Ok, it is quite an awful situation that has been going on, so I’ll try to give all the information to you guys.
I’m not a native English speaker nor have Japanese ancestry, but I’m working here under a researcher visa. My husband came with me to Japan as my dependent.
Since I started my job, I noticed some issues (very problematic ones) that I thought could be related to cultural differences. After 8 months here, it turns out that the problem is my boss and how he manages his people and projects. I honestly don’t wanna be part of the mess when everything starts to show up (some misconduct thing), so I’m thinking about leaving this job.
The point is: since this environment is making me sick, I prefer to leave before finding something else (I just want to put here that I almost hit burnout because of the environment of this place, and I want to rest a bit before starting somewhere else).
While I’m applying for a new job, I’m very interested in learning Japanese (I always wanted and I think this will increase my chances in academia or industry here).
My main question is: if I need to change my research visa to a student visa, what happens to my husband’s visa?
Will it stay valid as a dependent, or will he lose it since I changed my visa?
Thanks everyone!
6 comments
Any chance you meet the requirements for 80 points under the HSFP program?
If so you might consider toughing it out for another 4 months so you can apply for PR and not have to worry (also your husband would then qualify for a spouse visa which does not have the restrictions a dependent visa has).
People on student status are eligible to have dependents (at least [according to University of Tokyo](https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/adm/inbound/en/life-visa-fa.html)), but I would assume it’s a very case by case decision. It may be worth calling immigration and asking them directly.
That said, if you’re at an institute, rather than a company, have you talked to HR? From what I’ve observed, government funded agencies in Japan have started to take reports of power-harassment pretty seriously. I think more for fear of bad publicity rather than actually caring about workers, but either way works for getting you into a non-toxic environment.
It is important to note that your dependent will not have valid visa once you changed yours. How it is detected by immigration is another matter. Since things are digital I think they will easily be detected but to be honest I am not sure how eager they will be to pursue your dependent.
First take this to HR, or whoever is in charge of harassment issues in your department. Try and include evidence or concrete examples of what you mean. I don’t think it’s worth throwing away something valuable because of some idiot.
When I first came here as a research student on a student visa, my spouse was given a dependent visa. I don’t think it’ll be a problem to change both at the same time at the immigration office.
It’s normal for foreign students attending grad school here to bring their spouse (even kids) under dependent visa. However a student visa, especially language student visa instead of master’s or PhD student visa, is pretty much a downgrade from your researcher visa. I honestly don’t know what will happen to your husband’s residence status if you change yours to a language student one, because I’ve only ever known people who did the opposite: upgrading their student resident status to either working or PR status, and their spouses’ dependent status is unbothered at all.
I suggest you to think it through before giving up your researcher status, and look for other institutions that may take you in instead. If you can’t take it anymore you can probably quit and use the “designated activity” status for job hunting, and your husband can wait in your home country in the meantime until you’re settled and he can come under dependent visa again (if he’s not willing to look for work here as well). Consult the immigration desk what’ll be the best course of action in your situation, they can actually be helpful (well, my regional immigration office is, idk about other regions’ though). Good luck, OP!