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cookiemon
Joined: 08 Sep 2015
Posts: 9
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 Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 12:03 pm Post subject: Moving to Japan when spouse has a visa already |
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Hi all, I have a few questions about my impending move to Japan.
Some background:
I’m an Australian woman in my mid-thirties. I have six and a half years English teaching experience in Korea (2008-2014), a Graduate Diploma of Education – Secondary (chem/biol), but no actual ESL qualifications. I worked for an adult academy in Korea for 4.5 years, managing my centre (20 teachers) for the last 15 months. I then worked in elementary school for 2 years before I left Korea just over 12 months ago.
My American husband is an engineer and will be sent to work in Tokyo for 12 months, starting in Nov or Dec this year. I will join him there. For various reasons, we don’t want to ask his company to organise my visa if we can help it. I’m not really interested in the “expat wife” life (not that there’s anything wrong with it, it’s just not for me), and am planning on at least some form of work while I’m there, which leads me to my questions:
1) Does anyone know if it would be easy to get a spouse visa “on the ground”? If I did, is there one I could work legally on?
2) If I go on a tourist visa and look for a job on the ground, what docs would I need to bring to teach English? I have a new Australian (AFP) background check, and scans of my degree and Dip Ed. Will I need a Korean background check and/or transcripts from university? Anything need to be apostilled or certified?
3) Would an employer sponsor my visa if I only want to work part time?
4) If I go on a tourist visa and cobble together online work, rather than getting an in-person job, can I do visa runs every three months? This is par-for-the-course in Korea, but I don’t know if the Japanese authorities will keep letting me back in. In the U.S. they sure won’t! (I know I will need a ticket out within three months if I enter this way).
5) Should I get a 120 hour TEFL qualification if I want to teach English in Japan, or will my Dip Ed with experience be sufficient?
I know about getting a certificate of eligibility if I’m going to get sponsored for a visa by an employer, but it’s hard to sift through the noise to get the other info from Google. Any advice or answers would be awesome.
Thanks!
Edit: clarify kind of teaching I'm after
Last edited by cookiemon on Thu Oct 01, 2015 2:12 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Maitoshi
Joined: 04 May 2014
Posts: 718
Location: 何処でも
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| Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 9:44 pm Post subject: |
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| Unless it's not possible for your husband's company to arrange the visa, you may want to go that route, as changing that visa status to allow some work would entail far less risk. I'm guessing one of those "various reasons" eliminates this option? |
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TokyoLiz
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1548
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 10:08 pm Post subject: |
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Here's a legal office website thst indicates that a dependent visa holder can obtain permission to work part time - http://english.narita-visa.jp/family/
If you want only 25-30 hours a week, dependent plus permission may be the best option for you. Of course you can find part time employment here.
Your arrival time is prime hiring for jobs that start in April. Bring the qualifications you listed.
About TESOL qualifications - do you see yourself doing English language ed rather than science? A TESOL diploma may be suitable in the long run. |
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cookiemon
Joined: 08 Sep 2015
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 2:10 am Post subject: |
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| Maitoshi wrote: |
| Unless it's not possible for your husband's company to arrange the visa, you may want to go that route, as changing that visa status to allow some work would entail far less risk. I'm guessing one of those "various reasons" eliminates this option? |
Hi Maitoshi, thanks for your reply. I didn't list them bc I was trying to keep the post not so long but they boil down to:
1) He's planning on quitting after the year contract is up and moving to Australia (company doesn't know that yet and is counting on him staying), so he doesn't want to ask them for special favours.
2) I'm currently in Australia and he's still in the US (stupid immigration laws) and logistically I would assume that getting me a spouse visa would at least need me to post my passport to the Japanese embassy in the US. I could be wrong here, so if you know any different let me know.
#2 may be something his company could get around, but then we're back at reason 1, where he feels bad to mislead his company, but it's the only feasible way we can be together until his partner visa for Australia is granted (probably still nearly 12 months away).
