(JAPAN) – Japan’s Immigration Services Agency plans to raise visa and residency-related fees from October 1, 2026, lifting charges across single-entry visas, multiple-entry visas, permanent residency and residence-status changes or renewals.

The increases would push a single-entry visa fee from 3,000 yen to 15,000 yen, multiple-entry visas from 6,000 yen to 30,000 yen, permanent residency from 10,000 yen to 200,000 yen, and residence-status changes or renewals from 6,000 yen to as much as 75,000 yen.

Refugee applicants are among those facing the immediate pressure from the coming changes. The policy includes a humanitarian carve-out, but relief is limited and depends on individual circumstances.

Under the proposal, discounts would be available to people facing severe financial hardship who need humanitarian consideration, including refugee applicants. That exemption mechanism stands out because the wider package centers on broad visa fee hikes rather than broad fee waivers.

The agency is seeking public feedback before full implementation. Its target date remains October 1, 2026.

Officials justify the higher fees as necessary to cover increased administrative and screening costs tied to Japan’s growing foreign population. That rationale places cost recovery at the center of the plan, even as the burden falls unevenly on people with limited means.

The sharpest increase in the package applies to permanent residency, where the proposed fee would rise twentyfold. Residence-status changes or renewals would also become markedly more expensive, reaching as much as 75,000 yen under the plan.

Single-entry and multiple-entry visas would also jump steeply. A single-entry visa would cost five times its current fee, while a multiple-entry visa would rise from 6,000 yen to 30,000 yen.

Refugees and other low-income applicants face a particular strain because legal status often requires repeated contact with the immigration system. Higher charges for applications, renewals or status changes can add up quickly, even where a humanitarian carve-out exists on paper.

The relief built into the proposal is narrower than the fee increases themselves. Discounts are available for severe financial hardship and humanitarian needs, but the measure does not erase the wider rise in costs for people trying to secure or maintain legal status.

That leaves refugee applicants in a tight position as the new pricing approaches. They can qualify for humanitarian consideration, yet they still face a system in which the standard fees for visas and residency procedures are set to climb sharply.

Japan’s move also links two policy aims that do not sit easily together: recovering more of the state’s administrative and screening costs while preserving access for people with urgent humanitarian needs. The Immigration Services Agency has chosen discounts, not broad exemptions, as the instrument for that balance.

The proposal arrives as governments across the region continue to weigh border control, immigration administration and the cost of processing larger numbers of foreign residents. In Japan, the official justification is explicit: the fee increases are tied to higher administrative and screening costs associated with a growing foreign population.

People seeking permanent residency would see the most dramatic jump in absolute terms, from 10,000 yen to 200,000 yen. Applicants changing or renewing residence status would face a fee structure that starts from the current 6,000 yen level and rises to as much as 75,000 yen.

The same policy reaches people entering the country on shorter-term permissions. Single-entry visas would rise from 3,000 yen to 15,000 yen, and multiple-entry visas from 6,000 yen to 30,000 yen, extending the effect of the visa fee hikes well beyond permanent settlement cases.

Humanitarian relief remains part of the package, but not its main thrust. The carve-out applies to severe financial hardship and humanitarian needs, including refugee applicants, which means access to discounts depends on a recognized need rather than a general class-wide exemption.

That structure matters for refugees because legal status can be inseparable from daily stability. Even limited aid can reduce some immediate pressure, but the broader policy still raises the cost of staying inside the formal system.

Japan has not yet put the changes into force, and the public feedback process remains open before full implementation. What is already clear is that the Immigration Services Agency intends to raise charges across core visa and residency procedures on October 1, 2026, while offering a humanitarian carve-out that narrows, rather than removes, the hit for refugee applicants.