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Go on a tourist visa, get a work visa in Japan?
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ALX

Joined: 19 Sep 2012
Posts: 36
Location: The Big Hill

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 4:27 am Post subject:

[quote="Pitarou"]

ALX wrote:

Pitarou wrote:

It was also much quicker, easier and cheaper for me to do do the visa processing in Japan than in the UK.

If I'd done it in the UK, I'd have had to wait for them to send the Certificate of Eligibility to the UK, and then take the CoE myself to the Japanese Embassy in London. It turned out to be quicker, easier and cheaper for me to collect the CoE from their head office in Japan, and then take it to Chiba Immigration Office.

What was the rush?

Pitarou

Joined: 16 Nov 2009
Posts: 1116
Location: Narita, Japan

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 4:35 am Post subject:

ALX wrote:

Pitarou wrote:

What was the rush?

Why are you so interested?

JerkyBoy

Joined: 12 Jan 2012
Posts: 485

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 11:37 am Post subject:

Can you enter Japan via visa exemption, then find work and organise a work visa from within Japan? Or do you need to get a Temporary Visitor's Visa in order to convert to a work visa?

hagiwaramai

Joined: 24 May 2010
Posts: 119
Location: Marines Stadium

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 1:12 pm Post subject:

JerkyBoy wrote:

Can you enter Japan via visa exemption, then find work and organise a work visa from within Japan?

Or do you need to get a Temporary Visitor's Visa in order to convert to a work visa?

You just come as a tourist and get a 90 day period of stay, that's all there is other than a full work visa I think. You can change it to a work visa in Japan if you find a job, although embassies try to keep that fact from people to stop a surge of unemployed people coming over trying to find work. The problems of course are finding the job in the first place, during which time you'd be running down your savings quickly, and I don't know if you can work while the visa is being processed so you might have to leave the country if the 90 day period of stay ended before you'd got the work visa.

Pitarou

Joined: 16 Nov 2009
Posts: 1116
Location: Narita, Japan

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 9:36 pm Post subject:

hagiwaramai wrote:

I don't know if you can work while the visa is being processed

Not legally.

Some people do it anyway, but it's risky. Japan's zero-tolerance, zero-rights immigration regime is pretty scary, and you're also at the mercy of unscrupulous employers. We have a case on this forum of someone ripped off by an employer who kept promising a visa, but never even applied.

Glenski

Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 10:31 pm Post subject:

Can you enter Japan via visa exemption, then find work and organise a work visa from within Japan?

Yes, but don't tell immigration or customs that is your purpose, or they will put you back on the plane.

Or do you need to get a Temporary Visitor's Visa in order to convert to a work visa?

You can do that, too, but you don't have to.

Quote:

You just come as a tourist and get a 90 day period of stay, that's all there is other than a full work visa I think.

Certain nationalities/ages can get a working holiday visa for 6-18 months. After that, if they meet immigration requirements for a work visa, they can convert. The main point is that you need the job first.

Quote:

I don't know if you can work while the visa is being processed so you might have to leave the country if the 90 day period of stay ended before you'd got the work visa.

Immigration will tell you that you cannot work while the visa is in process. Think about why. You still have not received the legal permission to work, that's why. In reality, some employers look the other way for the sake of expediency and let you work, although often at lower pay and without benefits. I wouldn't recommend it. If somehow your visa doesn't come through, you're stuck with having worked illegally.

While your visa is in process, you can stay up to 2 months beyond the expiration of your tourist status. Immigration allows that.

Quote:

We have a case on this forum of someone ripped off by an employer who kept promising a visa, but never even applied.

Yes, it happens. Beware of being asked to rush here and work while the visa is in process, and especially if you hear stories of "delays" or "mistakes" in processing that eventually keep you here beyond your tourist stay.

hagiwaramai

Joined: 24 May 2010
Posts: 119
Location: Marines Stadium

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 12:55 am Post subject:

Glenski wrote

Quote:

While your visa is in process, you can stay up to 2 months beyond the expiration of your tourist status. Immigration allows that.

Sorry, that was what I was thinking. Not working, just being allowed to stay in the country.

Edited to add, I think the upper age limit for Working Holiday visas is 30 for UK citizens and from the sounds of it you are over that aren't you?

Last edited by hagiwaramai on Tue Oct 23, 2012 1:03 am; edited 1 time in total

Glenski

Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 12:57 am Post subject:

Glenski wrote:

Can you enter Japan via visa exemption, then find work and organise a work visa from within Japan?

Yes, but don't tell immigration or customs that is your purpose when you arrive, or they will put you back on the plane.

Or do you need to get a Temporary Visitor's Visa in order to convert to a work visa?

You can do that, too, but you don't have to.

