Does anyone have a simple “how to guide” for sponsoring a engineer visa for a overseas foreign national? (from an employer’s point of view).
I think we (the employer) needs to obtain a COE from immigration services in Japan, before the engineer (the employee) applies for his visa at the Japanese embassy in his country. I have the COE form from immigration’s website, but do we have to post a paper application, or can we email it? For the list of documents we submit, is the following correct?:
* Completed COE form (with passport pic attached)
* The work contract
* Doc certifying education
* Employee’s resume
* Copy of our financial statements for last year
* Copy of business registration certificate
4 comments
Make friends with HR at companies that are known to hire foreigners, like in IT.
Or pay some firm to get your documents in order.
IIRC you have to send the documents with the CoE to applicant and they will bring those to the embassy… Or something like that, I’m not 100% certain.
Hire an immigration attorney firm to get things in order.
It depends where in the world the person you are hiring will be coming from, as there can be different requirements imposed by the employees home country as well, for example the Philippines.
The FIRST thing you should do is check to make sure that the employee is eligible to be sponsored, having either (at minimum) a bachelor’s degree and relevant experience, or having 10 years+ of experience in the field they are applying for.
Requirements for the application are generally as above, however it is also recommended (not sure if strictly required but we have been doing this since the early 2000’s for our applications) to include references from the employees former workplaces on company letterhead if possible, as well as the applicants cover letter, a letter from your company explaining why you would like to sponsor this employee and how they will be a benefit to your company.
The CoE application can be lodged in person at your local immigration offices or online (have to register to use online services, and only became available in March of this year I think?)
Depending on the route of sponsorship chosen the requirements of the application will vary slightly, but good advice is to be over prepared. We hire a lot of foreign staff where I work, and our HR won’t even start an application unless they think it has a 100% chance of passing, and apparently immigration will discourage certain applications being submitted if they don’t feel it is complete enough or they feel the reason for hiring isn’t strong enough.
For reference, our company is based in Hokkaido in an area heavily populated by foreigners and foreign businesses. The above has been my experience hiring foreign employees from overseas, but depending on the industry, visa type and where the application is being lodged (Tokyo, Sapporo, Osaka, Niigata etc.) advice may be different. Hope that helps.
The how-to is immigration’s website, it already has all the details and list of required docs.
You can apply online (not email) or in person. Again this is explained on the website.
If you don’t understand the website, hire and immigration lawyer, this is literally their job.