How to stay in Japan during the 6 months gap between graduation and next enrollment

If I’m understanding immigration rules correctly, my student visa is no longer valid once I graduate regardless of how many months I have left on my residence card. My residence card will expire 6 months after my enrollment to PhD. I am set to graduate from masters next April and will be enrolling to PhD next October. Is there a way to stay in Japan during this gap period?

I got confused while reading about the designated activities visa for job hunting. Is that only limited to people who majored in humanities? Is there a minimum japanese language skill necessary to get approved? In general, how hard is it to get this visa? Also, I have to make it look like I’m already starting to find a job even before graduation, right? Do I have to report my job hunting activities to anyone throughout the 6 months? Since COVID cases are dwindling, I’m assuming I can no longer use the “can’t go back to my country” visa.

Before anyone replies with “you should go to the immigration office”, I am planning to. However, I want to hear first from people who might have the same experience. I’m also not from a visa free waiver country and I dont have 30 million jpy so I am not eligible for a touring designated activities visa.

Thank you.

3 comments
  1. From my experience: when I started transitioning from masters to PhD here in Japan, I was told that if I enrolled in an April entry program, I would have to leave Japan and come back. I ended up going into an October entry program so my period of stay got extended.

    Edit: regarding the “job hunting visa” – inquire about it now with your school. It takes time to prepare and I remember my university had a cutoff date for applications.

  2. Designated activities visa is very easy to change to.

    All you have to do is to go to the immigration office and apply for the change of residency status and list the reason for the change, e.g. looking for job, preparing to go home or braiding the gap until next school starts. They process shouldn’t take longer than a week or two.

    And you don’t have to report on your job hunting activities or anything like that.
    I changed to designated earlier this year also from a language school, gave the reason to prepare to go home but was looking for a job and applied for work visa around 4 months later which I promptly received their after.

  3. I had somewhat of a similar situation between my bachelors and masters, and one of my professors recommended me to become a research student in the meanwhile. maybe you can do something similar with your professor?

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