About Kikashinsei (帰化申請)

“帰化申請・Kikashinsei” means “Naturalization application”

Definition of Naturalization:
Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country.

In Japan, you can submit Naturalization application to “法務局・Hōmukyoku” (法務局 means “Legal Affairs Bureau”) in following ways:

• Method-1: All by yourself
  • Prepare all documents
  • All documents (English & Non-English) must be translated to Japanese. In case of Non-English document, it must be translated into English first and then translate it from English to Japanese
  • Call regional “法務局” office and schedule application submission date
  • Send addtional documents if asked (after application submission)
• Method-2: Paid service
  • Hire 行政書士 (Gyōsei shoshi). 行政書士 means “Administrative scrivener”
  • Hire Lawyer (FYI, not all lawyer deal with 帰化申請) or contact a Law Firm

Required document list

Documents collect from Japan:

• Residence card copy (both sides)
  • Your residence card
  • Spouse’s residence card
• Passport copy (all pages, front & back too)
  • Your passport (both current & old, if you have more than one passport)
  • Spouse’s passport (both current & old)
• Withholding tax certificate copy
  • 源泉徴収票 (Genzenchōshū-hyō) will be given by the employeer/company every year (ask HR to get it)
  • Make sure your “Withholding tax certificate” is clean (in my case there was some missing year-end-adjustment, therefore I had to file “Kakuteishinkoku (Tax return)” by myself to fix my tax certificate issue)
• Certificate of Nationality (国籍証明書)
  • Contact your embassy to get it
  • You must sumbit the original document (not photocopy)
• A copy of your most recent pension newsletter (最新の年金定期便のコピー)
  • You can download it from myna Portal (https://myna.go.jp/)
  • By default, it arrives to your address once a year around your birthday month (In my case, I stopped the delivery in myna portal setting. Whenever I need it, I just download it from myna portal)
• Copy of qualification certificate (公的な資格を持っている場合は)
  • In my case, I submitted JLPT N3 certificate
  • If you have any professional certification (other than educcational institute certificate), you can submit that as well
• Copy of your house rental agreement (ご自宅の賃貸借契約書のコピー)
  • All pages of rental agreement document
  • Example: UR Danchi contract
• Health insurance card (both sides)
  • Your health insurance card
  • Spouse’s health insurance card
• Pictures
  • ID Photo
    • Taken within 6 months
    • Size: 50cm x 50cm
    • Number: 2 photos
  • Snapshot pictures (recent photos of family, friends, and colleagues, 3 types, 1 of each)
    • Family pictures (both your family & your spouse’s family)
      • 1 picture - You & Spouce with your whole family
      • 1 picture - You & Spouce with spouse’s whole family
    • Friends: 1 picture - you with your close friends
    • Colleagues: 1 picture - you with your Colleagues (i.e., any company event, meetup etc.)
• Certificate of employment and salary
  • There is a format that needs to be filled & signed by HR. In my case I got the format from 行政書士 (Administrative scrivener)
  • Original document (not photocopy)
• Copy of bankbook
  • All the bankbooks - all accounts which haave balance
  • All pages (including front & back cover page)
  • Both yours & your spouse’s bankbooks
• Remittance statement (if you are sending money to family)
  • Documents related to remittances to dependent relatives residing overseas
  • If you send money to family (i.e. parent), then get remittance statement from the remittance service you use (you can email the remittance service to get the statement)
  • Example: Kyodai remittance statement
• Motivation letter (動機書)
  • Handwritten by you
  • In my case, the 行政書士 (Administrative scrivener) gave me a document regarding what to write

Documents collect from your own country (in my case Bangladesh):

• Graduation certificate of highest level of education (i.e., BSc. Certificate)
• Your marriage certificate (ご本人の婚姻証明書)
• Parents’ marriage certificate (ご両親の婚姻証明書)
• Your birth certificate (ご本人の出生証明書)
• Birth certificate of all siblings
  • Each of your brother
  • Each of your sister
• Family Certificates (two types)
  • 1 certificate (you as a family head): You and your spouse only
  • 1 certifiate (family relationship): Including your parents, yourself, two brothers, and sisters (exclude your spouse)
  • You can get it from city office / Union Porishod
• Mother’s statement (申述書・Shinjutsu-sho)
  • Hand written by your mother (yours only, not your spouse’s)
  • Written in your native language. In my case, it was in Bengali language, so I translated it to English & 行政書士 (Administrative scrivener) translated that English document to Japanese
  • 行政書士 (Administrative scrivener) gave me a sample document regarding what my mother should write in the statement document (the sample was in Japanese, so I translated it to Bengali language & sent it to my mother)

