Visa Help!!!

[Sarge]

Hi all,

Firstly thanks if your taking time to read this to try and help me!

My girlfriend has had a job offer for placement in Tokyo and she will be on an "Intercompany Visa".

We're not married. I dont have a degree. I was wondering what the best way would be to get a work Visa.

I've spoken to the Consulate of Japan here in the Uk, and they are saying it would be ok to keep renewing my Tourist Visa until I get a job over there, and then that employer would have to apply for a "Certificate of Elegibility", then I could leave the country, and re-enter with a work Visa.

I dont know if anybody else has been through a similar process or knows somebody that has?

If you could give me any help that would be greatly appreciated, if not, many thanks for taking the time to read this anyway.

Thanks and take care,

Brett

[samokan]

were you not informed that the first requirement of a COE is a degree??

but if your consulate says so.. then maybe.. you do not need to leave the country if you change your visa status..

[MMM]

So he would have to leave the country every three months until he found a job...which is going to be hard without a college degree.

[chachava]

Originally Posted by MMM

So he would have to leave the country every three months until he found a job...which is going to be hard without a college degree.

I would say impossible, not hard...

[Sarge]

Thank you all for your input, there's a couple of things I can look at further from that, but other than staying on a tourist visa for two to three years its not looking good!

Thanks again for your time.

Take care.

[Danierux]

For me an Australian, we have a working holiday visa which lasts for 6 months and can be renewed twice only whilst you are staying in Japan. You cannot work full time as this is a HOLIDAY visa. We cannot go to Japan on a tourist visa and seek work. We must meet the requirements for a working visa which in most cases is a degree. I tried all means to get around this issue but what it came to is taht I now have to go back to uni to complete my degree so I can work properly in Japan.

I'd like to learn more of this certificate of eligability. Never heard of it.

[Sarge]

The limited info i've acquired so far wont be as indepth as what you've already acquired. But when i spoke with the Japanese Consulate over here, they said if i went to Japan and got a job whilst there on a tourist visa (although its been suggested it's hard/impossible), that employer would then apply for Certificate of Elegibility (COE), then you in turn would take that for processing into a Work Visa.


Its been suggested a civil ceremony in Japan would then make it possible for me to get a Spousal Visa. Does anybody know anything about these and whether it would be immediate in terms of been transferred from a tourist visa to a spousal visa/work visa?

Hope the above helped.

[TokyoFerrari]

This is all wrong. I am going to take the time to explain to you what you need to do in certain cases that I am familiar with. I am a VP in my bank and bring people from all over the world to work here. There are some things you need to think about.

1. 90 day visa
2. Spousal visa
3. engagement visa

These are the only three I know about. Then there is company sponsorship but you need to be good at something to get this. It takes about 30 days with the company lawyers and you have to leave the country and re-enter with the work orders.

90 day - You come in as a visitor. What some people do and what I did a long time ago was leave the country for 24 hours then come back in. this was usually a short trip to Korea. The problem with this now is they count. They will not let you back in on your third attempt. So that gives you a 180 day window to get a job. When you change from 90 to any other visa, you have to leave 1 time.

Let me clarify this. **IT IS EASY TO WORK IN JAPAN** This is the only country that I see English teachers with no financial experience get jobs in banks. So it can be done. Easy. I will list a couple of job sites for you to look at later.

Spousal Visa - *This is what I am on* This is the easiest visa to obtain. As long as you marry properly. There is a lot of yakuza marriages for visas. Immigration is cracking down. Don’t marry for a visa. I have some friends who did and they hate life. This visa is your quickest route to a permanent visa though. The process is 1 year - 1 year - 1 year - 3 year - permanent.

Engagement visa - Now here is a tricky one. You can ask immigration to give you what you call a konyakushya visa. This is a plan to marry in Japan. If it is say 8 months out, they may allow you to stay for 8 months. You will have to call them for the details.

Japanese immigration is considered the toughest in the WORLD. But it is still easy to get a visa is you are from a western country. Sounds racist? Well unfortunately there is a major injection of Philippinos in Japan. They are trying to stop this.

Some sites for you.

Work - Bilingual Employment in Japan : CareerCross

Visa - MOFA: Visa

[samokan]

Originally Posted by TokyoFerrari

Sounds racist? Well unfortunately there is a major injection of Philippinos in Japan. They are trying to stop this.

a major injection of Filipinos? are you by chance confusing us with the Chinese and Koreans, cause as far as I know they have a greater population here in Japan than us.

[TokyoFerrari]

Originally Posted by samokan

a major injection of Filipinos? are you by chance confusing us with the Chinese and Koreans, cause as far as I know they have a greater population here in Japan than us.

Nope. Filipinos are the highest population of non visa holding Asians. Korean and Chinese try to stop their people going and living abroad so they make it difficult for their people to leave. Overall there may be more of them, but with visa ihan status is Filipinos. Dont worry, it is not cause you guys are bad. This is due to sponsers just leaving. Yakuza do this for their clubs. Then hold the passports as colateral.