Our office is currently handling more than 10 PR applications. And I found some of applicants have a similar issue with his/her health insurance.
It is like:
If you are working for a company, you are supposed to join Shakai hoken which is provided by your company. With Shakai hoken, you and your company pay insurance and pension together half by
half.
The issue happens when you change your working place. Assuming that your new company provides Shakai hoken as well, so you think you don’t need to worry about
paying insurance because it is automatically deducted from your salary.
However, time gaps often happen. The new company takes a few months to get you into Shakai hoken. For those few months, you need to pay Kokuminhoken and pension by yourself. Many foreigners
don’t know this system and leave insurance and pension unpaid until immigration officer point it out for the reason of PR application denial.
When you submit documents from city hall, you have to be very careful. Those documents are not easy to understand even for Japanese. So for this reason, you had better ask the professional’s support. Well it is not only for PR application but also with any other visa application.
(by Junko Watabe)
