my applied visa status

I applied to change my visa status from working visa to student visa at immigration office about 18 days ago but I did not receive any reply from immigration office yet. I would like to know how long it may take? because my current visa will be expired end of march.

It could take a month or more, and 18 days isn't very long- I've waited more than 3 weeks when just renewing my working visa. Changes of status often take longer.

Also, don't worry about your current visa expiring. Check your passport- where your current visa is you should see a stamp saying "Application". As long as you have this stamp it is no problem if your visa expires in the meantime, you can still legally be in Japan, you will not be deported, don't worry.

I have had my current visa expire several times while waiting for a visa renewal, but because of the Application stamp it didn't matter.

If more than about 6 weeks go by and you haven't received the postcard you should call Immigration as sometimes the postcard gets lost. At only 18 days though it is most likely still being processed.

I put in an application for change of employer (same type of visa, quit one job and got another) last year and was wondering why it was taking so long, so I called the immigration office by phone. If you look at your passport, they have probably handwritten a number where they stamped the `application` stamp. Tell immigration that number and they should be able to tell you the status of your application. In my case they said that they were waiting for a few other documents, which I was previously not told that I needed and therefore didn`t submit initially, and so if I didn`t phone and ask, I`m not sure how long they would have kept waiting! I was then able to send in the remaining required documents by mail. From that point it then took another month or so until I got the postcard from them.

Good luck

dear all
thank you very much for your help.
and dear employee please let me know the telephone No. which you mentioned in your post.
Thank you in advance

You need to phone the Immigration office you applied at. A Google search in English for your regional immigration office should give you the answer.