BM Visa Duration, Renewal Review Times, and Financial Performance Requirements

A BM visa, whether on first application or renewal under current conditions, is usually granted for 1 year; in the past a 3- or 5-year grant was sometimes given upfront, but that is now more the exception. Eligibility for a 3- or 5-year visa depends on a company's internal category (1 or 2) under the immigration officers' review manual (審査要領), which is not published for the public but is partly accessible via legal blogs (e.g. yamanaka-bengoshi.jp). Category 2 covers companies whose total withheld payroll tax (源泉徴収税額) is at least 10 million yen a year. Category 1 covers listed companies, insurance companies, government-affiliated companies/universities, companies formally recognized as "innovative" (which can be as small as 10-20 employees), or companies holding "super white" status (actively hiring new graduates, women in leadership roles, support for maternity leave). Review times vary widely. Official Ministry of Justice statistics put the average processing time for a BM visa renewal at about 58.4 days (January 2026); earlier figures cited were 69.7 days (December 2024) and 56.1 days (February 2025). Real cases discussed in chat spread far more widely — from 4 business days (Kyoto) and 2-3 weeks up to 5+ months of waiting; some cases waited from autumn 2025 to March 2026 without a response. The "special period" (特例期間) grants 2 months of legal status after the residence card expires if a renewal application has been filed; renewals sometimes come through literally at the edge of this period. Immigration offices outside Tokyo (for example, in Matsudo) sometimes process applications noticeably faster than the capital — there have been cases decided literally the next business day after filing. On financial performance: at renewal, immigration pays attention to profitability. A single loss-making year is generally not critical; two consecutive loss-making years are a potential problem; three consecutive loss-making years amount to an almost guaranteed refusal (per the official immigration BM guide), even though a formal loss carry-forward mechanism (繰越損失) exists for up to 3 years. Financial performance matters less in the first year — a first renewal is almost never refused solely for lack of profit (barring cases of a sham business with no real activity). Where losses or questionable finances raise concern, immigration may request a "third-party business evaluation report" from a 中小企業診断士, 公認会計士, or 税理士, forecasting improvement in the company's position. In one real case from chat, such a report from a 中小企業診断士 cost from roughly 100,000 yen (excluding tax), required a full set of 3 years of financial statements and a 2-hour meeting; the actual sticking point turned out to be not the losses themselves but the "capital" section of the filings. In another real case, a visa was renewed after the first year despite a 3-million-yen loss, with no issues, taking about 1 month; in a further case, a visa was renewed despite negative profit after the applicant showed a new transaction with a Japanese company that offset the loss for the new year. Sources: https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/applications/status/gijinkoku.html — official MOJ page on employer company categories and related requirements; https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/content/001456329.pdf — official Ministry of Justice statistics on application review times (January 2026); https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/applications/resources/nyuukokukanri07_00140.html?hl=en — official Ministry of Justice statistics on visa review times; https://dashboard.retrohazard.jp/ — unofficial dashboard with data on review times by immigration office.