Hi all,
Recently, I signed a contract to start a job from January 2018 as a researcher at a Japanese company. Yay! I checked and my company confirmed that I may be eligible for the Highly Skilled Professional status:
http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact_3/en/index.htmlI am now considering whether I should do this or go for a regular work permit (the company will process the visa of course but it is my decision which one we should apply for). I would very much appreciate to hear your thoughts.
My situation is as follows: my girlfriend is Japanese, and we plan to live together in Japan from January 2018 until around summer 2020 (if our relationship goes well we will probably get married before leaving Japan). After that, the idea is to move to my home country permanently. However, you never know what the future brings and we serious consider living in Japan again for some time.
To me, it seems the benefits of the HSP are as follows:
- Permission for multiple activities [useless for me]
- Grant of 5 years stay (compared to 3 years on regular work permit, correct?) [probably useless]
- Relaxation of PR requirements
- Permission for spouse to work [useless for me]
- Permission to bring parents/domestic worker [useless for me]
- Preferential processing of entry and residence procedures
So aside from the preferential processing, which is quite nice, the only advantage is the faster eligibility for PR. With the regular HSP I would be able to get PR within 3 years, by which time I will probably have already moved out of Japan, but with the 80+ points HSP (I think I can make that) I could get PR after 1 year already if I understand it correctly:
http://www.moj.go.jp/nyuukokukanri/kouhou/nyukan_nyukan50.htmlIn this case, the PR would be quite useful right? That means I could theoretically live in my home country for a few years and then live again in Japan if I want to while keeping my PR and entering with a re-entry permit:
http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/english/tetuduki/zairyuu/sainyuukokukyoka.ht...So then what is the downside you may ask. Well, I've heard that the HSP binds you to one company, and while I am happy to start at this company, I don't know if I will keep working for them during my whole stay in Japan. The regular work permit allows you to switch jobs as long as you do the same activities, but with the HSP my status would be immediately revoked which means I need to apply again if I change companies. In principle it's not a huge problem, but do you guys think it's worth it? Also I couldn't find anything about the HSP restricting you on the official immigration website. Is it even true?
Please let me know if I made any wrong assumptions! Thanks for your time!