IMMIGRATION -Changing status from Intra-Transfer to Humanities/International- Advice!

Hi All,

I am in a bit of a unique situation and I would like to ask if anyone could give me the right direction as it is a bit stressful/confusing when reading online.

A bit of background, I was transferred by my previous Canadian employer who had an HQ in Tokyo this past February. I came with an Intra-company transfer visa and my husband came in August with a dependent visa and eventually got permission to work in Japan. Unfortunately, my employer filed for bankruptcy on October 6th and everyone in the Japan office including me was let go on October 31st… I only worked for 8 months :(… I notified immigration of the change of my contracting organization and current situation and I was told that I would need a new company to sponsor me with a new work visa. A current USA-based company will acquire my previous employer’s office and its infrastructure and they want to hire all the staff that was let go including me and they will sponsor me too. It will be in the same industry as my previous company and my tasks will be similar to what I was doing before. This company does not have yet an office as they are in the transition of passing my old company lease to them and they are working with a Japan-based HR consultant to hire all the Japanese staff. As well as doing the legal registration in Japan to be able to be here. Due to them not being physically in Japan, they asked me to gather all the information and documents that I would need to do the application in case I needed to apply for a new visa. They will have a representative in Japan and hopefully have all the registration done in the coming weeks.

In this case, I am assuming I will need to change the status of my work visa from Intratransfer to humanities and I am not sure where to check especially when the company is not here yet as I read it takes time to get the approval and therefore you work permit.

I would appreciate any guidance and thank you in advance.