Job Discussion Forums

[ashamanmatt]

I just got my degree and was thinking, what�s to stop someone from using someone else�s degree or transcripts to apply to a work Visa in Japan to teach English? What I mean is what�s to stop someone from contacting a random college, getting someone�s transcripts, making a few adjustments to them and sending them to a school in Japan? Does the Visa department in Japan contact each and every University that they get transcripts from? How do they protect themselves from this type of thing happening?

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

1. Schools will not just send out new copies of degrees and transcripts to anyone who asks. They need you to do it in person, or at least supply a sinature (which could be forged, true)

2. Transcipts are watermarked - you cannot just scan them into ocr textreader and change them (plus you would need actual university transcript letterhead to print it out on).

3. A school MAY be fooled this way. But immigration won't be. You need to supply notarized copies to the consolate before you can get a visa to work. If you try to scam them, then good luck ever going to that country again.

You could ask the exact same thing about anybody moving from one country to another.

[PAULH]

It also goes without saying that if you supply fraudulent information to get a work visa this is a criminal offence in Japan, and if you are caught you will be subject to arrest, incarceration and deportation for at least ten years, not to mention your work visa will be cancelled by immigration. See the link below about what happens to people who stay here on expired visas.

The same question has been asked about people using fake degrees from Thailand or inline degrees. Immigration knows what degrees are legitimate and which are not, and have withdrawn sponsoring privileges from several companies here that have sponsored fake degrees. With so many people in Japan with real degrees a language school is not going to take a chance on someone with a forged degree. (It also begs the question that if a school is willing to bend the rules and accept a fake or forged degree what other rules will they break or salary corners will they cut once they have hired you?)

[Glenski]