1. What you can do there
The Kumamoto Office of the Fukuoka Regional Immigration Services Bureau (福岡出入国在留管理局 熊本出張所) is a branch of Japan’s Immigration Services Agency (出入国在留管理庁). It handles residence applications, such as extending your period of stay or changing your status of residence.
Some residence card procedures are also done at the immigration office for your home address. Examples are reissuing a lost or stolen card and renewing the card’s validity period (for permanent residents, for example).
Moving house is different. You report a new address at your city or town office, not at the immigration office.
2. Which office do I use?
In principle, you apply at the immigration office that covers your home address. For residence applications, the Kumamoto Office covers Kumamoto Prefecture, so this includes Kumamoto City, Kikuyo Town and Ozu Town. It also covers Fukuoka, Oita and Miyazaki prefectures.
3. Before you go
- Find the page for your procedure on the Immigration Services Agency website. The forms and documents depend on your status of residence, so check them there.
- Check when you can apply. For example, you can apply to extend your stay up to the day it ends, and from 3 months before if your period of stay is 6 months or longer.
- Decide whether to go to the office or apply online. Some applications, such as extending your period of stay, can be made online.
- Go during the reception hours in Key facts. Some procedures have their own days or times, so ask the office or the information center first.
The agency’s pages list a fee for some procedures, paid with revenue stamps if your application is approved. Check the page for your procedure.
This page does not say whether you qualify for a status or an extension. Ask the immigration office about your own case.
4. Can I get help in English?
The Immigration Services Agency’s website does not say which languages staff at the Kumamoto Office speak; ask them before you go.
For general questions, the agency runs the Immigration Services Center (外国人在留総合インフォメーションセンター). Its phone line takes calls from anywhere in Japan, in English and other languages. It gives general guidance only and cannot tell you how your own application is going.
The agency’s website shows other languages by machine translation, which may not be accurate. The Fukuoka bureau also has a page in easy Japanese.
5. Getting there
The office is in the Kumamoto Second Joint Government Building (熊本第二合同庁舎). You can walk from Suizenji Station on the JR Hohi Line, or from the Oe Toroku (大江渡鹿) bus stop.
6. Watch: official video
A video from the Immigration Services Agency of Japan introducing its work.
