I have many years left in my current work visa so I was thinking of taking 6-12 months of work break (and improve my Japanese meanwhile). All of the people’s experiences I’ve heard in my situation were the same, no one got notified and everyone could stay happily until the end of their visa. But I also know after 3 months I could be notified at any time by immigration.
So my question is, has anyone with a work visa quit their job, and received immigration request for either “information about your job hunting” or “request to leave Japan” after the 3 months? I know after 3 months they can send it any time, but I wonder how often they actually send it and what was your experience. I’ve also heard PR applications are backed up 11-12 months now, which would indicate them to be busy.
PS, even if I can apply to PR the time is bad (see backed up 11-12 months), I’ve also been strongly recommended *not* to change to a student visa for multiple reasons.
by livinginjapann
12 comments
On a work visa, in practice you’re fine until the expiry date.
On the other hand, they are very strict with students, they want you to leave not too long after you stop attending school regardless of visa expiry date. Reason is they are concerned with students working illegally. Obviously that is not a concern when on a work visa.
It hasn’t happened to me in spite of getting sacked a few times for ridiculous reasons by scumbags I’d been working for. I don’t think they’d send you packing unless you got fired for doing something really outrageous at work, so you most likely don’t need to worry.
Eye on the prize. Apply for PR and gaman until approved..
Let’s say you take a year out. Have no income.
How does that look on a PR application?
Whilst in working years you are supposed to be an economic benefit to Japan INC..
A friend of mine was jobless for well over 6 months.
His trick was not notifying immigration.
They never checked up on his work status he just notified them of an acceptable gap when he renewed his visa.
If you will be eligible on your current visa wait until AFTER PR OP!! You got this hang in there
Here’s a recent thread on this, you might find more answers to your questions in the replies: https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/s/JAX33GgyiZ
If you don’t think you can keep this job 11-12 months maybe change jobs, get PR and then you would have no problem taking a break as long as you wanted without risking losing your visa for some reason or another.
AFAIK, any issue with your immigration status, they would send you a letter telling you to show up to immigration offices first.
It is true that so long as you show you are trying to job hunt, you can stay the full duration of your work SOR unemployed.
However, I don’t know if being a student counts as actively job searching. They could request evidence, such as how many interviews you went to, how many applications you filled out. I do know someone who provided such information while unemployed, but wasn’t explicitly asked.
If you want to be a student, you should switch to a student SOR if you really want to cross all your ts and dot your is. Worst case if immigration finds inconsistencies in your activities and SOR, you could end up with a shorter work SOR in the future when renewing.
You have no income and the purpose of the visa is not fulfilled, obviously you will be asked to leave. If they know if you’re actively job seeking, going to hello work, but still didn’t find any, they might give you a chance. But purposely not working with a work visa is not gonna go well with them. It’s fraud. When you’re unemployed, you will get unemployment insurance for 3 months. You get unemployment benefits like low tax , etc. Within 3 months you have to find a job, or show that you’re actively seeking but failed to find it. Otherwise you got to leave. No excuses as I’m studying japanese gonna help you. You have visa to work, not study. Study on your day offs.
I’ve been jobless for over a year (taking a very long sabbatical).
Will leave japan in about another year, so not really bothered.
No one has showed up, already left the country a few times for travel.
If and when they show up I’ll just apply for spousal visa and that’s that.
You are required to notify immigration of any job changes, and you are required to find another job within a certain period of time (6-12 months I believe is way over that allotted time), otherwise your visa becomes void.
Even if you stay and get away with it (aka immigration fraud), your chances of getting PR in the future will become zero.
Rich people problems