Thanks for reading this, I was looking for an answer to this question but couldn’t find it online and a friend recommended I post it here.
I am currently on a Intra Company Transfer Visa. I left Japan during Covid (when I met my wife) and decided to move back to Japan about a year ago with the same company. When I moved back here my wife and I applied for the same visa and for her a dependent visa. We have been back here for one year now together.
When we applied we were granted three years. My wife has been working under “outside of scope” or whatever it’s called permission where she can do unskilled labor for 28 hours a week. She’s working in an artist shop and she loves her job.
Recently I was made aware of the Highly Skilled Professional Visa which helps me a LOT. We are looking to have a baby and would like my mother to move to Japan to help out for at least a year, and this solves the problem for us! As well as since neither of us have college degrees if a position comes along, she could maybe switch from unskilled to skilled work.
I looked into swapping my Status from ICT to HSP. But, I have a few questions.
A. When I swap can my wife stay on Dependent visa and continue to work at the art studio. Or, does her job need to fall into one of the activities outlined for visa use like Engineer or Humanitarian. It seems those jobs require visa sponsor when we apply for HSP, which we don’t want to do as her art studio is only 3 people and they won’t sponsor a visa. I also don’t want to take her out of work there for 2 months if it can be helped.
B. If she can still work the unskilled activities under 28 hours, would me switching to HSP interrupt her work at all? Do we need to reapply for that silly stamp on the back of her residence card?
C. I read that applying for the Change of status can take as little as two weeks! Is this correct?
D. If she does want to apply for a skilled labor job with no restrictions can she do this at a later time?
I have more than enough points to qualify and I’ve worked with the same company alone for 7 years in the Japan and USA office with the same title the entire time. So I’m not asking any questions pertaining to qualifications. My company has a small Japanese operation so our HR is not super knowledgeable about niche visa ask like this.
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TLDR: ICT worker wants to change to HSP. Will changing my visa require my wife to reapply for the working stamp on her Dependent Visa if she doesn’t want to take a “skilled labor” position. Can she change her mind later and take a skilled labor job?
by HeadOfSelfReflection