When searching online, you’ll come across numerous “Immigration Lawyers” who promote themselves as “visa specialists” or “immigration lawyers.” However, it’s essential to be cautious about that.
Firstly, various applications submitted to the Immigration Services Agency of Japan (Immigration Office) are processed based on the discretionary authority of the Minister of Justice. Simply submitting the required documents does not guarantee approval.
According to the law, applicants are deemed to have the burden of proof, so it is essential to provide sufficient evidence to support their application.
Moreover, numerous internal regulations are confidentially held within the Immigration Services Agency, and amendments to immigration laws occur frequently. Hence, in practice, possessing extensive legal knowledge is indispensable, and highly advanced legal skills are necessary. Therefore, it’s not easy for immigration lawyers to acquire these skills, and there are a limited number of immigration lawyers who are real experts in the field.
As a result, there is a continuous stream of operational troubles caused by immigration lawyers, leading to significant inconvenience and damage for foreigners and their related businesses.
Unfortunately, when tasks are entrusted to non-specialized immigration lawyers, the matters requested are not handled properly or professionally. Consequently, cases that should have been approved end up being denied, and clients are merely charged unnecessary fees without making any real progress.
Since there is much misinformation online, it can indeed be a tricky situation for general users to navigate.
There are some fraudulent Immigration lawyers providing the services without any knowledge about immigration affairs only for money. Until now, many applicants having a miserable experience with such vicious Immigration lawyers have visited our firm for consultation. Therefore, you are encouraged to select an Immigration lawyer very carefully for your application.
For example, an applicant requested an Immigration lawyer to make an application and paid a few hundred thousand Japanese Yen for the service. However, even 1 year after the request, such Immigration lawyer did not prepare necessary documents and make an application. Then, the applicant consulted with 5 Immigration lawyers, and they all said that the applicant was not eligible to obtain a visa from the viewpoint of its requirements. Therefore, the applicant visited our firm for consultation. However, we found that the applicant could have easily obtained the visa after interviewing with the applicant. We made an application, and the applicant could successfully obtain the visa without any problem.
On the other hand, the idea that “you only have to obtain an approval” is not recommendable. Usually, we formulate and prepare a “statement of reasons for application” without fail on the basis of various materials for any application. Such statement of reasons includes accurate descriptions of any and all facts, preparing for various applications to be made in the future. However, it is not uncommon to see some Immigration lawyer offices preparing and submitting extremely poor documents from a short-sighted point of view of “you only have to obtain an approval”.
As a result of such viewpoint, there are many cases where the applicants have obtained visas but they suffer from significantly adverse effects on the applications for permission to renew the status of residence or for permission of permanent residence thereafter. In other words, there are some cases where applications for permission to renew the status of residence or for permission of permanent residence were rejected by the Immigration Bureau because some of the details in the new applications were found to be inconsistent with information in previously submitted application documents that had been approved of by the Immigration Bureau.
For your reference, the trend of securing talented human resources from overseas is expected to grow as the declining birthrate and aging population in Japan will be accelerated in the future. Under such circumstances, in Japan, as well as in European and American countries, the demand for certified professionals specializing in the Immigration Control Act (= Immigration Lawyers) is believed to increase inevitably. Under the current system, the qualified professionals (= Immigration Lawyers) with expertise in the Immigration Control Act and related regulations are indispensable. Therefore, it is important for applicants to evaluate the competency or skills of such professionals.
