I have an offer from a Japanese company which is willing to sponsor the visa. They are bearing the cost of application for CoE (lawyer’s cost etc.) and will assist in further processes (visa etc.)
But there is a problem. I am yet to receive my bachelor’s degree from the college (the college awards degree to all the graduating students at the convocation (formal degree handover ceremony)), and in turn has provided a “Provisional Certificate”, stating that the student has passed and completed all the requirements for the award of the degree, and the degree shall be awarded to him/her at the occasion of convocation.
On submitting this Provisional Certificate, the company denied it acceptance stating that it does not contain the graduation date. Also, the graduation date needs to be in the past (not a date of the future). To this, the college issued a special letter stating that the student has graduated from the college on \[a past date\].
In reply to submission of this letter, the company has asked for the “Original Degree Certificate” issued from the college, not accepting anything other than the original degree certificate (a scanned copy of it)
On talking to the company for the reason behind the original degree, they have replied that, a bachelor’s degree is compulsory to get a CoE, and although the Special Letter might work, there are chances of it getting rejected. This may further lengthen the time taken to prepare the CoE and arrive at Japan.
They have offered that, either they can proceed with this Special Letter and file an application for the CoE. In case it fails, the reapplication fees shall not be born by the company and the candidate himself has to bear the expenses.
In case, the CoE is successfully prepared in the first attempt, (with the special letter), the joining date shall be 2 to 3 months from now. And in case, company waits for the Original Degree Certifcate,the joining date will be postponed to 5 to 6 months from now.
Looking at the condition of job market, it is quite unsure, if the company will keep the offer till 5 or 6 months. It is also a waste of almost HALF A YEAR (too much for me at least0 On the other hand, if CoE fails to be prepared on the first trial, it will again take 2 to 3 months of time.
Can someone suggest what should be done? The Provisional Certificate and much better than that, the Special Letter is quite commonly accepted in most parts of the world (including US, UK, etc). But I’m not sure if it will work in this case. Please suggest what can be the best thing to do.
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PS: 1. The college will not issue the original degree certificate before the convocation at ANY cost, everything is tried, They won’t give it until 2 months from now.
2. The Provisional Certificate is deemed to be equivalent to the original degree certificate is specifically issued to work as a replacement for the original degree certificate (Again, this is COLLEGE’s word of mouth, they are not giving this statement in writing, but my peers have started working with this very certificate, so it is considered outside Japan)
3. The Special Letter says : “CERTIFIED that \[Student\] has been conferred \[Bachelor’s degree\] from \[college name\] on \[past date (date of passing)\]”.