Firstly, I’m sorry if this has been asked before. I tried searching but I’m unable to find any similar threads. English is also not my native language.
A month ago I was hired by an IT company. The company has offices in both my home country and Japan. I was actually hired to work in the Japan office. The initial setup was I will work from home until they process my Visa, then relocate to Tokyo. It’s my dream to go to Japan so I took the offer. I’m working from home now but my teammates are in Japan.
During the hiring process, I’m upfront in saying that I didn’t finish College and I don’t have a degree (but this didn’t seem to bother my recruiters). I’m in my late 30’s and I’ve been working in the IT field for more than 5 years now. I have no problems getting work locally without a degree probably because of my experience.
Now, I was contacted by my HR to confirm again if I have a degree (it felt like this was a big issue). I told them I don’t have a degree and I asked if this will be a problem with my Visa. My HR told me they’re working on it. This was from a week ago and I didn’t get any updates until now.
I did my research (I admit I should have done this before I accepted the offer) and found that most, if not all, work Visa in japan requires a degree. Realistically, will I be able to go to Japan? I’m afraid of being removed from this project and being assigned to a local team.
1 comment
Ultimately, it’s up to the discretion of immigration control in Japan, but without 10 years experience or a bachelors’ degree it really doesn’t seem like you’re eligible for a visa, I’m afraid. But if HR are actively looking into this, I’d wait and see what they are able to come up with. It’s up to you as to how long you’re willing to wait for them to get back to you, but if you’re dead set on coming to Japan ASAP then it might be your only real hope – but it’s a slim hope, especially as you rightly point out that your company has the very straightforward backup of putting you on a local team if they can’t get a visa for you.
In your situation you *might* eventually be eligible for an intra-company transferee visa – but I think you’ll need to have worked for this company for at least a year.