Hi, as the title suggests, I seek advice on the best option.
Currently in Japan with Instructor visa and recently enrolled and got accepted for a masters degree. Since the university only has classes in the morning, I plan to resign from my full time and look for part-time jobs. I am considering two options: moving to a student visa sponsored by the university or a work visa (under humanities; a small eikaiwa I’m affiliated with and still doing part-time).
Which do you think provides better benefits for me? I guess I’m looking for the best option where I pay less taxes/national insurance/pension and better opportunities for PR or other options in the future once I finish my master’s.
**TLDR: which option is better (1) changing from instructors visa to students visa for masters (2) changing from instructors visa to humanities visa to do part time while studying master’s? (3) others- please specify.**
Thank you!
3 comments
Depends on how long you will do the part time. If it WILL be above 28 hours and you need those hours to make money to support your life, go humanities I guess? Student visa come with pretty strict 28 hours part-time jobs. Although, a lot of ppl say it doesn’t count if it belongs to the same field (e.g. teaching), idk the legality of it.
However, Being student often comes with lot of financial incentives, discounts, and sometimes tax breaks depends on the area.
I did this and I massively regret it. I was supposed to get a good stipend, but I got sick, was hospitalized, and lost it due to not being able to sign the paperwork. You will have to pay taxes and health insurance based on your current income, which can be very hard to do with a 28 hour work limit if you aren’t receiving a scholarship. For example my residence tax, insurance, and pension for the year was about 1,000,000 in a year where I drained my savings for medical bills…I guess if you have enough savings to pay for all of that it’s no problem. I decided to change back to an HSP visa while I finish my research. Also you can’t apply for PR off of a student visa no matter how your qualify for it.
TL;DR: Only do this if you’ll certainly receive a scholarship/stipend or have enough savings to cover everything.
The best Idea may be keeping your work visa until you pass PR application
then turn to University for master degree. And switch to study visa will restart your
working experience counting ( under same postion more than 3 or 5 years which can
give your extra points for PR assessment )