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Returning to Japan- Needing a Visa

 
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adalo



Joined: 05 Dec 2004
Posts: 14

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 8:54 pm    Post subject: Returning to Japan- Needing a Visa Reply with quote

Hello all.

A little over a month ago I completed my contract with one of the big eikaiwa and returned to America. My visa has expired and now I wish to return to Japan. However, I do NOT want to return to the eikaiwa environment, or at least avoid the Big Four.

I could probably use connections to get an Interac position, but Interac is not hiring from overseas at the moment. I could probably hook it all up if I could just get myself in Japan with a visa. I have multiple friends I could stay with.

So, how to go about getting a visa...

What about getting recruited by an eikaiwa then ditching them at the airport? I feel that this is improper, but knowing the industry my guilt would be short lived.

Anyway, I would like to hear your experiences and suggestions.

Thank you very much.
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PAULH



Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 10:03 pm    Post subject: Re: Returning to Japan- Needing a Visa Reply with quote

adalo wrote:
Hello all.

So, how to go about getting a visa...

What about getting recruited by an eikaiwa then ditching them at the airport? I feel that this is improper, but knowing the industry my guilt would be short lived.

Anyway, I would like to hear your experiences and suggestions.

Thank you very much.


Once you have your visa you are formally employed by them and are bound by your contract rules on resigning.

If you quit your job you will need to give the notice stated on your contract which is one month in your first year.

If you simply become a no-show you will inconvenience a lot of people (students, people who meet you at the airport) and also your employer is not obliged to remain your sponsor if you do a runner. he can not cancel your visa but he can say to immigration he wont sponsor your visa. Immigration wont let you into the country unless you have a valid visa and you would need to find a new sponsor. In other words start your job search and visa hunt from scratch.

If you dont want to work for an employer, dont sign the frigging contract and dont waste everybody's time.

Interac is an eikaiwa by the way, they simply send to teachers out to work in high schools and kindergartens.
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adalo



Joined: 05 Dec 2004
Posts: 14

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 10:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Like I said, I would feel guilty about doing that. This is why I am looking for other ways to do this.
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PAULH



Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 10:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

adalo wrote:
Like I said, I would feel guilty about doing that. This is why I am looking for other ways to do this.


Doesnt sound like it if you want to dump them at the airport.


Come on a tourist visa, enough cash to last you two to three months and look for work once you come here. Change your tourist visa to a work visa once you have found a sponsor. A work visa has no meaning if you dont plan to work on with your original sponsor. You can quit but you are required to give notice first and change your sponsor over at a later date.

To change sponsors you need a letter of release from your sponsor and I very much doubt he will give it to you before you start work.
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PAULH



Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan

PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 12:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

No blo-ody wonder language teaching and EFL has such a piss-poor reputation in Asia and employers here treat new employees like dirt, when they know deep down, new people coming here to work can not always be trusted to live up to their promises, and all people are interested in is coming over any way they can, even if it means sh-itting on their sponsor before they get here. All it does is give teaching and teachers a bad name.



This is why you have employers now offering sub-standard wages as they know there will always be someone with no morals or ethics to work for them even though they call themselves 'teachers'. Such people are not teachers, but 'economic migrants' looking for a job. Dont think you are the first one to want to bail out on your contract. people have been doing that as long as I have been in Japan and longer, which is nearly 20 years now. I had people posting the same questions way back in 1997 or 1998.

Employers here are not stupid, and AEON even makes you pay a $400 bond up front which you get back when you arrive in the country and start work, to make sure you don't disappear on them.

Stay home. Japan has enough visa cheats here as it is.
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Glenski



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

PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 1:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
I do NOT want to return to the eikaiwa environment, or at least avoid the Big Four.

Assuming you have only a bachelor's degree, you are not qualified for university work, and since mainstream schools require that you are in the country for an interview, those are out of the question. Assuming, too, that you don't have a teaching license from your home country, international schools are out of bounds, as well.

Eikaiwas, my friend, are about all you have.

So, avoid the Big Four. No problem, except that there are extremely few places aside from them that not only recruit teachers from overseas but also provide visa sponsorship.
James English School
Peppy Kids Club
Altia
Language House

Your other option is to get on the JET Program or a similar one like Earlham College. JET application process is lengthy, though. Don't know your urgency to return.

If you can't/won't go these routes, then all you have left is what PaulH suggested about coming here with enough money to support yourself for a few months while you look for work from places that provide visa sponsorship but DON'T recruit from overseas. Many more of them than the other type, obviously.

If you DO ditch an employer early in the contract, you must realize that you will have paid your own airfare and lost the chance to get a year-end bonus from that employer (which amounts to airfare). You could make it up on another one if you are lucky to find an employer who offers such bonuses. With your previous experience teaching here, you might consider applying to mainstream schools, but you'd have to be in the country to interview, as I stated earlier.

When do you plan to come?
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adalo



Joined: 05 Dec 2004
Posts: 14

PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 11:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Christ, no need to get sanctimonious!

Thanks Glenski. Yeah, I was wondering how the tourist visa would work. You know if you have to show a return ticket for that?

As for being unqualified. Yeah, no university work for me. However, I know I could do something like Interac. Don't have my CELTA but what percentage of Interac workers actually do?
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