COE 10 yr requirement questions

Hello!

I am trying to move to Japan within the next year. I want to get the Engineering Visa which requires 10 years experience since I do NOT have a bachelor's degree.

I have about seven years of paid professional experience as an engineer at relatively well-known tech companies. Before that I only have a one year internship which the company would said they could sign a letterheaded document certifying the internship. Does anyone know if that's enough documentation if I don't have the original contract? Furthermore is an unpaid internship allowed to count for the 10 years experience?

My other bit of experience is also a year as an un-paid Tech Director for a tech conference in California. The founder of the conference said they would also sign a document to verify my job responsibilities then. I have no idea how legit that will seem but I do have proof of my work in code...

Thank you so much for any information you can provide for me. I am desperately trying to find a lawyer but having a hard time finding ones who will take a client remotely. The ones who do accept remote clients seem booked but I'll keep trying of course. :)

As far as I know you also need a job offer from a Japanese company. You don�ft just get an engineer visa and can come to Japan and look for a job.
Will it be easy for you to find a job?

Thanks for you reply.

I am already in the final stages of interviews with many companies here. My resume looks really solid since I've worked at high-profile companies so that was no issue.

Some of the companies are asking if I qualify for the ten year COE because I don't have a college degree which I am just not quite sure if I do without the aforementioned questions answered. :(

Nothing stopping you from applying for CoE, but without meeting the requirements it would be very simple for someone to turn down the application. Even if it was granted, you don't automatically get a visa.

Thank you.

Do internships count towards the total ten years experience?

generally speaking, internship is not considered as a work in Japan, because there is no category of paid internship in Japan.
the exchange of your labor to money or other valuable things is considered as a work.
also, if you want to count as an experience, it has to be a full time work. full time is generally 40 hours per week (at least 30 hours per week. paid money or other valuable things must be higher than the legal minimum wage.).
those experiences have to be proved by the official documents which are issued from the companies.

If a company is willing to hire you than you will go to the visa application process, which is often organized by the employer.
The 10 yr specialized visa is in order to get a permanent visa, which means you need to have 10 years experience of working in Japan with a curtain level to get the required points.

The 10 yr specialized visa is in order to get a permanent visa, which means you need to have 10 years experience of working in Japan with a curtain level to get the required points.

This is not about PR application.
OP has no degree and looking at other option i.e. 10 working experiences in order to satisfy COE/visa application.


To OP,
Have a look at below link and see if you could score at least 70 point.
Points-based Preferential Immigration Treatment for Highly-Skilled Foreign Professionals
http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact_3/en/evaluate/index.html

Without a degree, 10 years experience and a really high paying job in Japan the points they could muster under the "Highly-Skilled Foreign Professionals" option would be pretty low.