Naturalization Story Part 1: First Consultation at the Legal Affairs Bureau

Hello everyone!

In a previous blog post, I talked about my motivation for obtaining Japanese citizenship. This time, I will go into detail regarding the steps I took to apply. All of the conversations and phone calls were conducted in Japanese.

In order to give this story more context, you should know a bit more about me. I am a natural-born Filipino citizen in my late 20s, single, living in Aichi Prefecture. Thus, all of the requirements, documents required will be from the point of view of a person with the above qualities.

 On to the main story:

In the beginning of April 2021, I looked for the 法務局hōmukyoku (Legal Affairs Bureau) that has jurisdiction over my place of residence and that has a 国籍課kokusekika (citizenship section), which was the Nagoya Legal Affairs Bureau.

I called the number on the website, navigated through the voice prompts, and got connected to a person on the other end. I told them that I would like to apply for citizenship. They asked me:

1. Where I live (to confirm that they have jurisdiction over me)
2. What my current citizenship is
3. When I came to Japan
4. How old I am
5. What I do for a living

To the astute readers among you, you have probably realized that they were checking if I met the minimum requirements for naturalization. My answers seem to satisfy them, and they gave a reservation for an in-person interview in two weeks.

The First Consultation

Some time in mid-April, I took a half day off work to go to the Legal Affairs Bureau. My appointment was for 14:15, but I arrived at 13:45, quite a bit early. I entered the building, looked for the 国籍課kokusekika (citizenship section), and went to their reception desk. I was greeted by a young lady, and upon telling her I had an appointment, she gave me a small form to fill in (name, address, nationality, etc.). After I filled it in and returned it to her, she told me to go to the adjacent waiting room. I could see that there were two consultation rooms for citizenship, and one was occupied by a woman and her child.

A few moments later, the case worker, a middle-aged man, greeted me and led me to the vacant consultation room. He began by giving me a pamphlet, titled 帰化による日本国籍の取得kika ni yoru nihonkokuseki no shutoku, or "Gaining Japanese Citizenship through Naturalization". 

How to be Japanese

We went through the seven requirements, as written in page 2 of the pamphlet.

1. Have continuously lived in Japan for 5 years or more? Check. In fact, I have just crossed the 5-year mark when I initially made the call to the Legal Affairs Bureau.
2. Be 20 years of age or above, and be a legal adult in my home country? Check. I am in my late 20s, and the age of majority in the Philippines is 18.
3. Be of upright conduct? We will find out later (spoiler: check)
   
4. Have a way of supporting myself and my family? Check. I am a 正社員seishain (permanent employee) at a medium/large-scale Japanese company with a steady income.
5. Be willing to give up my other nationality/ies upon acquisition of Japanese nationality? Check, although reluctantly.
6. Have never plotted to destroy the current government of Japan? Check.
7. Have a Japanese skill level enough to go about daily life, and be a functioning member of Japanese society? Check. I have a JLPT N1 certificate, and the interviewer has mentioned that he feels my Japanese level is sufficient.

Note: Requirement 7 is not explicitly written in the Nationality Law of Japan, which has only 6 requirements. Nevertheless, as a prospective citizen, it is still a good idea to know the language, as it indirectly affects requirement 4 by affecting what kind of jobs you can take.

Next, we talked about my immediate family. I have no brothers or sisters, and am still unmarried. Both of my parents are Filipino citizens and hold no other nationalities. Upon hearing this, the case worker told me that he has determined that I "do not have special ties with Japan, because I do not have Japanese family members nor am I married to a Japanese citizen. As such, I do not qualify for 簡易帰化kan'i kika (simplified naturalization)"

Next, we talked about property. He asked me if I owned real estate, a condominium, a car, or a business in Japan. I said no to all of them. Then we talked about my qualifications. He asked me what I did for a living, where I graduated university, what qualifications or certifications I had (such as university degree, JLPT certification, IT certifications, etc.), and I answered truthfully.

Finally, we talked about transgressions. He asked me if I have ever declared bankruptcy, if I have ever been in a traffic accident, if I have ever been arrested for a crime, or if I have ever overstayed my visa. My answer to all questions was of course, no. I get the feeling that saying "yes" to any of these would be grounds for ineligibility to naturalize, but he mentioned that it depends on the severity of the violation.

The case worker seems to have been satisfied with the information he has gotten from me, and none of my answers have been obvious grounds for disqualification, because he proceeded to give me an A3-sized leaflet with a list of documents to gather.

My list of requirements

Documents from the Philippines

1. My birth certificate (with an attached Apostille)
2. My parents' marriage certificate
3. A 陳述書chinjutsusho (statement book), to be filled up by my parents, and the envelope/parcel they used to send it back to me in Japan
   
4. Photocopies of my current and old passport(s)
5. Photocopy of my certificate of graduation
   

Note: Documents not written in Japanese must be accompanied by a Japanese translation. The translation does not have to be professional. The case worker told me I could do the translation myself if I felt confident. He told me to write the name and address of the translator in the translated documents.

