Hi there,
I’m single and working under the Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services visa for 2 years.
I will apply for third visa application this month and I am afraid they will give me again another 1 year visa.
There is another person in my company same age, same nationality and similar background. (She is only married another foreigner ) She just received third time visa renewal result and she took again 1year.
How can I take 3 years visa?
I watched a Russian youtuber who is take 1 year visa for almost ten years and she lost job and finally she took 3 years visa.
If it takes 1 years visa up to 10 years like her, is is really painful.
9 comments
Likely depends on a number of factors, like your nationality, the size of your company, how they judge your job security (salary, length of contract, etc.), etc.
Basically, the higher risk they think you are, the shorter the period. As far as I can tell.
There is no way guaranteed way to get more than a 1 year visa. As the_hatori said there are probably some factors that go into it, but these aren’t shared and people have stories about how they’ve showed stability and it still took them 10 years. Most people think it’s up the person processing the visa. Each person might be going with different sets or rules or gut feelings. Unfortunately we don’t really know and there’s nothing you can do about it other than try to show stability and you get someone who accepts it.
Was told by the guy there that it partly depends on the size of the company you work for.
They is no standardized way to secure a 3/5 year work visa, apart from HSP visa which is a guaranteed 5 years.
Before I I got my spouse visa, it took me 3x 1 year work visas to get 3 years. My first two years I was a bit of a n00b in Japan finding my way. But by my third year (the year I got a 3 year) I had learned how Japan works, decided I want to remain here and had good evidence of that with iDeCo.
So my personally experience is I found that selling yourself to Japan by meeting the requirements (paying all taxes on time… or sometimes ahead of schedule) and submitting more *positive* documents that the guidelines state help reinforce your application.
(Ironically I got downgraded to 1 year spouse only like 1 year into my 3 year work. But then my first spouse renew I got a 3 year spouse… many people seem to get stuck 1 year spouse for 2, to 3 years)
My Saudi friend, and all her Saudi friends can’t get anything beyond 1 year, they think it’s because they’re Saudi.
So it might have be because of the country that you’re from
Depends on how a lot of factors (maybe?). I graduated from Japanese uni, engineering degree, and I never got a visa with less than 5 years. Applying PR now with my third 5 yrs work visa.
As other mentioned, it depends upon many factors like size of the company, contract type, salary and all.
Mine first was 1 year (changing from student to work), then it has been always 3 years(renewed 3 times) .
Speaking from experience of absentmindedly getting a 3 year without even trying to do so. (American)(27m)(5 years in Japan, 2 years working full time)(Manga translation office work)
Having a law firm do stuff for you helps the process it seems. This can cost money so it isn’t ideal, but I was really lucky my job’s company uses an international law firm for this stuff. I was anxious about it at first cause i’d never done it before. Copies of residence card, insurances, mail them the actual residence card, etc.
I thought I’d only get a 1 year renewal, and I was trying to stay humble about it cause you do what you have to do to keep up the living in Japan that you want… and I was just shocked when it finally came back in the mail with 3 years on it. My job paid the fees so I was like heck I gotta thank these people myself. I mailed their office a really nice assortment of treats from Osaka (the office is in Tokyo)
But yeah. It’s unexpected no matter what you do, but speaking purely anecdotal a law firm doing the work for me seemed to have some strength/advantage. (This could be simply not true though. Just speaking anecdotally)
The truth is nobody knows. If they sniff risks, if the agent who is responsible for your paperwork is a bad mood, and whatever other metric they use gives you a “bad score” they will play safe and give you 1 year. On the opposite direction you might get 3 or 5 years. Just apply, prepare for the worst, hope for the best.