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cckerberos
Joined: 28 Aug 2010
Posts: 5
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 Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 6:52 am Post subject: Finding ALT work from within Japan without a work visa? |
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My background: native English speaker, BA, MA from US schools, JLPT 1 , 3 years as a JET JHS ALT, 7 years living in Japan.
I'm currently a student at Osaka University and will be graduating from my PhD program in March. I was originally planning to return to the US after graduation but have recently decided to stay in Japan for another year or two before going home. Because of my JET experience, I decided that a dispatch ALT job would be a good choice.
I have a couple questions about going that route that I'd appreciate hearing everyone's thoughts on.
In looking around, I've noticed that Altia, Interac, etc., seem to require a work visa for applicants already within Japan. Is this just because it's the currently the middle of the school year? I'm currently on a student visa and would need any employer to provide a visa for full-time work. It seems odd that they'd provide visas for foreigners applying from abroad but not from within Japan.
When do dispatch companies start their hiring process for next April's school year?
Thank you. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 8:15 am Post subject: Re: Finding ALT work from within Japan without a work visa? |
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| cckerberos wrote: |
| In looking around, I've noticed that Altia, Interac, etc., seem to require a work visa for applicants already within Japan. Is this just because it's the currently the middle of the school year? |
It is not the employer who has the final say in requiring a work visa. It is immigration. You can work for those employers with a work visa, spouse visa, dependent visa, etc.
Employers reserve the right to ask for potential employees to already have a proper visa or not, because they may or may not want to sponsor/renew the visas.
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| I'm currently on a student visa and would need any employer to provide a visa for full-time work. It seems odd that they'd provide visas for foreigners applying from abroad but not from within Japan. |
Is that exactly what they said? I don't believe it.
They may just be saying that if someone is already in Japan, they may already have a proper visa. Not everyone does, of course.
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| When do dispatch companies start their hiring process for next April's school year? |
I don't know exactly, but figure they need 3-4 months to do paperwork and work backward from there. I'd say 3-6 months is a fair guess.
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My background: native English speaker, BA, MA from US schools, JLPT 1 , 3 years as a JET JHS ALT, 7 years living in Japan.
I'm currently a student at Osaka University and will be graduating from my PhD program in March.... I decided that a dispatch ALT job would be a good choice. |
May I ask why? Seems a waste of the degree you're pursuing. |
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cckerberos
Joined: 28 Aug 2010
Posts: 5
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| Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 9:30 am Post subject: Re: Finding ALT work from within Japan without a work visa? |
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Thank you for the response.
| Glenski wrote: |
| You can work for those employers with a work visa, spouse visa, dependent visa, etc. |
Fair enough, though in April I will either have no visa or a visa which would only allow me to work part time.
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| Is that exactly what they said? I don't believe it. |
It strikes me as odd as well. But on Interac's site they list having a work visa as a requirement for domestic applicants, while noting in the overseas applicant section that they're willing to sponsor visas.
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| May I ask why? Seems a waste of the degree you're pursuing. |
That's true, but it would only be temporary. I'm not sure what I want my next move to be and it would provide a decent income while I figure that out. |
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fujisan
Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 42
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| Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 11:00 am Post subject: Re: Finding ALT work from within Japan without a work visa? |
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| cckerberos wrote: |
| Because of my JET experience, I decided that a dispatch ALT job would be a good choice. |
Some of the shadier dispatchers will probably hire you without a visa, but they probably won't end up paying you everything they owe. |
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Bread
Joined: 24 May 2009
Posts: 318
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| Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 12:30 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, I also remember seeing that Interac only sponsors visas for overseas applicants. Seems kind of stupid, considering the greater expense and risk of falling through for overseas applicants combined with the likely lack of experience and chance of freaking out and leaving.
It's possible that they prefer overseas hires because they'll generally work for less and live in a company apartment that lets them skim off the top for extra profit. In-country hires are for plugging immediate holes with the least effort possible. |
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rxk22
Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629
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| Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 1:47 pm Post subject: |
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| You passed the JLPT1? There's a lot of things you could be doing. Why settle for an ALT position? |
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seklarwia
Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1546
Location: Monkey onsen, Nagano
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| Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 4:18 pm Post subject: |
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| Bread wrote: |
Yeah, I also remember seeing that Interac only sponsors visas for overseas applicants. Seems kind of stupid, considering the greater expense and risk of falling through for overseas applicants combined with the likely lack of experience and chance of freaking out and leaving.
