- Hi, guys, how's it going?
My name is Michaela and today is a very good day,
I'm a very, very happy person because today I got my visa.
For those of you who don't know what a visa is,
usually when you travel abroad as a foreign citizen
as a non-passport holder to a certain country,
if you plan to stay long-term, you need a visa.
If you're planning on coming to visit Japan
just for a few weeks, the good news is that most countries
do not require a visa just to come and visit
as a tourist, you can stay, I think,
between 30 to 90 days depending
on which country you're from, so that should be fine,
but if you plan to study, if you plan to work,
if you plan to live in Japan long-term,
you're going to need a visa.
In my case, I've been living in Japan
for about 13 years now, I came in 2005
and I did high school, I did working holiday,
I did language school, I did college,
and I've been working ever since.
And I've renewed my visa like a billions times,
but it doesn't make it any less stressful
when visa renewal season comes around again.
You see, I find the longer I stay here,
the more I have to lose and every year that I stay here
and things get easier and my life feels more comfortable,
the stronger the fear becomes that that could be taken away
in an instant, if that makes sense.
I know it's an irrational fear and as long
as I do my paperwork, everything should be fine,
but between submitting the application and getting it back
in the mail, it took a total of one month and during
that month all the bad thoughts kind of enter your head,
like what if I haven't done enough,
what if I made a mistake on my application,
what if they just decide they're tired of renewing my visa,
what if I have to get up and leave
and leave everything behind and say goodbye
to this apartment, say goodbye to Kit,
and just never come back to Japan again.
I'm gonna put this down for a second
'cause I'm clearly not gonna open it yet.
So some people have asked me why I haven't applied
for permanent residency yet if I have been here
for over 10 years, and to qualify for permanent residency,
it depends on what visa you have,
if you're married or if you're working for a company,
you can fast-track to permanent residency,
I think within five years, but because my history is
a little more complex than that and I've done a ton
of stuff and I've changed my visa status so many times,
permanent residency for me would take 10 years.
Wait a minute, she just said she's been here for 13 years.
That's right, I would've actually had my ten years
by now if I didn't do working holiday,
and I feel like this is something
that you guys might wanna know if you're planning
on staying in Japan long-term if you're also aiming
for those 10 consecutive years,
working holiday does not count as one
of those consecutive years and it actually restarts
the counter, so because I did working holiday
after I was a high school student,
it actually canceled all the years before that
and my cumulative 10 years began when I became
a language school student, which was actually
my third time and my third year in Japan.
So, that was fun to learn, I think working holiday is
a really, really great opportunity and a really great way
to spend one or two years in Japan,
but if you're planning on the long haul,
if you're thinking of staying for up to 10 years,
it actually doesn't count, so that might not be
an option for you, just letting you know.
Anyway, sorry, let's get back to this,
so I got my new visa in the mail today
and I'm very, very excited because it's a big deal,
it's a big deal this time, and I'll tell you why.
Aw, I got a cute little letter.
It basically congratulates me for successful renewal,
thank you Ona-san, Ona-san is my visa lawyer
and she's so good, I love her
and a lot of people might argue that you don't need one,
but I think I need one because I've been here
for a long time, I have a lot more to lose
and I appreciate her advice and she helps me make sure
that I have killer applications
and I appreciate her so much.
She has been amazing because she's got tons
of experience with helping foreigners get their visas
and she's given me tons of insight on how
to make my applications look better and how
to ensure that I pass and continue living in Japan.
I'm gonna put her information in the description box
just because I really do recommend her,
she's saved me, it's nice to have support
from someone who knows how immigration works,
but it's also great for peace of mind
because she's the one who's always telling me
to calm down and that it's gonna be fine
and I think without her, I would probably just melt down
completely, so here's my shiny new visa, yay!
I'm going to blur out all the information
that doesn't really matter and just show you
that it's good visa, it's a very, very good visa.
To get this visa, it means so much for me.
I am absolutely excited about this visa
and I'll tell you way, in order to apply
for permanent residency, you need to have
three to five years on your current visa
and if you have a one year visa,
you can't apply for PR, even if you're in your 10th year,
so the good news is that this visa is a three-year visa,
which means that I can apply for permanent residency
from this fall, the process for permanent residency takes
anywhere between six to 12 months depending
on the person and it could be really, really difficult
to pass, so now in the future, I think we are going
to work towards building a really strong application,
we're probably not going to apply this year,
but maybe next year after tax season because taxes are
really important, taxes are so important.
This is a huge deal for me because it means
that for the past few years I've been feeling
like I'm not moving forward at all and it's been so hard
to imagine a future because I didn't know what I was doing,
like I was living one year at a time.
Now knowing I have three years to do whatever I want
before I need to check back or renew or do anything again,
I feel like there's so many more possibilities,
like I could start a business or I could change
my career direction, I could try something totally new,
anyway, for the next three years,
anything could happen, so I'm feeling really motivated
and really thankful and really excited.
No more stop and go for a while.
It's gonna be so nice to just lay out plans and try
to make them happen, so I'm very excited about that.
Hi, what are you doing?
(cat meows)
Hmm?
(record scratches)
(cat purrs)
Why are you like this?
This is his way of telling me I've been talking
to the camera for too long and now it's time
to pay attention to the pets.
Anyway, that's where I'm at right now
and that's what's going on and I'm excited
to just stay here and keep making content
and hopefully making videos that help people
who wanna visit Fukuoka.
I realize that Fukuoka's too niche to get tons
of views and I've kind of come to terms with that now,
like I'm okay with the Fukuoka videos
not being insanely popular as long as they're helpful
and as long as they help people who are looking for them,
as long as the people who are looking for them find
the information that they need and it's helpful
to them, then it's worth it for me.
(speaks in foreign language)
Anyway, thank you guys so much for watching,
I hope that this was an interesting video for you,
I hope you learned some new information,
and yeah, I don't know what he's doing
and I don't know what this is, he seems really comfortable,
I don't really wanna move, but we should probably go,
so we should probably go do something.
All right, thank you so much for watching
and I will talk to you guys again soon, bye!
(upbeat music)