Japan passes bill to raise visa fees, introduce online pre-entry screening

Japan's parliament on Friday passed an immigration control law revision to raise the maximum fee for residence status applications by foreigners and introduce an online pre-entry travel authorization system for overseas arrivals.Once the fee changes are implemented later this fiscal year, the upper limit will be set at 100,000 yen ($630) for visa renewals and 300,000 yen for permanent residency applications, marking a sharp increase from the existing threshold of 10,000 yen.The fees are currently 6,000 yen for changing residence status or extending the period of stay and 10,000 yen for perm…READ FULL ARTICLE