Getting proof of your current nationalities
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| Japan and the U.S. have no exact equivalent |
You would think that this would be as simple as presenting your current, valid, passports. The problem is mainly this: a passport does indeed indicate what country (one of them, at least) you were a national of, that information was true only at the time of the application for the passport.
Passports often last at least five years (such as the Japanese "blue" passport), and more often, ten (10) years (such as the Japanese "red" passport). It's very possible that one could have lost that citizenship from the time the passport was issued. And while if you lose one's nationality/citizenship countries almost always cancel the passport — sometimes this is only done digitally in databases if the country cannot get access to the actual passport(s) and punch holes through them or stamp them as cancelled. A person who is losing their nationality can always report their passport as lost or stolen, after all.
The naturalization process likes all paperwork with data that can change, within reason, to be "current" — or certified as current — to within three (3) months of the time of application.
"Proof of Citizenship" for the United States
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| Issued only to naturalized; not native-born |
They are aware, though, they many of their citizens — or soon to be former-citizens — do require something other than their passport for this process so they know what to do.
In the past, they used to provide the American with a letter, on U.S. Embassy letterhead stationary, confirming the main items on Page One of one's U.S. passport — including one's U.S. nationality — as being correct, and signing it and dating it.
The new process, however, is for them to use the notary services that are part of the ACS section of the Embassy or Consulate and notarize the first page of your passport as being correct at that notarization date.
In case you were wondering if this wasn't some sort of scheme to get more money, you could be partially correct: the old process, where they provided you with letterhead confirming your passport is correct, costed $30. Notarization services done by an American embassy or consulate, as of 2015, costs $50 per seal.
"Proof of Citizenship" for the United Kingdom
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| Certificate only issued to naturalized |
Because of this, your case officer may or may not ask you for alternate means to prove your United Kingdom nationality. Or the case officer might say you don't need to provide anything at all; because the United Kingdom just recently changed their process, Japan's æ³åç (MoJ) needs to formally change their written procedures regarding the UK, so I'm not clear if there is a revised process.
"Proof of Citizenship" for Japan
For the case of those who must relinquish or renounce their other nationalities after† acquiring Japanese nationality, one may have to provide proof that they currently possess Japanese nationality.Many countries, as part of the UNHCR protocol to reduce or prevent statelessness, will not allow their citizens/nationals to become stateless, so they will want formal proof that one already possesses a nationality before they will let someone give up a nationality. Either that or they will have a system were your nationality will automatically "return" if you do not acquire another nationality within a certain time.
For relinquishing your U.S. Nationality
The United States is a rare exception of a country that will let you become stateless. Nevertheless, as part of their paperwork for losing American citizenship, they will want "proof" of your current nationalities, if you have one.For this document, they will want one thing: a copy of your æžç± (Japanese family unit name register). The embassies and consulates in Japan are used to seeing this document, so they will not need or ask for an official certified or unofficial translation. If you relinquish your US citizenship in a country other than Japan, they may ask for an official translation of your Japanese family register.
For creating a new æžç± (Japanese family register)
When your naturalization application is approved, you will receive a special multi-page A4 paper size document entitled åž°åè 身å蚌ææž (proof of identity of a [Japanese] naturalized citizen). This is proof that you are a new non-native-born Japanese national, but it is only used in one place: your local Ward or City Hall/Office (åºåœ¹æ／åžåœ¹æ) etc. to create your family register. It contains all the vital information (such as your family: spouse and/or parents) necessary for creating a complete family register from scratch.Although it is only really used for one purpose, they allow you to keep the document. Because it has no photo on it and isn't really portable (full-size papers vs a card or a booklet like a passport), it is of limited usefulness.
Japanese national proof for domestic use inside Japan
Inside Japan, you may need to prove your Japanese nationality to law enforcement or to a government official. Obviously, a æžç±è¬æ¬ (official certified copy of one's family register) can prove a naturalized person's Japanese nationality for office procedures or official applications, but this is not a portable document that can be used on the street.One's Japanese driver's license (é転å 蚱蚌) has one's æ¬ç± (registered domicile) inside of it encrypted (with an eight (8) digit PIN that only you and the driver's license department can de-crypt) on a contact-less IC chip inside the card‡. If that field contains the name of a foreign country, then that means the bearer of the card is a non-Japanese. If it contains a Japanese address, that means the person is a Japanese national.
In an emergency situation (for example, a lost or stolen passport) at airport immigration in Japan or at an overseas Japanese embassy, a Japanese driver's license can be read to determine if one is a Japanese national.
Once upon a time, a äœæ°ç¥š (local resident registration) as well as the corresponding portable äœåºã«ãŒã (portable durable local resident registration card), which is the same size as a driver's license or credit card and depending on the locale, may or may not have a contact/contact-less IC chip in it with the same information, could serve as proof of Japanese nationality. However, now that they have changed the foreigner registration law, non-Japanese can have äœæ°ç¥š (local resident registration) now as well, so this can no longer serve as proof of Japanese nationality.
While Japan is currently developing a national identification card — perhaps it will be called a åœæ°èº«å蚌ææž (Japanese National Identity Card), that is national — unlike the local äœåºã«ãŒã (portable durable local resident registration card), and not dependent on another qualification — like passing a driving examination for a Japanese driver's license (é転å 蚱蚌), this is not available yet.
"Proof of Citizenship" for other countries
You should not assume that the above proof will be the same or similar to you and your country, even if your country is mentioned above. The case officer may ask you for a notarized copy of your passport, a certificate, or something else. Whether or not your country provides a form of identification or not may not make a difference.However, case workers also understand when some form of paperwork, due to individual circumstances, is absolutely impossible to obtain, and they do and are known to work around these obstacles.
- † The most common scenario is actually to lose your nationality prior to, or automatically and simultaneously (due to the other country not recognizing multiple nationalities, with the acquisition of Japanese citizenship.
- ‡ If someone attempts to guess an incorrect password more than three times in a row, the IC chip locks and is disabled; the only way you can re-enable it is by taking it to a driver's license center.
