Hello fellow JETs! I just wanted to get people’s opinions on this visa situation.
\*\*To clarify I am going for a temporary visitor visa.
I am a departing JET with my contract ending on **7/28/2023 (Friday)** at exactly **4:15 PM**. However, my VISA is due to expire on **7/29/2023** since my BoE decided to change VISA extensions from 3 years (for my predecessors) to every year.
In my prefecture the nearest immigration to my placement is at an extremely tiny area that requires 2 visits. One visit for receiving it, and another to get the results. The reason is that they are a branch of the main immigration office in Nagoya.
With a plethora of leftover Nenkyuu I had planned to go to Nagoya’s Immigration and get it immediately changed to a tourist visa on 7/28. Going with the double option is difficult since the place I am staying at is far from the regional immigration office (again for the 2nd session).
When I inquired strongly about this conundrum they (the BoE) said that even if I change my visa to a tourist one at 4:00 pm that I will **owe** the salary they will pay me on **July 20th**. An additional problem is that the immigration office closes at 4:00 pm and is closed until the following Monday. I imagined three situations.
1. I simply decide to change my tourist visa anyways in **1** day at the main immigration office in Nagoya. This would be before 4:15pm.
2. Or I somehow manage to do a two-session meeting with the regional office on 7/28 while spending an obscene amount of money again just to get here from the place I’m staying. I would not get my tourist visa change until 7/31. In this case situation do they offer like some type of form saying “This person is in the process of changing their VISA, please do not deport or arrest them for being here illegally”?
3. The extremely expensive “VISA” run where I fly to another country then fly back the same day to get a tourist visa after 4:15pm.
I’m sure there have been other ALTs going through this. What do other JETs and former JETs think?
6 comments
I’m a bit confused by the statement “my BOE decided to change visa extensions from 3 years…to every year”.
You get to write how many years you want on the extension application, and can freely write one, three, or five years, but immigration is likely to give you whatever you had before. Since instructor starts at 3, it should have been easy for you to write 3 on the paperwork during your last extension to get another three years.
Anyway, I’m not sure if immigration will let you renew for another year if you don’t have a contract or letter from your BOE proving your continued employment.
If they did miracle agree to renew, you wouldn’t need to change to a tourist visa at all at that point. You could technically just leave on that visa and tell immigration at the airport on the way out that you’re giving up your residency, and then they’ll punch a hole in your card.
I don’t understand the comment about you owing salary? Do you mean they will make you pay back your salary after they pay you? It doesn’t make sense to me.
My understanding is….your first appointment you bring all of the paperwork and they look over it to make sure you have everything you need. They’ll give you like a postcard during that first appointment. You go back to the office with all of your stuff after your contract has ended. During the approval process (approximately two weeks) you’re fine to continue working but once you go back for the second time you are no longer legally allowed to work. I don’t know what your BOE is on about if you have the nenkyuu to spend for the 28th but while your visa paperwork is processing (during that two-week or so period) you shouldn’t have any issues with getting deported or anything (there is a grace period built in for the visa processing time). So if you can’t go until the 31st, it’s not the end of the world. In my prefecture, we have an English hotline that we can call with questions about this stuff. I would check out your Nagoya JET page or the immigration website to see if you have the same type of thing. NVM found it:
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Foreign Resident Support Center (FRESC)
13F Yotsuya Tower, 1-6-1 Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0004
℡0570-011000 (representative)
* Click here for inquiries regarding requests for disclosure of immigration (return) records, alien registration records, etc.
Information System Management Office Immigration Information Disclosure Section ℡03-5363-3005
So instead of asking Reddit. You should call the immigration office and ask them directly about what you should do. AFAIK so long as you go in before your visa expires it shouldn’t be an issue.
They stamp your residence card with a note that you are currently in the process of changing visa so even if it expires as long as you’ve gone in and done the paperwork you are legal afaik.
I think it should be possible for you to go in and do the visa paperwork now and just get the visa later when you are ready after your contract ends. But you’ll need to call immigration and ask them.
I think the point of view of your BOE is they want to make sure that you are legally on a work visa for the duration of your contract as if you go get it changed beforehand you’d be working illegally for a few days and they’d get in trouble as well as you.
Just call immigration directly and explain the situation and they will be more knowledgeable about the specifics than the BOE.
I don’t know your branch office but from my experience, switching to a temporary visitor visa takes only one visit/same day at the bigger immigration offices. That won’t be the same case at this branch office you usually go to?
You should contact immigration, let them know of your situation. Ask them what are your options.
The whole salary thing though…i’m very sorry. Your BOE is sketchy af. I would assume you are not their first JET. Why would they have that rule/stipulation set up? They should have been aware of the situation this puts you in…
I may be wrong but AFAIK once your work visa expires you’re changed to a tourist visa which for a US citizen is 90 days and you don’t need any paperwork for it. Either way, after expiration you legally have two months to apply for change of visa. Again I could totally wrong, I suggest you call your embassy.
Have you asked your school how did they deal with this for previous ALTs? Because in my area, we don’t have to use nenkyuu for visa issues, we get special leave. So, you get the special leave to go to immigration to apply for it. Then, when you go the second time, your contract with work would have ended.