Quote:

You just come as a tourist and get a 90 day period of stay, that's all there is other than a full work visa I think.

Quote:

I don't know if you can work while the visa is being processed so you might have to leave the country if the 90 day period of stay ended before you'd got the work visa.

Quote:

We have a case on this forum of someone ripped off by an employer who kept promising a visa, but never even applied.

TWG

Joined: 25 Oct 2007
Posts: 39

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 3:08 am Post subject:

Glenski wrote:

When I got off the boat the lady who was showing us poor huddled masses which line at immigration to stand in asked me, "Why are you here?"

I replied, "I was offered a job. I'm here to accept it."

She told me, "Don't tell them that at the counter. Say you're on a tour."

So I did and got my tourist visa. My work visa happened three weeks later. If she didn't tip me off, who knows what would have happened.

hagiwaramai

Joined: 24 May 2010
Posts: 119
Location: Marines Stadium

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 4:00 am Post subject:

TWG wrote:

Glenski wrote:

It's funny, people usually say how strict Immigration is, but the only experiences I've heard of concerning them have been positive. One where somebody was allowed in to work with no fuss on a new passport but with only photocopies of the visa from their old passport due to passport problems, one where somebody managed to persuade them to give them some kind of re-entry permit at Narita Immigration because there wasn't an immigration office at the airport as they thought there was, and finally my friend who overstayed his spouse visa but was just subjected to a lecture about being a "naughty boy" and allowed to stay. Has anyone actually had or heard of any bad experiences? I.e. like this, being turned away because they said they were going to work after coming as tourist?

Pitarou

Joined: 16 Nov 2009
Posts: 1116
Location: Narita, Japan

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 4:19 am Post subject:

hagiwaramai wrote:

Has anyone actually had or heard of any bad experiences? I.e. like this, being turned away because they said they were going to work after coming as tourist?

YES!! It's well documented. And you really don't want to be in a position where your future depends on what kind of day the guy on the other side of the desk has been having.

Do you want to know what happens when you're turned back at the border?

If you're rich, you pay an extortionate fare and take the next plane home.

If you can't / won't pay for that, the airline hands you over to some professional shakedown merchants to see how much money they can squeeze out of you. They hold you until they're convinced they can get no more from you or your family, and then fly you out of the country in whatever manner, and to whatever destination they find most convenient.

hagiwaramai

Joined: 24 May 2010
Posts: 119
Location: Marines Stadium

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 4:42 am Post subject:

Pitarou wrote:

hagiwaramai wrote:

Has anyone actually had or heard of any bad experiences? I.e. like this, being turned away because they said they were going to work after coming as tourist?

It's not well documented at all. Perhaps you've heard it is and are repeating that, but do you have any first hand or trusted sources that have any experiences?

TWG

Joined: 25 Oct 2007
Posts: 39

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 5:10 am Post subject:

Quote:

YES!! It's well documented. And you really don't want to be in a position where your future depends on what kind of day the guy on the other side of the desk has been having.

In my questions directly to immigration about their decision making I can confirm it comes down to whatever takes the least effort. Like all petty bureaucrats everywhere.

Pitarou

Joined: 16 Nov 2009
Posts: 1116
Location: Narita, Japan

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 6:23 am Post subject:

hagiwaramai wrote:

Pitarou wrote:

hagiwaramai wrote:

Has anyone actually had or heard of any bad experiences? I.e. like this, being turned away because they said they were going to work after coming as tourist?

It's well documented.

It's not well documented at all. ... do you have any first hand or trusted sources that have any experiences?

Let me google that for you.

hagiwaramai

Joined: 24 May 2010
Posts: 119
Location: Marines Stadium

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 6:58 am Post subject:

Pitarou wrote:

hagiwaramai wrote:

Pitarou wrote:

hagiwaramai wrote:

Has anyone actually had or heard of any bad experiences? I.e. like this, being turned away because they said they were going to work after coming as tourist?

It's well documented.

It's not well documented at all. ... do you have any first hand or trusted sources that have any experiences?

Let me google that for you.

One Japan Times article from 2005 (by Debito...) which actually contained hardly any information despite pertaining to be a piece about Americans falling foul of immigration laws, and which included in one of the few stories the fact that an American was forced to, shock horror, go to Immigration to renew their visa despite overstaying which would "well-document" the opposite of what you said, a piece from a secretive journalist who won't even divulge what his visa status was and claimed to think about suicide a few hours after being put in a detention cell at the airport, and one piece on a forum by an ex-Nova teacher does not add up to well-documented.

The last one is interesting though. That's the kind of story and situation I was after, like the ones I cited, and it's indicative of what I was saying that that is the only story of its kind that comes up in Google. I don't want any newspaper articles by biased reporters, I want first hand accounts, which is what the Nova teacher's one was.

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