Hello everyone!
First time posting here, so thanks for any answers/helpful comments in advance!
So for background, I’m currently in a Japanese Language School set to graduate on March 2023.
I’ve been looking for jobs since I really want to stay in Japan for a longer term, and thankfully got an offer from a mid size gaming company with a lot of other foreigners. They’re willing to sponsor a work visa, and they sent me all the documents I need to apply for the visa. If it helps I also have a bachelors degree from my home country and a couple of years of work experience.
I’d honestly like to start the job as soon as possible but when I talked to my school about leaving early they said that it was dangerous since my current student visa is valid until January 17 2023, and if my work visa gets rejected I’ll have to leave Japan since I’ll technically have no valid visa anymore.
So now my problem is that I’m torn between:
1.) Proceeding to leave the school early and applying for the work visa with the risk of getting denied
2.) Extending my current visa with the school until March 2023, and applying for the work visa after my student visa extension. Considering it takes about a month for the student visa extension I’ll be able to apply for a work visa around mid-January (if I apply for the student visa extension in December) and, if accepted, get the working visa around mid- February. My only worry is that I’m unsure if the company is willing to wait that long to hire me.
Any advice as to what is the best course of action?
Apologies for the long post!
TLDR:
I don’t know how I should proceed with my visa and what’s the best course of action? Should I just risk filing for the work visa and leaving school early or wait a little longer but maybe lose the job offer?
5 comments
If a company is willing to sponsor your visa and the pay isn’t poverty level, there is pretty much no chance you will get rejected since you mentioned you have a Bachelor’s degree too. Worst case you might get a 1 year.
From the looks of what you wrote, there is very little risk to starting the visa application now if you can start working right away.
Sooo i actually have a question for you (down vote to oblivion if y’all want) how long did the Japanese school take? I’m looking to go that route to get into Japan once I’m out of my current job
apply for a work visa while you in school. If you got denied just extend student. But its unlikely to be denied. If you start this now – you might got it till NY
Apply for change of residence type while in school.
Hey. I’ve been in your shoes.
I applied for my work visa *after* I graduated my language school, though. Got a 5 year visa.
If your company agrees to sponsor your visa there is very little chance of your application getting denied.
However I’d still recommend finishing your language studies first, in the off chance something goes wrong. You should have a 3 month period after graduation where you can declare yourself as “looking for employment” and you get these 3 months to process your work visa.
I’d suggest talking to immigration for details just to be safe.