Before you start

A Certificate of Eligibility obtained by your employer or sponsor before the visa application, for most work statuses
A visa issued by a Japanese embassy or consulate
A passport valid well beyond the intended stay
A confirmed Saitama address, so you can register within the fourteen-day window

Step-by-step

1
Receive your residence card at the airport
For medium and long-term stays the zairyū card is issued on landing at Narita, Haneda and the other major ports. Check the name spelling, status of residence and period of stay at the counter — corrections are far easier there than afterwards.
In personWho: YouOn arrival
2
Register your address at the correct ward office within fourteen days
Saitama has ten wards — Nishi, Kita, Ōmiya, Minuma, Chūō, Sakura, Urawa, Minami, Midori and Iwatsuki — and you must register at the one covering your address. Take your residence card and passport. This produces the jūminhyō and starts your My Number. Fourteen days is a legal deadline.
In personWho: YouWithin 14 days of moving in
3
Enrol in health insurance and pension in the same visit
If your employer runs shakai hoken they handle it. If not, enrol in National Health Insurance and the National Pension at the ward office while you are already there. Both are compulsory and combining them saves a second morning.
In personWho: YouSame visit
4
Apply for the physical My Number card, not just the number
The number arrives by post; the card is a separate application. It is increasingly used as identification, for online tax filing, and now functions as your health insurance card.
OnlineWho: You
5
Use the Saitama Branch Office for extensions and status changes
The branch office in Chūō ward has served Saitama Prefecture only since 1 April 2023, having previously covered seven prefectures. Applications to extend a period of stay can be filed from three months before expiry and routinely take several weeks to two months. If your case is unusual, expect the Tokyo Regional Bureau at Shinagawa to be the parent office.
In personWho: YouFrom 3 months before expiry
6
Carry the card, and report every move within fourteen days
Foreign residents must carry the residence card at all times. Moving means notifying the new ward office within fourteen days so the card is updated — and that applies to a move between two Saitama wards just as much as a move from Tokyo.
In personWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Passport with the visa
Certificate of Eligibility, if issued
Residence card
Proof of your Saitama address
Passport photographs to Japanese specification
Employment or enrolment certificate, for extensions

Things most newcomers don’t know

The Saitama Branch Office stopped being a seven-prefecture office on 1 April 2023, and most guides have not caught up.

Until 31 March 2023 the same counter served Saitama, Chiba, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Yamanashi and Nagano, which made it heavily congested and pushed many Saitama residents to Shinagawa instead. Its area is now Saitama Prefecture alone. Anything you read that advises budgeting a day in Tokyo for a routine extension predates that change. Confirm current opening hours before travelling, but do not assume you need to leave the prefecture.

Source: Immigration Services Agency

A branch office is not a regional bureau, and the distinction shows up on hard cases.

Japan has eight regional immigration bureaux; Saitama has a branch office of Tokyo's. Routine applications — extensions, changes of status, re-entry — are handled locally. Anything contested, unusual, or involving a decision the branch cannot make sits with the Tokyo bureau at Shinagawa. It is a real difference against a city like Hiroshima or Sendai, which host bureaux of their own.

Source: Immigration Services Agency

The fourteen-day ward registration is the keystone, and ten wards is a lot to get wrong.

Health insurance, most bank accounts, phone contracts and your My Number all depend on being registered as a resident of the specific ward your address sits in. Saitama's wards follow the boundaries of three cities that merged in 2001 and one that joined in 2005, so neighbouring streets can sit in different wards for historical reasons that are invisible on the ground. Registering at the wrong office means being sent to the right one against a legal deadline.

Source: Immigration Services Agency

Living in Saitama and working in Tokyo changes none of your paperwork.

Ward registration, National Health Insurance, residence tax and the immigration office that serves you all follow where you sleep, not where your desk is. A very large share of this city commutes into Tokyo, and it is a recurring source of confusion — a colleague's advice about a Tokyo ward office or the Shinagawa bureau simply does not apply to you. Where you were registered on 1 January also decides which municipality bills your residence tax for the whole following year.

Source: Saitama City

Common mistakes to avoid

Missing the fourteen-day ward registration deadline and blocking everything behind it.
Registering at the wrong one of Saitama's ten ward offices.
Travelling to Shinagawa for routine work the Saitama branch office has handled since April 2023.
Following a Tokyo-based colleague's advice about ward offices that do not serve you.
Accepting a standard work status without checking your Highly Skilled Professional score.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.