Ways to stay once laid off?

19 comments

1. Hello there! You have 14 days after employment termination to inform immigration that you’ve been laid off. Then after 3 months, immigration reserves the right to remove you from the country.

   According to the collective wisdom of online gaijins, immigration never exercises that right and not a single person has ever been removed through that route, so practically speaking you can stay until the end of your visa.

2. > Do they even check when you were last employed?

   You’re required to report any changes to your employment status within 14 days. If you don’t notify them within 14 days, you can be fined up to 200,000 yen and lose your immigration status.

   Whether that will happen or not depends on how late you are, how they find out, and how that particular immigration officer feels that day. Most of the time people just get a mild scolding… but “most of the time” is not the same as “always”.

   They DO spot check. Think of it like fishing… they’re not going to catch all the fish. But they **are** going to catch some of the fish. There was a redditor posting a few weeks ago who had been called in for an interview with immigration.

   > I believe people like myself have 3 months to leave the country after employment termination. I was just wondering if anyone has gotten around that?

   It’s 3 months of not engaging in activity appropriate to the status of residence (varies – for students and spouses the times are different). When you’re on an SOR related to work, actively engaging in job hunting is usually seen as engaging in activity appropriate to your status of residence, so be sure to document your job hunting efforts.

3. Dont take this as an absolute answer but I have heard that people are allowed to stay longer than 3 months if they are actively looking for a job.

   I would assume this also requires health insurance and nenkin payment.

   I have heard a friend of a friend managed to stay as long zairyu card has not expired, but really you should calculate if your saving enough for jobseeking activity and for moving back to your country if nothing works.

   of course I recommend the proper way, report to immigration, find a job within 3 months and prepare a backup plan if you have to go back to your country.

4. Report your employment situation when it happens and start looking for another job.

5. Related question – Say one were in this situation, and then they found remote work from overseas, would they be able to declare this employment and stay in Japan? Or does it have to be a Japanese employer?

6. Go to Hello Work, and then start applying for work through their system (reporting to them). If on the odd chance immigration asks what you’re doing to fulfill the status of your visa category, this should satisfy them.

7. I got laid off but took my company to legal proceedings because they did the lay-off improperly. My lawyer advised me not to tell immigration, but the date and type of termination changed when the legal issues were resolved and I spent months studying then looking for another job after that and updated immigration when I got a new job. I don’t suggest you do the same, but a short talk with a bengoshi will clear things much more than reddit comments, although some of the advice here seems good from my experience and others less so.

   I’d recommend you contact one of the free or cheap legal consultations. They should 5000 yen or under and there are a few around Yotsuya which has a lot of law firms that cater more to individuals than businesses.

   You might try here which I’ve used before: http://www.otani-p.com/en/index.html

   Looks like it’s 5400 yen now. Contact them by email first with a short explanation and they may ask you to bring some papers or material with you.

   Other options I haven’t tried but look to be free.
   https://www.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/english/guide/guide01.html
   https://www.nichibenren.or.jp/en/legalinfo/counceling.html

   Laying people off in Japan is quite difficult. Are you sure your company dotted all their I’s and crossed all their T’s? A lot of companies here don’t and employees don’t know their rights. I’m not saying you need to go after them, but if they screwed up a better settlement helps aid in the job search.

8. The 3 month time period people keep referring to here is just a marker for no activity. A better general guidelines is 6 months without employment (assuming you are single with no depenedents) is really a better boundary.

   Obviously go to hello work and begibg the process of looking for a new job BUT ensure thr paperwork from you former company is in order (Rishyoku hyo, etc) so you can get employment asap.

9. No you just have to report on immigration about your job status, as long as you’re trying to find a job you don’t have to leave.

10. Sign up for hello work asap and get unemployment benefits and “help” with applying to jobs

11. Hope you have negotiated a good severance package for being let go.

    As far as the visa goes, are you on a standard work visa? If so, as long as you inform immigration of the change in your employment status and then start looking for work, you can stay until your visa expires or until you run out of money to support yourself.

    If you’re on a HSP visa, it’s different. I’m not sure how it works exactly, and you should check with immigration.

12. As some posters said you should register with hello work. You’ll report your job hunt to them and have your job hunting activities on file for the duration of your insurance payouts. That should be sufficient for immigration if anybody asks. Take it with a grain of salt but even part time work would count as engaging in the activities of your work visa. Depending on how much money you are making it might or might not be grounds for extending the visa when the time comes. If you play your cards right you definitely can go beyond the three months.

13. If your contract has been terminated, you can apply for unemployment insurance. I am assuming you have paid not only residence taxes but also your social insurance. Of course, one thing to remember is that you have worked for at least 6 months in the same company to avail of unemployment insurance.
    What you need is to go to your nearest Hello Work office and report that you have been laid off. They will ask you for details and they will ask for documents coming from you and your former employer. From there wait if you are eligible or not. You can stay until your visa expires given that you still intend to find a different job.

14. Like some people said, immigration might not revoke your visa if they are unaware you are unemployed.

    I don’t recommend this but FYI, I resigned from my job in September 2019 and started my new job mid October 2019 and did NOT report this change to immigration until 2021 or 2022. I simply just forgot. They found out as I was reporting something else, but didn’t say anything except “please submit information about your new job by filling in these forms” and that was it. Maybe the fact I’ve been paying taxes all these years helped and that they thought I was still with my old job.

    But yeah I didn’t report to them for over 2 years……..

    My friend was unemployed in Japan for 8-10 months or something and nothing happened to her visa as she was registered to Hello Work and “job searching”.

15. It’s also possible (as I know from a friend), that your company if they sponsor you may choose to inform immigration. As long as they are tour guarantor then they are responsible – if they don’t play by the rules they put themselves at risk of not being able to sponsor in the future. Another reason for those, than can to secure PR.

16. This was over 20 years ago so take it for what it’s worth. I was laid off and took 6 months to find a new job (with my old company, as it turned out). Never had any problems with immigration.

    Go see Hello Work. You’ve been paying for unemployment insurance, you deserve to use it. They’re a big help.

17. It’s already been said but your best choice of action is to get ahead of it, basically take all your forms to Hello Work as soon as you can and report that you’re actually looking for a job you can use their system that they have in place or whatever you’re doing to find a job basically just have to show them proof.

    I actually a couple of years ago change my job twice in the time period of my Visa at the time and when I went to immigration to renew my Visa I luckily had a really nice staff member who was pretty relaxed about the situation but he informed me that if it was a different person behind the counter the situation could’ve been very different so it’s better to get ahead of it I think.

18. I’ve just been in this situation. Laid off from work at the very start of June and have just been offered another job today. Apart from the response to me informing them of job termination, I’ve not heard a peep from Immigration at all.

19. As others say, report the change to immigration(both when you get a new job and when you lose the current one), register for hello work and do some job searching through them.(if you paid into social insurance, you need to do this to get benefits) I was unemployed 6 months but looked for work in my field and was never contacted by immigration.