My current residency status is Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Service. Valid for another 2 years.
I work for a small eikaiwa up to 28 hours/week. This business was the original sponsor of my residency status. I have signed a new 1-year contract, set to take effect on September 1, 2022.
I have also worked part-time at a number of different universities. For every part-time university job, I have applied for and received “Permission to engage in an activity…” resulting in a stamp in my passport.
The universities often experience changing needs/number of students/availability of lecturers. As a result, I am asked to teach additional university classes. I spoke with the immigration helpline. They told me that any additional hours to my current university contract require another “Permission to engage…” application along with an additional stamp in my passport.
I would like to avoid returning to immigration every 6 months and my passport filling up with permission stamps. Also, I have been admonished by immigration for submitting applications with limited time before the start of classes. I have asked the universities to get me new contracts as soon as possible, but it can sometimes be only weeks before classes start.
Ideally, I would like to switch to Professor status. I believe this is possible if I have at least ¥250,000/month via university contracts. Unfortunately, my current part-time teaching contracts amount to just under this.
I am also applying for full-time university teaching, but no luck so far. Presumably, professor status would make me a more appealing candidate. I have a Masters degree and previously worked full-time at a university with professor status. I gave up residency when I left Japan for an extended period (\~1.5 years) several years ago.
Question: Can I use a combination of the new eikaiwa contract + university contract salaries to put me over the ¥250,000/month in order to apply for professor status? I assume I would then need to apply for “Permission to engage…” for the eikaiwa teaching. This would limit my permission application/stamps to only once a year.
Also, I am trying to understand the Certificate of Authorized Employment. According to Immigration it is “not itself a permit allowing the foreign national to carry out work activities, nor does not having it mean that the foreign national is prohibited from engaging in work activities.” Would a CoAE allow me to accept multiple part-time university teaching jobs without having to apply for permission each time?
Thank you in advance.
2 comments
To try and explain my understanding of the CoAE….
The CoAE is basically to prove to a potential Employer that immigration consider you eligible/qualified for that job.
for example say US citizen John Smith, with enough native English education, and his degree in History, is an Eikaiwa English teacher…. That’s great, Immigration consider him qualified for that job because he has enough Native English education and a degree in any subject. So immigration grant him the “humanities” (Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services) status of residency for that Eikaiwa job.
But now let’s say John Smith wants to apply for some “Tech role”. Technically both Eikaiwa and tech fall within the same scope of status of residency (visa) I.e Eikaiwa teachers and tech workers are on the same “humanities” status of residency. However, John Smith may not actually be considered qualified (in immigration’s perspective) for that tech role, because he has no IT/physics/engineering/mathematics related degree, and no experience working in tech. And thus immigration would not have ever permitted the “humanities” visa to John Smith for a tech position in the first place.
So potential employers maybe hesitant to employ John Smith because what’s the point hiring someone who may not be 1) qualified for the job (in immigration’s perspective) and then 2) May struggle to Renew their status of residency later down the line and/or change their status of residency should they not currently be on the “humanities” visa.
Immigration exists to protect (within its borders) Japanese citizens first, and table 2 visa holder second, and Table 1 visa holders last. This extends to job opportunities. In immigration’s perspective, why should John Smith (who is not qualified for the tech job) take the job from a Japanese citizen, or Table 2 holder who is also not qualified for the job?
So basically the CoAE helps prove to the potential employer that the table 1 visa holding applicant (in this case John Smith) is qualified (in immigration’s perspective) for the job they are applying for.
But to answer your question, I think you’re on the right track. You should get an immigration scrivener to see if you can change to professor with your university contracts and then supplement your income with the Eikaiwa work + permission to engage. That way you only need 1 permission to engage (for the Eikaiwa work)
>I am also applying for full-time university teaching, but no luck so far. Presumably, professor status would make me a more appealing candidate. I have a Masters degree and previously worked full-time at a university with professor status. I gave up residency when I left Japan for an extended period (~1.5 years) several years ago.
Honestly, having worked with hiring committees before, I doubt your status would have any major impact on a hiring decision. It might be a mild positive in that it is less paperwork, but ultimately the people deciding on the hiring are (generally) not the same people handling HR issues and often are surprisingly unaware about SOR / Visa issues.
That said, if it is possible to switch to professor, it will certainly make your life easier. However, I would be slightly worried that immigration might be reticent to allow you to work 28 hrs / week outside your supposed “main” job. (Permission is supposed to only be granted when it won’t interfere with your main employment activities.)
Personally I would lean towards continuing to apply for permission to handle the university classes, especially as the humanities SOR covers a far broader range of employment possibilities.
If the trips to immigration are too much, it may be worth paying an immigration lawyer to handle the applications for you. While it may be slightly pricey at first, if you can find a friendly scrivener, they will normally charge a reasonable fee if all they have to do is hand in documents you have properly prepared.