Hey. I already live in Japan but it’s a visa related question so I thought folks here might be more knowledgable. If I should post this somewhere else like japanlife instead let me know please
I’m on a 3 year work visa as of now that expires next year. I got my visa from a school (EDIT FOR CLARITY: I was a teaching at an international pre school that sponsored my visa. It is an engineer/humanities/int services visa) but I’ve since quit the teaching job and I now work for a tiny company (just me and the owner).
I applied to immigration to expand my visa to include office work and it was approved. Worked here for 1.5 years. I basically work researching and translating industry material into Japanese for my boss. I also am in charge of making/maintaining the company’s online presence in English. On top of that, I work as my boss’s personal assistant pretty much
Being totally honest, times have been tough during corona and the company doesn’t make much money but I always get paid and my job is not at risk at all.
Anyway, I am very aware that immigration may view my job as precarious and/or unnecessary. Sucks but it’s a reality I’m facing. I absolutely don’t wanna find a new job. (Incidentally, can anyone confirm whether I am right in thinking I’m likely to be denied due this? I’m just working on my own assumption. Thanks)
My partner of 4 years is understanding and supportive of my situation, and has said that we can get married if worse comes to worse but really I don’t want my marriage to come about that way if I can help it.
However I want as much info as possible so my question is if I apply to extend my work visa and it is denied, can I apply for a spousal visa straight after? Would this look awful, even though my relationship is legit? Is there a cool-down period for visa applications? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks everyone
1 comment
>I got my visa from a school but I’ve since quit and I work for a tiny company (just me and the owner). I applied to immigration to expand my visa to include office work and it was approved.
For clarity: When you say this, do you mean you switched to a working visa? Or that you applied for working permission on your student visa?
Because your timeline doesn’t make sense. You say you’re on a 3 year visa, but also that you’ve only been working there for 1.5 years.
Hopefully you fully switched to a working visa, because if you’re only on a student visa with work permission you’ve been in violation of your visa for the past 1.5 years.
Anyways… Assume you did things correctly and are legit…
>Anyway, I am very aware that immigration may view my job as precarious and/or unnecessary.
Immigration doesn’t get to make that decision. When you renew your visa you will take a tax statement from your employer to immigration. Assuming your company makes more than the minimum required to sponsor a visa, you’ll get a visa.
>if I apply to extend my work visa and it is denied, can I apply for a spousal visa straight after?
Yes, you can.
>Would this look awful, even though my relationship is legit?
Yes, it absolutely would.
All of your immigration information, including visa applications and approvals/denials are stored in your file. Whichever immigration officer handles your spouse visa application will see a denied work visa, and will be ***very*** suspicious. If you get married and apply for a spouse visa immediately after a denial, you can expect to get interrogated about your relationship even more than they usually do.