Can I keep my visa on a part time job?

Sorry in advance if this has been asked before.

It’s for a Engineer, Specialist in Humanities/International Services visa.

I was laid off in July, and am aware of the three month limit to find a new job, regardless of the expiration date on my visa. I’ve been applying like crazy, but no bites, and it’s starting to get to the point of desperation.

However, I was recently told by a friend that I don’t need a full-time job to keep my visa status. I haven’t found any information about this online so I wanted to check here if anyone has any experience on that.

And if it’s true, is there a minimum amount I need to be making? Or is my friend totally off base and it has to be a full-time position?

Also, at the risk of sounding pathetic, if anyone knows of any place that’s urgently hiring, PT or FT, that information would be greatly appreciated. I don’t care what it is, as long as my Engineer, Specialist in Humanities/International Services visa and lack of Japanese allows for it. If hired, I’ll buy you lunch and/or few beers. 🙏

Edit: I worked as a junior developer. Did some recruiting, teaching, retail, food service. At this point, I don’t have the luxury to be picky.

Edit 2: Engineer, Specialist in Humanities/International Services visa, not HSP visa. My bad… it’s been a long day.

12 comments
  1. > Also, at the risk of sounding pathetic, if anyone knows of any place that’s urgently hiring, PT or FT, that information would be greatly appreciated. I don’t care what it is, as long as my HSP visa and lack of Japanese allows for it. If hired, I’ll buy you lunch and/or few beers. 🙏

    Not going to get many bites at that unless you say what it is you can do, I reckon…

  2. What exactly is your Japanese level if you don’t mind sharing? I might be able to share info about a few job openings

  3. I assume that you have HSP(i) visa, in that case you cannot keep that visa after you left the company that sponsored your visa. You need a new company to sponsor you and if it’s a part-time job, I’m not sure if you can re-apply for HSP.

  4. If you have a HSP visa it is tied to your employer and you will need a new visa entirely. This works against you unfortunately.

  5. I’m not suggesting this as advice – but I did have a coworker that quit their main job a month into their 12 month visa. She worked part-time, very low wages (ah…she had a little gentlemen help the bills and dinner dates and little holidays…) for the next 11 months, and then at renewal time, got a second part-time so total monthly income met the minimum (about 200,000) for renewal.

    You don’t need to have 1 job that meets the financial requirement – you can have 2-3 part-times that total together the minimum.

    If you are paying your health insurance, resident tax, and nenkin ~ they really don’t have any red flags to make them look your way and investigate your actual working sitch. (Assuming your part-time is in your visa category. Humanities does allow freelance teaching of any subject, as in you doing it as private lessons or at a juku, Eikaiwa.)

  6. I’ve renewed with multiple part time jobs and freelance work twice. It’s a bit more paperwork to prove you have enough steady income but other than that it’s a non issue. One part time job might not be enough for income on renewal though.

  7. Where are you located? I know a couple places hiring part-timers, one on-site and one remote. Feel free to dm me.

  8. > I was laid off in July, and am aware of the three month limit to find a new job, regardless of the expiration date on my visa.

    This is a misconception, almost an urban legend, among gaijin. The “3 month rule” is that if you have not been doing any activities that fall within the scope of your visa, immigration **might** start to take action sometime after 3 months has passed.

    However, job hunting is an activity that falls within the scope of your visa. As long as you are actively looking for work and as long as you have funds to support yourself, you are fine to stay in the country until your visa expires.

    It is very unlikely that immigration will ask you anything about this. If by chance they do, show them that you are actively job hunting.

    As far as keeping your visa on a part time job, of course that is okay. It is unlikely that such a job would sponsor you for a visa renewal however, so it’s only a short term solution.

    > I worked as a junior developer. Did some recruiting, teaching, retail, food service. At this point, I don’t have the luxury to be picky.

    You have to be careful about the job. You may have a “Specialist in Humanities/International Services” visa but that does NOT mean you can take any job that falls within that overarching visa class. You will have a work permission that is specific to the type of work you were granted a visa for. If you were a developer previously, that is what your work permission is for. If you want to do other types of work, you must get permission from immigration first.

  9. You don’t have only 3months, as long as you are looking for a job you can stay the full period of your working visa

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