Switching from a student visa to work visa?

I'm sure that there's a lot of questions about this matter, but there seems to be no answers readily available on the internet for this case.

Some background on the issue at hand:

1. My company has hired a student from Temple University Japan as a part time worker and decided that they would like to keep her as a full time employee starting in May.
2. Temple University Japan's system runs on the American schedule, so classes finish on April 26th and their diploma date is May 11th. Their graduation ceremony for this year is June 4th.
3. She is currently in Japan and has been working with us since January and has no other source of income besides our company's. She'd like to work with us through May so that she has enough money for rent in June.
4. We had another girl last year in the same situation, but she worked through the month of May while her visa was processing.

Is it possible for her to continue to work through the month of May while her visa application is processing since her graduation ceremony is June 4th?
And would it be possible for her to work through May like the girl last year?
Or would she not be allowed to work at all because she is changing her visa?

We've contacted the immigration office and everyone seems to be giving us vague answers so we're not entirely sure what is okay and what is not...

Thanks so much for any help, it would really be appreciated!

As long as the student is on "student" status, until whenever the work visa is granted, she can work only up to 28 hours/week (the limit allowed under the "student" status, because that is all she has until then).

I do not know the maximum number of hours that those on "student" status can work during their school breaks (but still during their studies), though. Maybe the immigration authorities might consider that maximum number during the period of April 26th to May 11th (that would be still part of the school term). That might be part of the reason for the "vague" answers.

I'm sorry, I realize that I might not have been very clear with some of the information.

She is graduating this semester and we want to switch her to visa from student visa to full time visa. Would she be able to work as a full time employee during this switch period or is that prohibited?

Until she HAS the work-allowing resident status (or visa), she cannot work full time.

On her current "student" resident status (what you call "visa"), she can work only part-time, so up to 28 hours a week (with some exception allowed during school "breaks" I heard but not sure of the exact number, and not sure if immigration would consider the school-end break as "school break").

Would she be able to work as a full time employee during this switch period or is that prohibited?
Answer is no. Technically it is illegal/prohibited for her to work fulltime until the status is granted.
She can however continue working part time,i.e. 28 hrs per week as permitted by Permission to Engage in Activity other than that Permitted under the Visa Status Previously Granted.
Did she applied for the permission?
http://www.cie-waseda.jp/visastatus/en/current/parttimeworkpermission....

Others are right, she is bound by the conditions of her student visa until the new status is granted.

However, outside of semester time, the limit is 8 hours per day - the 28hour limit applies only to semester times. Carefully check the semester dates, but it may be OK.

Thanks everyone for the helpful answers! I guess we'll just have to ask her to work part time until she's gets approved.

There was another girl last year who had the same issue -- according to the school she wasn't allowed to change her visa or even start the process because she was still actively attending school and would be able to start the process once her finals were over. Is this true at all?
Also, the same girl was working as a full time employee (40 or so hours a week) despite being in the process of changing. I assume that this was against regulations too, correct?

Thanks all for the help.

The student will not be able to work until the change of status is granted, not even part-time because the "work permit" attached to her "Student" status only allows working while enrolled in school (i.e., not after graduation).

As a foreign student in Japan, you can work up to 28 h/week during the semesters.

Between semesters (summer and spring breaks), you can work up to 40 h/week or 8 h/day. This also applies during the visa changing process.

I went through this just a couple of months ago and checked all the info with the local government and the immigration office since I needed to work full time to be able to pay rent.