Documents from Japan

6. 世帯全員の省略のない住民票setai zen'in no shōryaku no nai jūminhyo, my family unit's unabridged Certificate of Residence
7. 過去５年の運転記録証明書kako gonen no unten kiroku shōmeisho, Driving Record for the past 5 years (because I have a Japanese driver's license)
8. 源泉徴収票gensenchōshūhyō, Certificate of income and withholding tax for the past year
9. 市県民税納税証明書shikenminzei nōzeishōmeishō, Certificate of payment of municipal and prefectural tax
10. 市民税県民税証明書shiminzei kenminzei nōzeishōmeishō, Certificate of residents’ tax
11. Photocopy of my driver's license
12. Photocopy of my qualifications (such as JLPT)
13. Photocopy of my 在留カードzairyū kādo (residence card)
14. Photocopy of my lease agreement (I am renting an apartment under my name)

He told me to make two sets of all documents, so for documents that I can submit the original (birth certificate, certificate of residence, etc.), I need to have one original + one copy. For documents that I cannot submit the original (passport, residence card, license), I need to make two copies.

With the explanation of my homework done, and the consultation finished, the case worker asked me if one month was enough to gather the documents. Due to the ongoing global pandemic, I was not sure how quickly I could get the documents from overseas, so I told him I would call the Legal Affairs Bureau to schedule my next consultation once I had an idea when I could get the documents.

All in all, the consultation took about 30 minutes.

Gathering the Documents

I will go through the documents in order.

(1a) Birth Certificate, (2) Parents' Marriage Certificate

These can be obtained from the PSA (Philippine Statistics Authority, formerly NSO). I contacted my parents, who reside in the Philippines, and asked them to get the documents for me. Parents, spouses, and direct descendants can get one's civil registry documents without needing an authorization letter. This took 3 business days, from online application through Serbilis to delivery to our Philippine residence by mail.

(1b)...with attached Apostille

Additionally, for my birth certificate, Japan requires it to have an apostille, a certification that allows the document to be used internationally. The apostille is issued by the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) and can only be obtained within the Philippines, so I asked my parents to handle this for me. Because the apostille application requires an in-person appearance of my authorized representative, and COVID restrictions are still in effect during this time, the earliest available reservation was in mid-June 2021, a month and a half from when my parents made a reservation. Bummer. No choice but to wait.

2021/06/24 Edit: And wait I did. It's here:

The apostille document is bound to the birth certificate with the use of a hollow metal rivet near the top left of the paper.

(3a) Statement book

This one is interesting. It is basically a statement from my parents that I am their child, that they have so and so number of children, and that they approve/deny/have no comment regarding my intent to naturalize. My understanding is that this is required because there is no official document issued by the Philippine government that I have no other brothers/sisters other than the ones I declared. As for their opinion regarding my naturalization, the case worker said that their approval or disapproval wouldn't affect my application.

The case worker was very particular about this document needing to be handwritten personally by my parents, so sending a pre-filled PDF for them to just sign was a no-go. I did, however, relay very specific instructions to my parents through email regarding how to fill it up. It has very... interesting English. Hence the necessity for additional instructions on how to fill it up.

or should I say "Engrish"?

(3b) ...the envelope/parcel they used to send it back to me

They told me that I also needed to submit the envelope/parcel in which the documents were sent to me from the Philippines, presumably to make sure that my parents really wrote the documents themselves and really sent them to me in Japan, as opposed to me writing it myself and forging their signature. In the interview, I did declare that my parents lived in the Philippines, so I don't think this is an unreasonable request. I didn't ask what evidence they would need if my parents decided to hop on a plane and hand the documents directly to me. Maybe a copy of their plane ticket and a picture of us holding the documents together?

(4) Photocopies of my current and old passport(s)

This one is pretty straightforward, save for a few gotchas. First, the case worker stressed that I must also photocopy the cover of my passport. Secondly, unlike the BigDaikon naturalization story, only non-blank passport pages needed to be photocopied. So only those with visas or entry/exit stamps. Lastly, I only have my current and previous passport in my possession. even though I have travel history to Japan as an exchange student with my previous previous passport, I unfortunately no longer have that passport with me. However, I think the case worker was only interested with my travel history from the past 5 years, so he told me to my current and previous passport would suffice.

I remembered to scan the cover

(6) Certificate of Residence

This can be obtained from the city hall/ward office with jurisdiction of your residence. Also, if you have a マイナンバーカードmainanbā kādo (Individual Number Card, more commonly known as the "my number card" as its Japanese name suggests), you can also print out your certificate from any convenience store nationwide.

(7) Driving Record

I requested this from the 運転免許試験場untenmenkyo shikenjō (Driver's License Testing Center) in 平針Hirabari. I had to go there anyway to renew my driver's license. However, they do not issue the driving record on the same day. I was given the option to come back a day or two later to receive it, or have it mailed to my residence. I chose to have it mailed. 

(8) Certificate of income and withholding tax

My employer gives this to us every year, so I just had to photocopy it.

(9) Certificate of payment of municipal and prefectural tax, (10) Certificate of residents’ tax

I got these from the city hall/ward office's tax department. Do note that the tax documents can only be obtained from the city hall/ward office that has jurisdiction on your residence as of January 1 of the year you are applying. So if you moved cities within the year, you would still need to get your tax documents from the city hall/ward office of your previous residence.

(5), (11)-(14) Photocopies of various documents

These are IDs or documents I already had on hand, so I simply needed to photocopy them. For IDs, he told me to copy both the front and back.

...and that's it for my first consultation and homework! In the next post, I will talk about the second consultation, and what I did after. Thank you for reading.