'Undocumented Filipinos cross the great divide in Japan'

Filipinos do not only wish to migrate abroad. If given the chance, and most especially when their income is regular and satisfactory, their labor and living conditions ok, many prefer to stay longer or settle permanently in the migrant host country.

We present here the remaining portion of the January 27th, 2007 article of Mr. Benigno "Benny "Tutor Jr. In this write-up, Benny shows how Filipinos are able to cross the legal divide so they can stay longer, if not permanently, in Japan.

" Marriage to a Japanese descendant is also another way of making the move from the informal to the formal sector, especially if the descendant has a permanent residency.

When a foreigner who is a "spouse or child of a Japanese national" is divorced, and he or she is not yet a permanent resident, in order for him or her to stay on, he or she has to re-marry with a Japanese, a permanent resident or a long-term resident; change status to "long-term resident"; or in a minority of cases, when the person is qualified, change status to a "working visa." Most of these foreigners prevent the reverse movement to the illegal sector and remain in the legal sector through re-marriage or conversion to long-term resident.

The change of status to "long-term resident" is easier for those who have a child or children and are designated as the legal custodian or "shinkensha" of the child or children upon divorce and can demonstrate their financial capacity to support the child or children. Many of those whose visas have lapsed in the course of domestic conflict but were eventually designated as legal custodian of the child or children upon divorce have also reacquired their visa status. In an adversarial divorce proceeding, a well-informed foreigner seeks Family Court mediation in the so-called "chotei rikon" seeking the legal custody of the child as a condition for agreement to a divorce. This almost always guarantees that the foreigner can remain in Japan as a "long-term resident."

A very small percentage of overstaying foreigners have acquired visa status by becoming legal custodians of a child with a Japanese national they are not married to if the child has been recognized by the Japanese partner within three months of pregnancy in the so-called "ninchi" procedure. Through fetal recognition, the child born out of wedlock acquires Japanese citizenship upon birth. An overstaying Filipino was granted a visa by proving that he was the de facto custodian of a child born outside of marriage with a Japanese national whom that national has acknowledged in her family registry as her child.

While many overstayers acquire their "special permission for residence" while in Japan by going through the rigorous Immigration investigation procedures, many overstayers purposely decide to surrender voluntarily first and return to the Philippines and marry with their permanent-resident partners in the country. By voluntarily surrendering to the Immigration authorities, they become subject only to the one-year ban in re-entering Japan, during which period they marry with the foreign permanent resident and return to Japan as the spouse of permanent resident.

It is difficult to determine if the marriages are entered into with the intention of consummating a spousal relationship, i.e. for the purpose of living as husband and wife - or only as an expediency of visa acquisition. But economic necessity is apparently driving many overstaying Filipinos into any of the above means in order to continue to stay in Japan."

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