Hello everyone,
​
I’m currently on a student visa at a language school and I’m leaving on June 21. I found a company that wanted to sponsor me to go on a work visa. The company is a big video game company, and the job fits in perfectly with the studies I’ve done in the past. I signed my work contract with them, and I’m now getting ready to go to immigration for my change of status.
The company asks me to communicate my attendance at immigration as well as my grades. My grades are pretty good, but my attendance is about 78%. Since I work on the side (with a 28-hour work permit), I’ve tended not to go, or to arrive late (which causes complete absences).
One of my classmates from the same school as me was in exactly the same situation, but he wasn’t asked to communicate his attendance and grades to immigration… He got his visa very quickly without communicating these elements.
Do you think my attendance could influence immigration and my visa application in any way? I asked my company if providing these documents was compulsory or not. I don’t think I’ll give them, as I’ve seen people around me not give them and get their visas anyway. Can you give me your experience on this for me? Thanks !
2 comments
Usually the attendance rate doesn’t matter when you’re switching to a work visa, but at 78%, if you were trying to renew a language school visa, it’s almost an auto rejection and you’d be asked to leave Japan immediately.
This was my experience being in charge of renewals at a language school in the past. Anything under 85% was borderline, under 80% means the school gets reprimanded (they will not be allowed to use the expedited visa process for 3 years) and the student is usually sent home.
The shittier the school though, the less they care, i.e., they weren’t allowed to use the expedited process to begin with.
To be honest, I was in the same situation one year ago. Just change “big game company” for “3D videogame art outsourcing studio”.
My attendance was like.. around 81%.
Absolutely everyone from teachers and people getting me my visa said that immigration tends to look poorly to students on language schools that have part time jobs moving to a fulltime work visa **without finishing their studies first** , so that might be something you want to look at too :S
Also, since your attendance is under the current 80% minimum… it might not be the best.
Feel free to send me a DM and I can get into more detail about it if you want.