Procedure

Flow:

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Prepare the list of required documents.
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Fillup set of application documents
(in my case, Administrative scrivener did it).
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Call Legal Affairs Bureau office to schedule application submission date & time.
(In my case, Legal Affairs Bureau office location is kudanshita, Tokyo)
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Naturalization application submission to the Legal Affairs Bureau
(on scheduled date & time).
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Interview at the Legal Affairs Bureau (about 5 or 6 months after application).
Bring your spouse on the interview day.
(interview questions: just basic questions regarding you and the document you submitted).
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Call from Legal Affairs Bureau
(in case additional documents are required).
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Result announcement: Call from Legal Affairs Bureau
(about few months after the interview).
Will inform you about the result (i.e. おめでとうございます・congratulations), 
also will explain the next things to do.

Legal Affairs Bureau will send "帰化者証明書・Kika-sha shōmei-sho" Naturalization certificate to your address.
(will arrive within few days after the result announcement)
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Notes:

• Legal Affairs Bureau will send “帰化届・Kikatodoke” Naturalization notification document
• Fill up Naturalization notification document and submit it to City Office

How I did it

• Signed contract with a Law Firm (hired Administrative scrivener)
  • Went to the Law Firm office
  • Filled up a form
  • Lawyer would ask questions (i.e. job history, dependency, any law violations etc.)
  • Lawyer explained to me: plans, fess, application procedure & flow etc.
  • Cloudsign email came & signed it (cloudsign is a Cloud-based electronic contract service)
  • Received invoice PDF (first payment, half of total cost), and paid by furikomi
  • Once payment is confirmed, application procedure started
• Application procedure together with 行政書士 (Administrative scrivener)
  • All communication with Administrative scrivener were email based (I did not have to go to Law Firm office except the very first visit)
  • Administrative scrivener sent me two documents
    • Questionaire document (word file): need to fill up by yourself
    • Required document list (PDF file)
  • I gathered all the documents and sent it to Administrative scrivener (Law Firm office) by post mail
    • I translated Non-English documents (in my case documents in Bengali language) to English
    • Administrative scrivener translated all English documents to Japanese
  • Administrative scrivener scheduled application submission date by calling the Legal Affairs Bureau office
  • Administrative scrivener & me (together) went to the Legal Affairs Bureau office on schedule date
    • Had tobring original documents, ID Card etc. (i.e., Residence Card, Health Insurance Card, Passport)
    • The staff will check every photocopy and will ask for main document, ID Card etc. to verify
    • In my case there was an issue with my withholding tax certificate, so I was told to file tax return by myself and send the copy of tax return document (the staff gave an envelop to send the document). After filing tax return, I sent the document to Administrative scrivener (Administrative scrivener sent it to Legal Affairs Bureau office on be-half of me)
  • Additional documents (after application submission)
    • If there is any change (i.e., Residence Card update, new withholding tax certificate etc.), you must submit new documents
    • In my case I submitted following documents (few months later after the application submission):
      • Copy of new Residence Card (self & spouse)
      • Copy of withholding tax certificate
      • Copy of Driving Licence & Driving record certificate (運転記録証明書・Unten kiroku shōmei-sho). I got my driving licence after application submission, but if you already have driving licence then submit licence copy & Driving record certificate (together with other documents) on the application submission date
• Interview
  • Got call from Legal Affairs Bureau office. The staff gave me three dates to choose from for interview
  • I & my spouse went to Legal Affairs Bureau office on scheduled date
  • The staff asked questions
• Home visit (Legal Affairs Bureau staff came to my house)
  • The staff came to my house in the same date of interview (around 17:00)
  • The staff inspected my rental mansion (even checked my bathroom & refrigerator, LoL)
• Result announcement
  • One month after the interview, received call Legal Affairs Bureau office
  • The staff asked me if there is any change from my side (i.e. address change)
  • The staff mentioned that, within next 1 month, the result will be announced
  • 2 weeks later call another call and this time “おめでとうございます (congratulations)” :)

Law firm that I used

Samurai Administrative Scrivener Corporation (さむらい行政書士法人)

Website: https://samurai-law.com/en/
Call to schedaule initial discussion session: TEL (English) 080-4941-0978

Ueno office address:
【返送先】
〒110-0005
東京都台東区上野7-4-7 VORT上野4階
さむらい行政書士法人

Sample documents

[coming soon…]

Things to do after being naturalized

[coming soon…]