Highly Skilled Professional - worth it?

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.html

I 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.html

In 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!

Also note that if you get married with your Japanese girlfriend, you will be able to apply for Spouse of Japanese National status (provided that she lives in Japan with you), with no restrictions on type of activities and a relatively short time requirement until PR, though probably it as short as one year.

While I am sure your relationship with your gf is solid. Is it always a good idea not to have your visa dependent on anyone. There are many cases where foreign spouse had rocky marraiges and risked their spousal visa

If I was you, I would go for highly skilled and change to PR as soon as I am eligible
In case you need to change Job your new company would support you, worst case you can shift to normal work permit or spousal visa at that time. There is nothing to lose with HS visa

While I am sure your relationship with your gf is solid. Is it always a good idea not to have your visa dependent on anyone. There are many cases where foreign spouse had rocky marraiges and risked their spousal visa

That's flawed logic. If you qualify for a "work visa", you can always switch back to it. And if you don't, without a "spouse visa" you can't be in Japan in the first place.

(I do agree however that it is risky to move to Japan if the only kind of visa you qualify for is spouse, but that is not the case here.)

Spouse visa is best option. Japan is very good country for those foreigner who marry Japanese national. The spouse of japanese national does require any education, skills, japanese language certification and jail history with minor crime is also ok. It is very easiest visa than any category. The spouse of Japanese can apply PR after 3 years. Unemployed person can also live in japan if his wife is working. The skilled person can apply after 10 years. Now it will be opposite because of drop in population. The skilled person will get PR within 3 years. I saw news.

Thanks for the responses. I know about the spouse of national status, but probably by the time we marry, we'll already have concrete moving plans. In any case, I don't think it'll be three years between marrying and moving out of Japan, which means getting this status will be useless if I don't change jobs (or careers).

I'm leaning towards the HSP now, but is it really true that 1) with 80+ points I could literally apply for PR one year after moving there and 2) I could live in another country for up to 5 years after obtaining PR without losing it? Or even more extreme, is it possible to renew the re-entry permit without being registered in Japan (so could even be a decade abroad or something)?

I'm on the HSP and your point on having to re-apply for the HSP if you leave your company is accurate. However, HSP rules allow retroactive calculation of points so it doesn't matter too much if you intend to change jobs.

And prior to you getting a PR via marriage, the HSP has many perks like not having to queue at immigration and getting speedy processing.

2) I could live in another country for up to 5 years after obtaining PR without losing it? Or even more extreme, is it possible to renew the re-entry permit without being registered in Japan (so could even be a decade abroad or something)?

On your second point, yes you get 5 years re-entry permit so you can stay outside of Japan for 5 years
Can you get another re-entry again after first 5 years, maybe yes. I don't have data but there is also risk that immigration would figure out what you are trying to do. I am not sure while getting new re-entry permit second time would you need residence or tax certificate!!
Also your Zairyu card expires after 7 years so you need to have that updated too in between
Maybe someone who has done this can confirm

Thank you both!

That's great, five years should be enough to figure out what we want to do. If someone could shed some light on PR after 1 year with the 80 points HSP, that would be great!

In any case I guess I'll go with HSP.

Based on my understanding, PR after 1 year is very difficult, no matter what some news article says
Even the PR application mandates submitting your tax details for past 3 years

Based on the new rules (valid from April this year), you can even apply for PR right away if you can prove that 1 year ago you could have secured 80 points, or 3 years ago you could have secured 70 points. I went to the Immigration to ask about this and got a confirmation. You still need to have stayed in Japan during that period though, so it doesn't work for people who just arrived.
I'm also thinking of switching to HSP and applying for PR soon after, although I don't fully trust this new system. It just sounds too easy to be true. Theoretically, this visa was created for people working in particular high-skilled fields, namely IT, science, new technologies, etc. But with the new point system it's enough to have graduated a couple of universities and one of them being in Japan, and that alone will secure you the points. So, for example, I qualify for the points even without any science or IT-related job, even without a high salary. Not only that, but because I would have had the same points 1 or 3 years ago (based on academic background), I could theoretically apply for PR. It sounds too fishy and tricky, so I'm confused about what to expect.