Blog - Renewing my visa: Part 2

Renewing my visa: Part 2

Yesterday, I went back to the immigration bureau, and I was was able to renew my visa for another 3 years!
Still it wasn't without a bit of confusion this time either.

First of all the card I had received just said to go to counter A, so I went there and started waiting in line for 5-10 minutes, and then out of boredom I started paying attention to a tiny marquee on which a message was scrolling at an incredibly slow speed, pausing continuously.
Something like: "PLEASE F"... "IRST BUY"... "A STAMP "... "AT THE C"... "ONVENIEN"... "CE STORE"... " ON THE "... "FIRST FL"... "OOR".
Why, thanks for letting me know so quickly. You'd think they'd put that kind of message in big red letters on the wall so people don't waste their time, but they preferred to go for a bit of hi-tech equipment.
So I lost my place in line to go buy my stamp (pictured) downstairs. When asking for a stamp at the convenience store, I was asked what price I'd like, I had no clue... So the lady took a look at the postcard I was holding and told me I needed a ¥4000 stamp. I got the stamp and went back to the end of the line, waited again a few minutes, gave the stamp and my passport, and was given a number.

Numbers were being called in quasi-random order "40, 22, 8, 9, 11, 12, 34, 13, 2". A Korean lady sitting in front of me seemed to wonder whether her number, 10, would ever come up. Mine was 44 and came up after about 20 minutes, before hers did.
I was then given back my passport, with a 3-year extension permit added to it! Yeah!! The extension is applied after the span of my current visa, which was going to end in March this year, so now I can feel home again until 2007!

Then I went to apply for a multiple re-entry permit (which allows re-entering Japan after travelling to another country) to save myself another trip to the immigration bureau in a month or two. I had already picked up the form on my previous visit and had filled it at home, so it was going to go quickly. I knew I'd need some stamps to pay for it, but didn't know how much and the price wasn't written anywhere. So I first gave my form, passport and gaijin card (aka "alien registration card") to the clerk, who told me to go buy stamps at the convenience store. It costs ¥3000 for a one-time re-entry permit, or ¥6000 for a multiple re-entry permit.
For a few minutes I was without any legal identification, which felt a bit strange. I got back, gave the stamps and my passport was ready, including the new re-entry permit.
I left the counter and when taking a good look at the permit, I noticed that it expires on January 26, 2007 (3 years from the day), while I thought it would be valid until my visa expires (March 2007). So I went to ask the clerk whether it was a mistake or not, and he says that it was that way. Oh well..!

So that's pretty much it for my visa peripeteia this time. All in all it went pretty well, though I believe that it could still go smoother if there'd be better information.

Next, I have to communicate the extension to my local ward within 2 weeks. They will take care of writing the new expiration date on my gaijin card. I will probably go early morning sometime this week (I was hoping to go today but couldn't wake up!). :)

I had began to count the days until my visa expires, so it really feel goods that the number of days has now reset to above 1000!
No more worries for a while...!

Posted on January 28, 2004 at 00:32 | Tweet |

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