Hi
This is a long story but I will try to make it as brief as possible
I wanna apply for PR but because my contracts are renewed yearly I have 1 year visa. It is not allowed to apply to PR from 1 year visa. Therefore I want to change to HSP visa before applying for PR
I have been trying to get the documents from my work place, I work at a big research institute. Their first response to me wanting to apply was “you are not elegible, sorry”. Then I explained that that was for immigration office to decide, not for them.
They have been giving me problems since 2 months ago about documents needed to get extra points:
” Work for an organization which receives finalcial suport measures )measures provided for separately in a publice notice) for the promotion of innovation”
and
“Work on an advanced project in a growth field with the invovlemente of the relvant ministrires and agencies”
I am pretty sure my work place fulfills those requirments. But eventually since they dont want to provide them, I said, just give me the application form, since I think I have enough points even without those two documents.
And then their response was: “We are no supporting HSP visa applications”
“We will give you document for visa extension but not for change status”
But I believe the documents for visa extension and HSP visa are the same tho, so can I apply even if they do not agree with it? Can they even legally say that they dont support HSP visa applications?
There is another research who applied a few years back, in the laboratory next to mine, through our institute, but it seems his secretary dealed with it better than mine.
This have been months of conversations between our secreatry, headquarters and my supervisor. The secretary is just in the middle but HQ and my supervisor are not supportive at all for some strange reason I cant understand. I have been so angry and stressed about this that I was even considering consulting lawers about the topic.
If you have any advice I will appreciate it.
5 comments
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It sounds like they might not want you to stick around and put down roots here.
HSP typically has the same requirements as getting a 5 year eng/humanities working visa. If you are only qualifying for 1 year visas, the chances that you would be awarded a 5 year HSP is slim. I don’t think it’s likely switching out a few sections of the application will make a difference, not to mention upsetting the research institute if they find out.
Can you check your details of your research contract, and see if you are considered permanent tenure track? Does your research institute consider you employment 雇用 or temporary worker status or postdoc researcher? Those may be what is holding you back with 1 year visa cycles.
I switched from Professor to HSP recently and I did not need to tell HR about it. All they wanted was the link to the form (change of status) and I also asked them to provide a certificate of estimated income for the coming year. Technically I didn’t even have 1 year left on my contract (tenure-track so my contract ends in August when I get tenure) and I got the 5-year validity.
I’m not sure about all of them, but I don’t think your employer needs to provide those other documents as they are based on lists created by immigration. I just printed out those lists from the immigration website and highlighted my employer. Same with publications: immigration says SCOPUS is one of the databases they accept so I just printed out my author profile on SCOPUS and highlighted the publications that count. I had almost 150 points though, so I wasn’t overly concerned if I didn’t get every single one.
I was originally told by my employer that they do not support HSP visas, only Professor, but later there were no issues when I asked if I could change so it is possible it was only due to the fact that I came when the borders were closed and Professor visas were one of the few visa categories that were able to enter Japan. Everyone in the office was very excited about the HSP visa status (as they should be since it makes it more difficult for me to change employers).
I don’t understand why your employer is against it, but even though I suppose it might be difficult for them to block your application, are you sure it’s worth the hassle if they’ve already made it clear they’re against it? Perhaps you could try to outline the benefits to them rather than you if you bring it up again?
If you have the points for HSP and the rest of the HSP->PR requirements, there is no reason to do specifically HSP, just use the HSP point system to get straight to PR.