Just a quick experience report in case others might be waiting/wondering/planning.
In early March my future employer and me applied for the CoE for a HSP type b (高度専門職１号ロ). In the end it took quite a bit longer than I expected based on previous year’s processing times. Went as follows:
- Mar 3: Initial application (expected result in around 22 days → Mar 25)
- Mar 28: Two additional documents requested
- Apr 9: Additional documents provided (expected result in around 28 days → May 7 — though given all the rest already got checked, maybe even earlier?)
- May 24: Processing of the application in and of itself is finished (「審査自体は終了」) — hoped all that remains is a few days for signatures/stamps/mailing(?)
- Jun 3: CoE issued
Will be interested to get the average processing numbers for Q2 this year and see if my case was just an outlier or if for some reason processing times suddenly went up a lot (maybe the Osaka expo? — we applied at the Osaka branch of the immigration services agency).
In any case, best of luck and hang in tight to those of you still waiting. 🙂
by IllDepence