Processing Period of Application for COE, Change of Visa Status, Extension of Period of Stay and Permanent Residence status within the jurisdiction of the Osaka Immigration Office is getting longer and longer these days.
For instance, the Osaka Immigration Office told us that they currently need 5 – 6 months to complete the whole screening process for the COE application in the current situation.
Average processing period of COE application submitted through us by the end of May was like around 2 – 3 months case by case and we haven’t received any result of all the COE application submitted in mid-June or later. It looks the serious congestion of the application at the Osaka Immigration Office has been started some time around June or July 2024.
It is not good idea to make a phone call to the Immigration Office so often if 3 months or more has not passed yet after the date of application – you will get nothing but the answer, which is “it is still in progress”. What is more, the line is always busy. You need to make a phone call 100 times or more sometimes to get through to them on the phone (you know well, don’t you? – but you don’t know we do the same!)
We are afraid that we, as an immigration specialist, also don’t have any authorities to advise the Immigration Office to increase personnel. What we can do is to submit the neat, specific but concise proof documents, to wait the result patiently, and to reply to the request of the additional documents as soon as possible (if any) .
** FOR YOUR INFO: In case of the application submitted to the Tokyo Immigration Office, the screening period will be much longer than that of the Osaka.