Hi,
Looking for some advice to see if I have any options, other than getting more and more frustrated dealing with the delays faced when dealing with immigration.
I lived in Japan previously and was originally on an employment visa, and then moved to a spouse visa (we got married, had a kid etc.).
We then moved abroad for a few years (same employer), but facing the decision of schooling we decided to move back to Japan and got our son into an International School starting in April. I discussed the situation with my employer, and they agreed to transfer me internally back to Japan (where I worked previously).
Here’s where the issues start appearing:
* My company were late providing the contract, and then after negotiating I was only able to get a formal offer (salary etc.) at the beginning of December.
* We have a fixed date (April) for entry into school, which requires us being located in Japan prior to this.
* We had agreed with my employer that I would transfer back to Japan with a starting date of 1st Feb.
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Given the above, everything needed to happen quickly, and reading the guidelines for CoE application and then visa provision we understood that we couldn’t just wait it out while outside of Japan and hit any of the milestones.
* We moved back to Japan December 9th, and entered on a tourist visa (with wife and kid as Japanese nationals).
* December 10th we went to Immigration and applied to change from tourist visa back to Spouse of Japanese National (the visa I had previously).
* We constantly chased Immigration, explaining that we had an employment contract starting Feb 1st.
* We moved the employment contract start date, 1st Feb –> 16th Feb –> 1st March –> 16th March (this involves both HR teams adjusting offboarding/onboarding dates) every time we missed a milestone.
* We went back to Immigration to extend the tourist visa 5th March (as it expired 9th March) and was told “the postcard has been sent, today”
* We went back to Immigration with the CoE on the 7th March to get the visa, and explained that we have a start date of the 16th March
* We called again today, and they can’t give us any idea when everything will be completed.
I’m expecting the “well, you should have applied from outside of Japan”, but if we had done that we’d still be in exactly the situation we are in now. So far, they have taken 3 months (-2 days) to issue the CoE, then we are getting nowhere on actually knowing when the visa will be provided.
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The CoE states from the 1st March, so what are my options here?
* Can I start on the 16th, even if there is no further communication from Immigration (will the CoE and a promise of a visa fulfil Japanese employment requirements)?
* Do I need to try and move (which may now not be possible) the start date again? At this point I’m likely to be unemployed for a while, as I can’t keep moving these dates last minute.
* Is there another complaints procedure or way of progressing this, rather than just wait it out?
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Luckily, we managed to get ourselves pretty sorted. We got a house, got phones etc. I’m still employed outside of Japan, but need the visa in order to officially start here so that the other bits and pieces (bank account etc.) can be organized (I’m also still on my old salary, so we are eating into our savings all the time).
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Originally asked this in /japanlife, but with the mods there the subreddit doesn’t feel too helpful or welcoming.
by Impressive-Sign-1844