It's possible that they prefer overseas hires because they'll generally work for less and live in a company apartment that lets them skim off the top for extra profit. In-country hires are for plugging immediate holes with the least effort possible. |
Actually, a couple of people round the forum complained that they were working for less than the 250,000+/month the overseas highers were (when Interac quotes a salary of 230,000 that is minus the 20,000 completion amount brings the amount you receive up to 250,000).
And Interac doesn't have company housing. They set you up with an apartment but you pay all the moving in costs. When you collect the keys from the agent/Leopalace office, they are the ones that the ones that will give you the payment breakdown and contract, not Interac. And as long as you are responsible for any moving out charges and final bills, Interac doesn't care if you leave the place, because they don't skim like some other employers do with company housing and they didn't foot any start up costs.
But think about it this way:
For regular overseas employment, they pretty much wrap up recruitment 2 months in advance with many being hired even earlier to leave time for COE processing and to allow the BOEs to have some degree of choice of ALT if they so choose to. It would soon turn into a nightmare trying to recruit non-visa holders internally within that time frame because some of these people will likely need to be given their work visas earlier if their tourist status was about to expire. They would end up with people with work visas due to expire before the end of their contracts. And even if they had enough time on their tourist status to avoid this becoming an issue, it would be ridiculous to hire them in January and expect them to have enough money to live off for 5-6 months plus any other start up costs. I'd imagine these people would be just as likely to freak out, leave or seek out alternative employment once they realise they can't afford to do this.
As to lack of experience: With the exception of the few who are returning to Japan after some time elsewhere or back in their home countries, most of those tourist status people trying to get employed in country have no more Japan work experience than those overseas recruits and have just as much experience living in Japan experience as the average tourist and that was probably within a larger city (if not Tokyo itself). If these people get too used to big city life in the time that they are job hunting, they are likely to get even more of a shock and bail the minute they are placed out in the inaka.
Instead Interac uses internal recruits for last minute contracts. These positions are sometimes starting only a couple of weeks from the date they are posted. There is no time to organise a new visa for these positions, but a quick and easy process to renew an existing visa if needs be, so they ask for people with work visas already. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 9:46 pm Post subject: Re: Finding ALT work from within Japan without a work visa? |
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| cckerberos wrote: |
| Glenski wrote: |
| You can work for those employers with a work visa, spouse visa, dependent visa, etc. |
Fair enough, though in April I will either have no visa or a visa which would only allow me to work part time.
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Before your student visa runs out, but after you finish school, go to immigration and apply for a Temporary Visitor visa which is good for 15 or 90 days.
You could also apply for a work visa (after you get hired), and continue schooling on that, too. |
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cckerberos
Joined: 28 Aug 2010
Posts: 5
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 3:18 am Post subject: |
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| rxk22 wrote: |
| You passed the JLPT1? There's a lot of things you could be doing. Why settle for an ALT position? |
It's not the only thing I'm looking into, but seems like a decent fallback. |
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cckerberos
Joined: 28 Aug 2010
Posts: 5
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 3:25 am Post subject: |
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| seklarwia wrote: |
| Instead Interac uses internal recruits for last minute contracts. These positions are sometimes starting only a couple of weeks from the date they are posted. There is no time to organise a new visa for these positions, but a quick and easy process to renew an existing visa if needs be, so they ask for people with work visas already. |
Yeah, this was the impression I got from looking at the current job listings. I was hoping they might view normal April positions differently. I guess I'll contact the companies directly and see what their positions are. |
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cckerberos
Joined: 28 Aug 2010
Posts: 5
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 3:28 am Post subject: Re: Finding ALT work from within Japan without a work visa? |
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| Glenski wrote: |
| Before your student visa runs out, but after you finish school, go to immigration and apply for a Temporary Visitor visa which is good for 15 or 90 days. |
That's my current plan for what to do if I can't line anything up in advance and decide to stay in Japan and look for work. |
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