My Japanese Immigration Mishap

In this article, I'll talk about my misadventure to the Japanese Immigration office.

Japan and It's Rules

Whenever I go to an official place in Japan, I need to carry EVERYTHING, literally EVERYTHING. They want to see my passport, residence card, bankbook, American ID, my mother's maiden name ID, and what color she dyed her hair in 1995. LOL. Okay, not ALL of that, but they do want passport, residence card, bank book. So why of all days to lose my residence card, did I choose the day to turn in my visa renewal form???

The Case of The Missing Residence Card

Let me explain. I ALWAYS, yes ALWAYS have my residence card just sitting in my wallet. I rarely ever use it, so I may had forgotten to check that it was there. It's literally ALWAYS there. BUT... You see, when you have to renew your visa, you need to make copies. A TON of copies. You need to print the form itself, print the guarantor form, make copies of bank books. You also need to make a copy of your passport, and residence card. AND residence card... As I stated in an earlier article. And I DID do all of those things. However, I have an issue when I make copies, and it finally caught up to me… On the worse possible day, no doubt. I have an issue of forgetting the original, and ONLY grabbing the copy. Usually it's okay because I'm at work and it's no big deal. But, on this particular occasion I went to Family Mart, my favorite convenience store, to make copies. Sigh, it wasn't the only one I usually go to, but it is still close to my house.
Well... I sort of, kind of forgot to grab my residence card. I was having trouble that day because as I stated, I don't normally go to this particular convenience store. I had trouble connecting to the internet so that I could print the guarantor document from my phone. In Japan at the convenience store, there's an app you can download to print documents from your phone. It is literally amazing. But the catch is that you must connect to the Wi-Fi, which can get tricky sometimes. So, I had a lot of trouble connecting. I was so frustrated that in the midst of all the drama, I forgot to get my residence card. That happened on a Saturday.

Let's jump back to today, a Thursday. My husband took off work so that we could go together to immigration. The reason is because people who work at immigration don't speak English, go figure. And I don't want to hear that I'm in Japan so I should speak Japanese. It's the freakin IMMIGRATION. At least ONE person who works there should speak a little English. And if you're wondering no, it's not only because I'm in the country. I called immigration in Yokohama (close to Tokyo), and only one person could speak to me. But anyway, my husband took off the day, we got on the train. They asked to see my passport and residence card, I had my passport, but NO residence card. We had to go back home, after waiting about thirty minutes because the train where I live is quite useless, and we had to check the house and the convenience store. It was THERE, thank the Lord Almighty!!! We had to travel back to immigration to submit. What a day. I really should be more mindful, but knowing me, I'll forget again... Sigh.
On a side note, I should have known it would be a wonky day. When I went to the train station with my husband, I bought my ticket. Only a few moments later, I managed to lose it! I often feel like I will lose my train ticket, but I don’t lose it. Not on today though. Bad luck at its finest.

The End Result

We were about to turn in my application. However, we need to send in more documents. I looked online over and over and over again, and no where did I see ANYTHING about bringing last year's tax form. They told us we need to take a copy of the tax form from last year, and a copy of my health insurance card. Luckily, we can send those documents in by mail. We went to the city ward to retrieve the tax document. It was great! We could get it on that day. We came home after thinking it was a job well done but guess what… WE FORGOT THE FORM AT THE CITY WARD. That’s right, we BOTH forgot the form. Sometimes I wonder why these things happen to me LOL. I’ll need to go back to the city ward alone. The train ride is about 50 minutes. 50 minutes for an unnecessary trip if we hadn’t forgotten. This is a lesson I should keep in mind for the future. Oh me and my awful forgetfulness.