My name is Michaela and today is a very good day,

I'm a very, very happy person because today I got my visa.

For those of you who don't know what a visa is,

usually when you travel abroad as a foreign citizen

as a non-passport holder to a certain country,

if you plan to stay long-term, you need a visa.

If you're planning on coming to visit Japan

just for a few weeks, the good news is that most countries

do not require a visa just to come and visit

as a tourist, you can stay, I think,

between 30 to 90 days depending

on which country you're from, so that should be fine,

but if you plan to study, if you plan to work,

if you plan to live in Japan long-term,

you're going to need a visa.

In my case, I've been living in Japan

for about 13 years now, I came in 2005

and I did high school, I did working holiday,

I did language school, I did college,

and I've been working ever since.

And I've renewed my visa like a billions times,

but it doesn't make it any less stressful

when visa renewal season comes around again.

You see, I find the longer I stay here,

the more I have to lose and every year that I stay here

and things get easier and my life feels more comfortable,

the stronger the fear becomes that that could be taken away

in an instant, if that makes sense.

I know it's an irrational fear and as long

as I do my paperwork, everything should be fine,

but between submitting the application and getting it back

in the mail, it took a total of one month and during

that month all the bad thoughts kind of enter your head,

like what if I haven't done enough,

what if I made a mistake on my application,

what if they just decide they're tired of renewing my visa,

what if I have to get up and leave

and leave everything behind and say goodbye

to this apartment, say goodbye to Kit,

and just never come back to Japan again.

I'm gonna put this down for a second

'cause I'm clearly not gonna open it yet.

So some people have asked me why I haven't applied

for permanent residency yet if I have been here

for over 10 years, and to qualify for permanent residency,

it depends on what visa you have,

if you're married or if you're working for a company,

you can fast-track to permanent residency,

I think within five years, but because my history is

a little more complex than that and I've done a ton

of stuff and I've changed my visa status so many times,

permanent residency for me would take 10 years.

Wait a minute, she just said she's been here for 13 years.

That's right, I would've actually had my ten years

by now if I didn't do working holiday,

and I feel like this is something

that you guys might wanna know if you're planning

on staying in Japan long-term if you're also aiming

for those 10 consecutive years,

working holiday does not count as one

of those consecutive years and it actually restarts

the counter, so because I did working holiday

after I was a high school student,

it actually canceled all the years before that

and my cumulative 10 years began when I became

a language school student, which was actually

my third time and my third year in Japan.

So, that was fun to learn, I think working holiday is

a really, really great opportunity and a really great way

to spend one or two years in Japan,

but if you're planning on the long haul,

if you're thinking of staying for up to 10 years,

it actually doesn't count, so that might not be

an option for you, just letting you know.

Anyway, sorry, let's get back to this,

so I got my new visa in the mail today

and I'm very, very excited because it's a big deal,

it's a big deal this time, and I'll tell you why.

Aw, I got a cute little letter.

It basically congratulates me for successful renewal,

thank you Ona-san, Ona-san is my visa lawyer

and she's so good, I love her

and a lot of people might argue that you don't need one,

but I think I need one because I've been here

for a long time, I have a lot more to lose

and I appreciate her advice and she helps me make sure

that I have killer applications

and I appreciate her so much.

She has been amazing because she's got tons

of experience with helping foreigners get their visas

and she's given me tons of insight on how

to make my applications look better and how

to ensure that I pass and continue living in Japan.

I'm gonna put her information in the description box

just because I really do recommend her,

she's saved me, it's nice to have support

from someone who knows how immigration works,

but it's also great for peace of mind

because she's the one who's always telling me

to calm down and that it's gonna be fine

and I think without her, I would probably just melt down

completely, so here's my shiny new visa, yay!

I'm going to blur out all the information

that doesn't really matter and just show you

that it's good visa, it's a very, very good visa.

To get this visa, it means so much for me.

I am absolutely excited about this visa

and I'll tell you way, in order to apply

for permanent residency, you need to have

three to five years on your current visa

and if you have a one year visa,

you can't apply for PR, even if you're in your 10th year,

so the good news is that this visa is a three-year visa,

which means that I can apply for permanent residency

from this fall, the process for permanent residency takes

anywhere between six to 12 months depending

on the person and it could be really, really difficult

to pass, so now in the future, I think we are going

to work towards building a really strong application,

we're probably not going to apply this year,

but maybe next year after tax season because taxes are

really important, taxes are so important.

This is a huge deal for me because it means

that for the past few years I've been feeling

like I'm not moving forward at all and it's been so hard

to imagine a future because I didn't know what I was doing,

like I was living one year at a time.

Now knowing I have three years to do whatever I want

before I need to check back or renew or do anything again,

I feel like there's so many more possibilities,

like I could start a business or I could change

my career direction, I could try something totally new,

anyway, for the next three years,

anything could happen, so I'm feeling really motivated

and really thankful and really excited.

No more stop and go for a while.

It's gonna be so nice to just lay out plans and try

to make them happen, so I'm very excited about that.

Hi, what are you doing?

(cat meows)

Hmm?

(record scratches)

(cat purrs)

Why are you like this?

This is his way of telling me I've been talking

to the camera for too long and now it's time

to pay attention to the pets.

Anyway, that's where I'm at right now

and that's what's going on and I'm excited

to just stay here and keep making content

and hopefully making videos that help people

who wanna visit Fukuoka.

I realize that Fukuoka's too niche to get tons

of views and I've kind of come to terms with that now,

like I'm okay with the Fukuoka videos

not being insanely popular as long as they're helpful

and as long as they help people who are looking for them,

as long as the people who are looking for them find

the information that they need and it's helpful

to them, then it's worth it for me.

(speaks in foreign language)

Anyway, thank you guys so much for watching,

I hope that this was an interesting video for you,

I hope you learned some new information,

and yeah, I don't know what he's doing

and I don't know what this is, he seems really comfortable,

I don't really wanna move, but we should probably go,

so we should probably go do something.

All right, thank you so much for watching

and I will talk to you guys again soon, bye!

(upbeat music)