You are talking about change (or extension) of status, not visa.
US is unique in that the visa sticker and your right to remain in the country (status) are two different things. The only purpose of the visa sticker is to allow you to travel to a U.S. port of entry, where you apply for admission, and therefore legal status. You can have legal status in the U.S. while the visa sticker has expired, and your status can be changed or extended domestically. However unless you have a valid sticker you cannot leave and return.
Australia too - however, to get a renewal all you need is an online connection and a credit card, the renewal (at least for me!) goes through automatically. (Notwithstanding that Australia just increased the PR-renewal cost from ~400-500 to ~1400-1500 AUD)
Is it? If I understand it correctly, in Japan, if you have a valid residence card, you can use that to enter the country. That is not true for the US (if you consider I-94 the US equivalent of residence card)
Yeah, my bad. After re-reading your original comment I think I was responding to the part that explains 'visa sticker grants entry, residence status is separate', but I have somehow missed the tail of 'you cannot enter w/o the sticker'. In Japan, the former is exactly the same shape but the latter is not. If you have a long-term residence status (and carry the card) you can enter the country on it alone.
There are some technicalities -- your passport has to carry the re-entry permit, but it's affixed to everyone who requests it at the port of exit, granted it's up to 1 yr.
Similar even with LPR (Legal Permanent Resident) status. Your green card is valid for ten years. When the card expires it must be renewed, but your status does not expire. But you would need a current, valid card, to re-enter if you left (or have extenuating circumstances which you'd -reallllly- want to have worked through with a consulate prior to attempting.
I thought that was universal. The Visa gets you into the country. Your entry stamp shows how long you can stay. It was an extra white card in USA but I forget what designation the form had. Been a while.
One example I'm familiar with which is different, are Schengen tourist visas. You need to leave before the visa expires. That's not the case for US tourist visas.
Apparently the Form I-94 (Arrival/Departure Record) card is phased out. But it used to be that it contained your allowed term of stay. I am sure the digital version has something like that. You do not automatically get the max allowed duration per your visa. It might be that they are one and the same especially short visa terms of course. But i haven't actually been since mid 2000s so I wouldn't actually know for sure.
US is unique in that the visa sticker and your right to remain in the country (status) are two different things. The only purpose of the visa sticker is to allow you to travel to a U.S. port of entry, where you apply for admission, and therefore legal status. You can have legal status in the U.S. while the visa sticker has expired, and your status can be changed or extended domestically. However unless you have a valid sticker you cannot leave and return.