Japanese Pictures, Culture and People

I recently made a work visa application in Japan and I thought it might be useful to document the process as in doing so, I gleaned much information from various lawyers and the shinagawa (tokyo) immigration bureau.

Overview

I am from the UK and originally came to Japan as a tourist and didn’t initially plan to extend my stay and obtain a work visa. After being in Japan for a few weeks I decided to extend my stay and realised it would be a good opportunity for my UK business to extend into Japan. In the end I opened a representative office for my company and applied for an intracompany transferee type work visa. I used a scrivener (administrative lawyer) and he charged 80,000yen (about $650) and undoubtedly this made the process much easier and possibly guarenteed my successful application. The time it took for immigration to process my application was about 1 month, although they originally told me it takes 3 months.

Tourist Visa

As I mentioned above I originally arrived as a tourist, and as I am from the UK I required no Visa since the UK is part of a reciprocal tourist visa exemption agreement. Many other countries have this arrangement aswell usually for a period of about 3 months, although some European countries (UK included) have a period of up to 6 months.
See here for a full list

Extending Tourist Status

On landing, as is usual, I was granted a 90 day visitor status. I extended this by another 90 days (see table link above if you are not from the UK), this was fairly straight forward. Firstly I contacted the immigration bureau via email to ask the proceedure: info-tokyo@immi-moj.go.jp.
(If you can’t write/speak Japanese you probably won’t get a fast reply if any, so it’s best to go to the immigration bureau in person).
They told me there’s no special requirments for me to extend my tourist visa for another 90 days.

I then went to the immigration bureau in shinagawa, filled out the extention application and gave them my passport. The application asks you what you intended purpose of stay is, and a few other details about how you will support yourself. As my intention for being in Japan was different I mentioned that I would be staying for the purposes of market research and possibly opening a representative office.
After waiting for about 2 hours they issued me with my Visa extention.

Applying For A Change of Status/ Visa

After staying in Japan for almost 3 months I decided that I wished to change my status of residence and remain in Japan for a longer period (at least another year). As I was already drawing an income from my UK business and my main interest was to continue market research in Japan, I didn’t initially need an income in Japan and therefore didn’t fell I needed a work visa in particular, so I considered a variety of different application types.

Types of Visa

After a visit to the Immigration Bureau and consultation with 2 visa lawyers (well legal scriveners, not technically lawyers) I gathered that there were several types of status that one can apply for to remain in Japan, here is a table listing the common types

Out of the types in the link above I considered the following types in greater detail:

Instructor

This is probably the most common work Visa for English speakers, as this is the type for an English Language teacher. I was not interested in being an English teacher due to the commitment of another job, however I’m sure this is not too difficult as there is always demand for English teachers. I’d imagine the Larger schools such as Nova, Shane’s, Aeon etc. would be the easiest bet as they are familiar with the visa application process.

Student

Becoming a Japanese language student is also fairly straight forward, as essentially the main requirement is being enrolled on a course. Although I wished to improve my Japanese, I didn’t apply for this as the attendance requirements are quite strict, apparently 80% or so is expected.

This is not technically a work visa, although I guess it may be possible to engage in a restricted number of hours work after applying for ‘permission to engage in activities outside of those permitted within current status of residense’ with immigration.

Cultural Activities

It is also possible to remain in Japan whilst learning Aikido, Karate, Flower Arrangement and other such Japanese fancies. Not really my cup of tea.

Investor / Business Manager

This is one of the possibilities I seriously considered however this application is probably the most complex as:

• It requires a sturdy business plan
• It requires an office in Japan
• It requires financial commitment e.g.
• at least 3 employees
• a certain amount of capital about 5 million yen (about $40,000)
• Renewing this visa each year is also performance related, i.e. the success of your business is important

One important point, is with this type apparently you may not need a degree, whereas I believe it is mandatory for all the other work visas.

Intra Company Transferee

This is the type I applied for myself and these are the documents I submitted along with my application:

Proof of Existing UK Business

• Company Registration Certificate
• Some Bills, Invoices, proof of office address (e.g. tenancy agreement, although not so important apparently)
• Company Brochure (Copy of home page)
• Accounts
• Forecast Accounts
• Business Plan
• Client testamonials
• Other Documents - advertising materials, photos of business expo.

Japanese Office

• * Proof of office - tenancy agreement, photos
• * Business Plan Translated into Japanese

Evidence linking UK and Japan Branches and
Evidence Showing my ‘employment’ and earnings for working in Japan

• I asked my joint director to sign a letter confirming our intention to open an office in Japan, my position in Japan and my earnings

Others

• My Degree Certificate
• A covering letter outlining my circustances

Key points

• This requires a registered foreign company (we are a limited UK Company)
• This requires an office address in Japan (must not be your home address)
• This requires a degree certificate

My laywer told me that it was lucky that on my extention of my tourist visa application that I had mentioned my intention to open a representative office as this was consistent with my current situation.

Certificate of Eligibility to Status of Residence/Visa

After making a successful application you will receive a Certificate of Eligibilty. This is then taken to a Japanese Embassy and they will issue you with a visa, or if you are currently resident in Japan you can simply apply to change your status of residence without having to leave the country first.