My English is bad and I don’t want to make it long so here’s the summary:
1. I am a full-time worker with a working visa 技術・人文知識・国際業務
2. I made a video game and want to sell it online
3. I asked immigrant can I sell it, immigrant told me yes they could give me a 資格外活動許可 stamp **BUT** my company need to agree with this
4. My company said no
5. My game can potentially make triple my annual income so it make no financial sense that I choose to stay in my job and dump the entire game I’ve been working hard on it for years and just not sell it. I also signed a contract with publisher that they invest in me, paid for my voice actors, translations and did marketting for me. I don’t think I can back-off at this point.
6. I current plan is to quit my job and switch my VISA into business manager visa- which I already have a valid product.
7. I need 5 million capital for that VISA but I don’t have that 5 million saving… unless I sell the game. But selling the game would cause issues for my current visa. I’m stuck here.
My plan is to sell the game anyways, get paid from my publisher, before I file my year end tax, use that 5 million to get a business manager visa. In the end of the year, file all my profit under the name of my new created company.
I have 3 more years to reach the 10 years threshold so I can apply for PR so I don’t want anything that could’ve affect that. Does this plan sounds doable?
I consulted an immigrant lawyer and they tell me to use my saving instead. I don’t have 5 million ):
by MaryPaku
14 comments
Hmm… quick question before you shoot your shot.
Is your publisher from Japan? Because if it is, maybe you guys could do a deal and somehow you start “working for them” so you get your 資格外活動許可 stamp, since they will say yes, while keeping your visa… then you can start looking for a new “real job”?
All this legaly of course, I’m sure if that is the case there’s more than one way to skin a cat…
I’m not sure what exactly you mean by “sell your game”.
Could you perhaps incorporate a company and have the company contract with the publisher to sell the game?
I understand you can sell an asset under your current visa, you just cannot make a business of it. It should also allow you to be a passive investor in a company, you just cannot run a business.
Can you open a company in your home country??
And just don’t give shit about your current job opinion
It is illegal to get a secondary income, not to own a company
(You just need to not pay yourself i think)
(1) Open Company in your own country
(2) Sell games, keep cash in your foreign company
(3) Create a branch of your company in Japan
(4) Quit your Job
(5) Sponsor your visa yourself
(6) Give yourself a salary from your own company
If you’re making a one-off sale of some materials that you produced as part of your hobby that’s not necessarily considered work, you can potentially do it without any visa permission.
Your company cannot forbid you from working on your own time except to the extent that it interferes with their business. So you could do it anyway. But there’s always a risk that your company will claim to immigration that you were not working for them properly, in which case that carries a risk to your visa etc..
You probably shouldn’t make a plan that relies on being quickly approved for a business manager visa. Applications for that visa are assessed quite strictly and can take a long time to approve.
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My first attempt of consulting a lawyer wasn’t helpful.. Anyone has a good lawyer recommendation?
Be sure to double check your contract with your current company and that they do not own anything that you create in your free time, including first refusal on any intellectual property. It’s very common in contracts.
Sorry this doesn’t help you, but just wondering, it’s pretty interesting I’ve heard people say before that they’d only give the 資格外活動許可 stamp for like a single sale, and that you’d theoretically need it for each sale you do, but you are saying that they said they’d actually give that stamp for you to sell it on an online marketplace for unlimited sales as passive income?
I was on business mgr visa for a few years before going back to permanent employee work.
The issue with the standard work visa is that you are not actually allowed to own a company with that status. Because my company still gets a few sales here and there, I didn’t want to close, and had to choose HSP status which does allow you to be a company owner on the side.
Since the HSP (tech specialist) visa is still primarily an employee visa, I also had to write a letter explaining the work for my company would take only a few hours a week, and not interfere with my main job.
To get the business Mgr (from the normal engineering status), it was very unclear to me if I was supposed to make the GK before or after applying honestly. I was freelancing and incorporated with ¥5m before applying, but you also need to have a valid office (afaik shared office space etc… doesn’t count). That part is not trivial as that means extra moving in fees and the need for a guarantor in itself.
The business plan part of your business is probably the easiest part since as you said you already have the product.
You beed to create a company and sell it under its name. Fukuoka is a pretty good place for that, and theres a few of us making games based here. Drop me a dm i can share more info if u want.
post game pls
Register offshore company for now, and when you get necessary money – leave your job…
I feel like your plan is basically the only choice you have, would be nice if you can post back here eventually and say how it went and if immigration had any problems with you selling your game before switching your visa. I actually read a comment once of someone doing something similar (someone had a small side income. presumably small enough to be “hobby” level which is technically allowed without immigration permission, that slowly got bigger to where it was beginning to rival his main job, so he went to switch to business manager visa while already having this “business”, and immigration mentioned it wasn’t really the proper way to do it but they gave them the visa anyway, or something like that) so it would be good to have more datapoints on it.