-status changes and renewals with amounts ranging from ¥10,000 to ¥75,000 and raising permanent-residence application fees from ¥10,000 to ¥200,000.
- The Immigration Services Agency will collect the higher fees starting Oct. 1 and has said the extra revenue will go to immigration-control work and Japanese-language learning programs.
- A July guideline limits fee reductions to people who both live in poverty at a level similar to welfare recipients and can show humanitarian need, a formula that refugee groups warn will leave most asylum seekers ineligible for relief.
- Following public comments, the agency narrowly expanded relief to include impoverished foreign single parents who alone care for a Japanese or special-permanent-resident child and who change status to 'specified activities,' but it did not cut the size of the increases.
- The move builds on a May change to the immigration law that authorizes cost-shifting to beneficiaries and is likely to raise practical barriers for low-income foreigners seeking status changes or permanent residency while changing how immigration services are funded.