Job Discussion Forums

jonathanj · Joined: 09 Mar 2005 Posts: 93

My CoE for a work visa is in the mail. SHould be here in a few days. My company is screwing me around about my wife's CoE and won't help me with that. If I were to quit my job (that I haven't started yet), can the company cancel my CoE (even though it's in my hands), disabling me from getting my work visa? I would like to find an employer that is willing to help me get a CoE for my Chinese wife to come to Japan with me.

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

Exactly, precisely how is this screwing around taking place?

An employer is under no obligation to help you with a dependent visa, you know.

jonathanj · Joined: 09 Mar 2005 Posts: 93

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

If you turn down the job before you even use the COE, I suppose they could cancel its sponsorship and then you wouldn't even be able to use it to get a visa. Hard to say, but I think you can see the logic in that. If you're going to use a company to get here, go all the way and get the visa before you bail out. Plenty of rabbits run at the airport without even saying hi to their hosts. I don't like it, but it happens.

What exactly is the hemming and hawing? Details, please. What you see as dawdling may be something else, perhaps even legitimate, as I wrote earlier. To say more on my part would be only blind speculation.

jonathanj · Joined: 09 Mar 2005 Posts: 93

What if I am in Japan, use the contract for my current job to sponsor my wife's CoE, then quit that job and find another, while my wife's CoE is still being processed. Is it possible that the CoE will be stopped or that something could go wrong?

About the himming and hawing, they just keep telling me they will do some research into it, then never get back to me. I call them, they say they will email me in the afternoon, but then I don't hear anything from them, until I call back 3-4 days later.

markle · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 1316 Location: Out of Japan

slodziak · Joined: 17 Oct 2005 Posts: 143 Location: Tokyo

jonathanj · Joined: 09 Mar 2005 Posts: 93

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

jonathanj · Joined: 09 Mar 2005 Posts: 93

I have been to that website many times, and also spoke to 3 different people at 3 different times in the immigration dept. They all told me that since my wife is a Chinese citizen, I need to have a Japanese address to apply for her CoE. They told me numerous times that I had to come to Japan, apply for the CoE in person, and when they send it to me, I have to send it to my wife in China.

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

jonathan,
Then just do it! The separation will probably not be for long, and you can always remain in visual contact with Skype or some such webcam setup for free phone calls computer to computer.

jonathanj · Joined: 09 Mar 2005 Posts: 93

The problem is not the separation. The problem is I accepted a job with a company that I don't want to work for, but was stuck as not many companies were looking at my resume due to living in China/Overseas. Now that I have the visa, I plan on coming, and doing a better job search and I am gonna try to land a business job. The problem with that is the hiring process could take long, and with my Japanese skills being basic (only been studying for 6 months). I want to have my wife by my side ASAP, as she is fluent in Japanese, and lived here for 7 years. We will go house hunting once she gets here and being a Real Estate agent, she has a few tricks up her sleeve.

This leaves with the question, if I were to apply for her CoE for a dependent visa for my wife, but use the current contract I have (with the company I don't plan on working for), can the CoE be canceled if I quit the job (even though the school has no ties to this other than the contract I have with them). The reason I won't wait to get a contract with a job I intend on working for is because that could take much more time, and I don't want to live in a guesthouse, while my wife sits in China.

This might be hard to understand, but this is the best I can explain it.

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

jonathan,
Why are you keeping all of this information to yourself? People here are glad to help, but you are handicapping us.

You took a job you don't want. Well, that's too bad. You have it, it gets you in the door, and you seem to be motivated enough to work out and up. One thing you will learn in Japan is to be patient, suck it up, roll with punches, etc. Don't, and you will be terribly frustrated.

Get temporary quarters and deal with them for a while. Doesn't have to be a guesthouse. Practically anyone can do that. You're plenty young enough (unlike some of us oldsters) to handle such a short-term situation (not setback). Get used to Japan and your job while you wait for the COE and your wife to come. After she comes, focus on the changes you need -- housing and new job. I think you're going to have to learn how well or badly you can get by with less than perfect Japanese. This is another fact of life. Plenty of foreigners do this every single day. If your wife indeed has some edge in the real estate world, use it and leave your old place. Pretty straightforward.

Heck, you don't even know where your proposed better job will even be, so you both will need some acclimatizing. She may have lived here for 7 years but not with you at her side, right?

jonathanj · Joined: 09 Mar 2005 Posts: 93

Yes, we both lived in Japan together for a year and half before. We just weren't married. Since you are married yourself, things change when you get married, but we have never been through this situation before. I am just impatient and trying to find the quickest way to get my wife by my side.

The other problem is that if I stick with the current job, wait until the visa, then quit, and don't find a business job, then I am back to teaching, but will have missed the hiring window in Feb-April.

Anyways, I extremely appreciate your help, but I am still unsure about the original question I asked in this thread. Will applying with a contract that will be void during the process of the CoE for my wife null the application, therefore, denying my wife that chance of being with me in Japan?

Again, thanks Glenski.

ripslyme · Joined: 29 Jan 2005 Posts: 481 Location: Japan

Consider this: Would you try this kind of tricky paperwork shuffle in your home country? i.e. apply for a dependent's visa using a CoE that will become null and void should you decide to bail out on your employer before working for them.

At the risk of deportation and disallowance of a return/entry to the country in question, I would not. Immigration doesn't take too kindly to creative paperwork. Do you really want to risk being banned from Japan and/or separated from your wife due to impatience? These things do take time. So go through the motions, dot your i's and cross your t's like a good little foreigner.

And yes, I do know a person who got caught (not for a bogus dependent's visa, but for lying about having ever committed a crime), turned away by immigration at the airport, was sent back to their home country, and is now not allowed in - ever.