The Immigration Services Agency refreshed its processing-status page for Specified Skilled Worker (i) applications in the food service field on 10 November 2026, and it is still issuing certificates of eligibility only on applications received on or before 16 February 2026. Almost seven months after the agency stopped issuing certificates in the field on 13 April 2026, 6,983 applications sit behind that cut-off, and anything received from 13 April 2026 onward is in principle not issued at all.
No rule changed. The field ran into a ceiling. ISA fixed the food service intake figure at 50,000 in a notice dated 27 March 2026 and operates it as a cap under Article 7-2, paragraphs 3 and 4 of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, which lets the agency halt issuance when the resident count is set to pass that figure. On the table ISA reposted on 6 November 2026, the field held 49,092 Specified Skilled Worker (i) residents at the end of August 2026, a preliminary count 908 places short of the cap.
Certificates are moving by days, not weeks
ISA says it is processing change-of-status applications first and issuing certificates in receipt order, only where the headcount leaves room. That is why the frontier is a date in February rather than a backlog measured in weeks. ISA has revised the page roughly monthly through 2026, most recently on 19 October before this update, and the receipt date it has reached is the one number on it worth tracking.
What sits behind the cut-off
The pending counts, preliminary and as of 10 November 2026, break down by when the application was received:
- 17–28 February 2026: 446
- 1–31 March 2026: 1,806
- 1–12 April 2026: 4,731
Applications received from 13 April 2026 are not in that queue at all. They fall under the suspension and will in principle not be issued, however long they have been on file.
If you are waiting outside Japan on a certificate
Check the receipt date on the application, not the date the documents were sent. On or before 16 February 2026, the certificate has been issued or is close. Between 17 February and 12 April 2026, the application is one of the 6,983 and the wait is open-ended.
On or after 13 April 2026, ISA's wording says the certificate is not coming while the cap holds. ISA, the regional immigration bureaus and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries all state they will not answer questions about individual cases, so there is no counter to call for a queue position. Background on the instrument sits on our certificate of eligibility page.
If you are a technical intern or on transition preparation in Japan
Two routes in from inside Japan are still being approved as normal, and both advanced a month in this update, from receipts up to 30 September 2026 to receipts up to 31 October 2026.
The first is a change from technical intern training in the medical and welfare facility catering work category. The second is a change from Designated Activities for preparation to move into Specified Skilled Worker (i) in food service.
Interns should file early. ISA asks for the application at least two months before work is due to start, and an intern cannot work once the training plan has run out. Filing guidance is on our changing status of residence page.
If you hold another status, or already work in the field
Anyone in Japan on another residence status, such as a student finishing a course or a dependent wanting to work, has been shut out of food service skilled work since 13 April 2026. Applications received from that date are in principle refused, and the two routes above are the only exceptions.
Workers already holding Specified Skilled Worker (i) in food service are in the clearest position. Every application to change employer within the field is being processed, and renewals are approved as normal once review finishes. A job move inside the field does not touch the cap. The field's requirements are set out on our skilled worker visa page.
The bridge status, and the single extension
Where a residence period will expire before an applicant's turn arrives, ISA may offer a change to Designated Activities for food service skilled worker preparation, an extension, or a request to amend the application. The limit to note: that extension is available once only.
Anyone on the preparation status who wants to keep working should file to change into Specified Skilled Worker (i) about three months before it expires. ISA also warns that it may ask for corrected documents while issuance is halted, and that receipt order can shift where a period of stay is about to lapse.
The number to watch next is ISA's following resident count for the field. If it puts food service at or above 50,000, the February frontier stops moving.
Sources: ISA — 特定技能１号（外食業分野）の在留諸申請の審査状況, ISA — 特定技能「外食業分野」における受入れ上限の運用について, ISA — 受入れ上限の運用通知 (PDF), ISA — 特定技能１号の受入れ見込数及び在留者数（令和８年８月末時点）, ISA — 特定技能制度 更新一覧