Frequently Asked Questions

No. It is the Regional Immigration Services Bureau or the Legal Affairs Bureau that decides whether to grant or refuse an application, and a Gyoseishoshi cannot guarantee the outcome. If an office tells you that approval is certain, that statement is not accurate.

What we can do is assemble documents that convey precisely that you meet the requirements, so that the examiner understands your case correctly. This can raise the likelihood of approval, but it cannot be a promise.

In addition to our Professional Fee, there are Actual Expenses: fees payable to public offices, the cost of obtaining residence certificates and tax certificates, postage and so on. The amounts published on this site are Professional Fees only and do not include Actual Expenses.

When you consult us we give you a quotation that separates the two, so you can see the total before you engage us.

See the fees page

Because even for the same extension of a period of stay, the amount of work varies a great deal with the circumstances. A change of employer, a divorce, a change of job or an earlier refusal all mean additional supporting documents are needed.

We therefore fix the amount after hearing your situation. We always present the amount before you engage us and begin work only once you have agreed. The amount is never raised unilaterally afterwards.

It depends on the type of procedure and on how busy the Regional Immigration Services Bureau or the Legal Affairs Bureau is. The rough guide below is for reference only.

• Extension of period of stay: about 1-2 months from application to result
• Change of Status of Residence: about 1-3 months
• Permanent Residence Permission: about 6 months to 1 year
• Naturalization: about a year from application to result, and longer if the preliminary consultation is included

You also need time to gather the documents. If your period of stay is approaching its end, please contact us as early as you can.

You can certainly apply yourself. If you clearly meet the requirements and your circumstances are straightforward, doing it yourself costs less.

Engaging us makes the most difference in cases such as these.

• An application for a Status of Residence or naturalization has already been refused
• Your situation has changed since the last application, through a new job, a divorce or living apart
• You are uneasy about your income or your tax record
• You cannot judge what to explain, or how

Yes, please do contact us. We work mainly within the area covered by the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau (Aichi, Mie, Shizuoka, Gifu, Fukui, Ishikawa, Toyama and Nagano), but documents can be exchanged by post and email, so we also accept work from clients further away.

Depending on the procedure, however, we may need to attend a public office in your area, in which case we would either charge travel costs or refer you to an office near you. Please start by telling us which city or ward you live in.

By telephone and by email we work in Japanese or Chinese.

In any other language, we ask that a family member, friend or interpreter who speaks Japanese joins you, or contacts us on your behalf. The same applies to meetings after you engage us.
This site itself is available in nine languages, so you can use it to understand what we do.

Yes. We cannot accept the following. We ask for your understanding in advance.

• Applications containing statements that are not true, or work involving forged or altered documents
• Work premised on a marriage or an employment relationship that does not really exist
• The same matter where another Gyoseishoshi office has already been engaged
• Matters that fall within the work of another professional, such as an attorney, a judicial scrivener or a tax accountant
• Matters involving litigation or dispute, such as court proceedings or deportation procedures

We may also decline a request if, after hearing the details, we judge that we cannot be of help.

It depends on the situation; there are cases we can take and cases we cannot. Once a period of stay has expired (overstaying), an ordinary Status of Residence application usually cannot be used and a different procedure is required.

When you contact us, please tell us exactly how long ago the period expired.

We reply to enquiries sent by email within 3 business days (excluding weekends and public holidays).

If more than 3 business days pass without a reply, please check your spam folder and then call us on 052-870-4872.

Please include your name, how to reach you, and what you would like to ask about. In Status of Residence matters, your nationality, your current status, the expiry of your period of stay and what has happened until now change both how the case proceeds and what it costs.

By telling us these things in advance, we can set out a concrete plan and a quotation in our very first reply. That removes several rounds of back and forth and saves you both effort and time.

Yes. Enquiries by telephone or email and the quotation given before you engage us are free.

What we can answer free of charge extends to whether we can take the matter on, the broad approach, and the likely cost. Anything amounting to the work itself, such as how to complete specific documents or the interpretation of a provision in your case, is dealt with after you engage us.