Visa Overstayers Granted Special Residency By Japanese Government
Good news for a family that was facing deportation:
The Justice Ministry has decided to grant special residence permission to a Kurdish man, his Filipino wife and their 7-year-old daughter, overturning its earlier decision to deport the couple for overstaying their visas.
The ministry’s move came after the Tokyo High Court suggested a settlement in the case in which the family’s request to nullify the ministry’s order to deport them had been turned down by the Tokyo District Court.
“After the high court proposed a settlement, we determined that this would be the best way to grant them special residence permission from a humanitarian perspective,” said Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama during a press conference following a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
As early as Tuesday, special residence permission will be granted to Taskin, 32, a Kurdish man with Turkish citizenship, his Filipino wife, Beltran, 41, and their daughter, Zilan, who live together in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture.
Taskin and Beltran met each other in 1998 while they were overstaying their visas in Japan. They got married after Zilan was born. However, Tokyo immigration authorities issued an order in 2004 to deport Taskin to Turkey and Beltran and Zilan to the Philippines.
The family filed a suit against the order, saying, “If we were deported, it would be difficult for us to live together because of religious and other reasons.” Taskin also maintained that he could be persecuted if he returns to Turkey because he had refused to serve in the military.
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“Taskin and Beltran met each other in 1998 while they were overstaying their visas in Japan”…
Are there some kind of support groups I don’t know about?
“My name is Taskin, and I’m an overstayer.”
Have this kinda thing happen before? Soon, the gov will be handing out special permissions to all ” overstayers “.
hi timotei!i just want to ask you about my problem,im overstay here in japan almost 2years now.i have a daughter and she is 6months now,me and my daughter’s father are not married because of some problem.but the father of my child aknoweldge and sign the birth of my child.my daughter is in the family regiter of her father,is thier posible i can get a visa?even wer not married yet..please i need your help and advice..thank you very much…
The compassion shown towards this family by the Japanese authorities is commendable, whether or not the family should have the right to stay – certainly their daughter has committed no crime.
It is an interesting post in comparison with last week’s news in the UK that a deported Ghanaian woman, who had been battling cancer, had died as she could not receive treatment in her home country. This woman, a mother of two school-age children, had been removed from hospital in a wheelchair accompanied by five British immigration officials, in January this year.
I say, this was a mistake on the Japanese officials part. If they grant this one, shouldn’t they just cater to everyone with sob story on how they should stay?
Bad call Japan.
Am I right in understanding that they had both *already* overstayed their Visas when they met in 1998? And only in 2004 did the government say “Hey, Get Out Of The Country!”? Why on earth did it take them so long. If they’d been more prompt then maybe they’d have just kicked them out without a fuss…
But I guess I don’t know much about the Visa. Is it normal to hang around for (more than?) six years after your Visa expires? How hard is it to apply for more permanent residency, or an extension?
I have no problem with these people living in Japan, and I think the law should allow that. The problem is, I think it does already. It sounds like they’ve just been lazy, and when they could have been staying perfectly legally, ended up overstaying Visas. If this is the case, it’s kind of unfair to others to not extend the same courtesy…
There should be no such thing as “over staying” to being with. People should be allowed to remain in the country for as long as they like as long as they don’t harm anyone or commit serious crimes.
Grr… “being” should be “begin”.
But the longer they are in the country the harder it gets to expel them.