Hi all!
I’m currently in a difficult situation and would appreciate your feedback.
A little bit of background, I was hired by a Japanese company in 2020 but due to reasons we all know haven’t been able to enter Japan since. I was sincerely waiting for my departure, as I’ve signed the contract, have them deliver the COE (which fortunately hasn’t expired), and was even invited to the company’s chat app (something like japan’s version of slack, of which I haven’t touched much, since I’m not working there yet).
Now fast forward to 2022, Japan’s situation improves. I haven’t departed yet but I was planning to process my Visa. Now suddenly another recruiter approaches me, introducing a job opportunity. It’s a bigger company, with a better salary (1,3 times bigger), better benefits and flexibility (remote work) which I find difficult to refuse. I ended up postponing my visa registration (with the previous company I sign contract with) and trying my luck with the new opportunity. To my surprise, I successfully reach the offering stage (they call it ‘offer meeting’) scheduled in the upcoming days.
Now I’m thinking of leaving (which I’m not sure to call ‘leave’, I haven’t worked shit yet) the first company that hired me and move to the new one instead. I fully understand that this situation is caused by my lack of loyalty to the contract I signed, but I have different concerns. my concerns are:
1. I’ve already signed a 3-year contract back in 2020. I initially refuse to, since I’m not in Japan yet, but they said it was some sort of informal contract, which they would only use for visa application (like making CoE), now would they be able to use this contract against me to prevent me to move over to the other company?
2. I’m planning to properly communicate this issue by telling the previous company that I want to cancel my application (or contract for that matter), knowing the background mentioned above, does that require me to follow the notice period rule (like 1-3 months) before officially able to sign a contract with other company?
3. this is my utmost concern, Can CoE only be registered with 1 company? what I meant by this, is assuming that I’m going ahead and sign the contract with the new company, once they process my CoE, would they be able to notice that my name was/still bound to another company? or is it possible for one’s to be registered in multiple CoE?
I might add more questions, but those are my main concern now. Sorry for the long post, I really need some feedback, and I think it would be better if you guys could understand the full picture of my situation.
3 comments
> now would they be able to use this contract against me to prevent me to move over to the other company?
No. The “contract” you signed was, in fact, just for immigration. An employment contract isn’t valid if you haven’t actually started working for them yet. Immigration requires a signed contract to process the CoE, so companies have you sign a copy of the contract for that purpose, but it’s not a valid employment contract until you start.
>does that require me to follow the notice period rule (like 1-3 months) before officially able to sign a contract with other company?
No. See above.
>Can CoE only be registered with 1 company?
Yes.
The issue here is that you have a current CoE, issued by immigration for your contract with Company A. In order to work for Company B, you will need to return your current CoE to Company A and they will need to return it to immigration. Until your current CoE is returned/cancelled, immigration will *absolutely* reject any additional applications.
Unfortunately this is the one place where Company A can, and might, be a bit vindictive. They are under no obligation to return your CoE with any speed. Or at all. So it’s possible that if they’re pissed off about you jumping ship you might have to wait out the validity period of your existing CoE before you can apply for one with Company B.
Is this likely? No. That level of petulance is generally bad business. But it can and does happen occasionally.
1. Would be unconstitutional (Constitution of Japan).
1. You are not an employee.
1. You need a new COE.
>this is my utmost concern, Can CoE only be registered with 1 company?what I meant by this, is assuming that I’m going ahead and sign thecontract with the new company, once they process my CoE, would they beable to notice that my name was/still bound to another company? or is itpossible for one’s to be registered in multiple CoE?
based on personal experience, i know the CoE can only be registered with 1 company. i think immigration will notice that your name is bound to another company.
my friend received a CoE from company A in early 2020, but applied and got accepted to company B in late 2021. The CoE from company A had to be mailed back to japan immigration, and through company B he had to submit in writing why he decided not to go to company A.