As for changing from dependent to allow work, what kind of risk are you talking about?
| Quote: |
Here's a legal office website thst indicates that a dependent visa holder can obtain permission to work part time - http://english.narita-visa.jp/family/
If you want only 25-30 hours a week, dependent plus permission may be the best option for you. Of course you can find part time employment here.
Your arrival time is prime hiring for jobs that start in April. Bring the qualifications you listed.
About TESOL qualifications - do you see yourself doing English language ed rather than science? A TESOL diploma may be suitable in the long run. |
Thanks for your info too, TokyoLiz. 25-30 hours a week would be perfect. I did the hagwon thing in Seoul and don't really want to do the whole full time Eikaiwa thing in Japan. Freelance English lessons for business people would be the best suited for me. Or maybe part time for a company like Berlitz. I did mean English teaching, not science (I'll edit above to clarify), but only because I imagine that openings for science teachers that don't speak Japanese are thin on the ground. Of course, if I could find one that suited me, I'd be very open to considering it.
I'm only planning on being in Japan for a year, so I wouldn't get a TESOL diploma for just that. I hadn't been planning on going back to English teaching again at all, but the whole getting my husband an Australian visa thing will take far longer than we first realised. If a 120 hour qualification would be the difference between me finding work or not, I could conceivably do that before I leave for Japan. However I'm pretty confident I can sell myself on the basis of my experience if there are opportunities that are flexible about qualifications.
Any further advice you have would be greatly appreciated! |
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rtm
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 1003
Location: US
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| Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 2:35 am Post subject: Re: Moving to Japan when spouse has a visa already |
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| cookiemon wrote: |
1) Does anyone know if it would be easy to get a spouse visa “on the ground”? If I did, is there one I could work legally on?
2) If I go on a tourist visa and look for a job on the ground, what docs would I need to bring to teach English? I have a new Australian (AFP) background check, and scans of my degree and Dip Ed. Will I need a Korean background check and/or transcripts from university? Anything need to be apostilled or certified?
3) Would an employer sponsor my visa if I only want to work part time?
4) If I go on a tourist visa and cobble together online work, rather than getting an in-person job, can I do visa runs every three months? This is par-for-the-course in Korea, but I don’t know if the Japanese authorities will keep letting me back in. In the U.S. they sure won’t! (I know I will need a ticket out within three months if I enter this way).
5) Should I get a 120 hour TEFL qualification if I want to teach English in Japan, or will my Dip Ed with experience be sufficient?
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1) As others have indicated, you can work part-time on a spouse visa (you just need to request permission). This actually would be a big advantage because you wouldn't need your employer to sponsor your visa, and a lot of places are willing to hire people part-time.
2) No apostille needed in Japan. The other things you mention should cover everything, but I am not certain -- maybe others can confirm.
3) No, employers won't generally sponsor a visa for part-time work.
4) I wouldn't want to try this. I wouldn't expect that it would work for a whole year.
5) It might help, but generally not needed.
If I were in your shoes, I'd get your husband's company to sponsor your visa. Then you won't need to do any visa runs (hoping you will be let back in), or worry about finding a job with an employer who will sponsor your visa (a lot of employers nowadays want people who already have a visa). You'll also be able to work part-time, like you indicated you want to do. I don't think your husband should feel bad about asking them to sponsor your visa, as it is par for the course to do so. It might even seem odd for his wife to come and not have a spouse visa. |
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Shakey
Joined: 29 Aug 2014
Posts: 199
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| Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 3:23 am Post subject: |
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| cookiemon wrote: |
| 25-30 hours a week would be perfect. Freelance English lessons for business people would be the best suited for me. Or maybe part time for a company like Berlitz. |
Berlitz is considered to be the best of a bad lot. Getting hired as a per-lesson teacher in Tokyo would be ideal for someone like you. I've met a lot of women in your situation who are doing exactly that at Berlitz. You can work as much or as little as you want to in a city like Tokyo.
And unless you want to work for the British Council, TESOL certificates are not needed to find TEFL work in Japan. |
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