Changing Business Manager Visa to Work Visa

Hi All,

My husband and I are on business management visa. However, due to Covid, we might get be able to get approval for visa renewal next year due to the many conditions we need to meet.

We have been in Japan for 6 years, it would be a shame to let our visa lapse and not be able to get permanent residency. As a result, we are thinking of changing our jobs to become English teachers.

My questions are:
1. Would we easily be able to change our visa status from "business manager" to a work visa once we find an English teaching job?
2. We are flexible in relocating to anywhere in Japan. What is the teaching situation in Japan currently? Would we even be able to find English teaching jobs?
3. How likely will we be able to get a 3 year work visa?
4. Anyone know if there is an special consideration for visa renewal during Covid?

Thanks

I've not seen anybody go from a business management visa to work visa, but do know of people that have done the opposite. I can totally understand why you would want to go in that direction, because 6 years is a lot of time and taxes to have already invested in Japan.

I think that an advantage you can have is business contacts. Network as much as possible to find leads on companies that might be able to sponsor a work visa. Something to know is that you can also find companies willing to take a risk on sponsoring you, even if they have not sponsored work visas before. As long as their taxes and accounting is in order, and will guarantee a certain salary, immigration can approve the paperwork. Though with first time companies, the process can take a bit longer.

Maybe you don't have to limit yourself to only finding an English teacher job. There are also other categories of jobs that requires a high level of English, but are not specifically teaching English.

My understanding is that 3 or 5 year work visas are usually only given the first time when the person is working for a large and/or international company at a higher than average salary, or have been given multiple 1 year visas (usually 2 or 3 times) and has shown they are "trustworthy".

In your case, as you were already given a business manager visa, it is hard to say. But, my guess is if you are a new English teacher with a salary on the lower end of the scale, you will get a 1 year visa initially. Anyway, I don't think anybody can say for sure. You will likely only find out when immigration gives approval.

Thanks for your response.

Do you know if our business management visa extension gets rejected, hence we will be forced to leave the country within a 2 months period, if we immediately apply for a new business management visa from scratch within the 2 months period, would that be allowed? Since new application and extension have different requirements, we will probably get approval for the new application.

Thanks

Sounds like you might need to consult with an immigration lawyer or ask hypothetical questions to the help desk at immigration. In the case of immigration lawyers, you don't have to pick them to process your paperwork, but can pay a consulting fee (often around 10,000 yen/100 dollars) to ask detailed questions.

If immigration is going to reject your extension, I think they would reject a new application as well. Probably better to focus on or find out what you can do to get the extension approved. If you think or find out it won't be possible to go that route (business manager extension) , then seems best to fully concentrate on getting the work visa.

Another aspect of this is that since you already have 6 years in, if you are successful with getting a work visa, you can apply for permanent residency after 4 years. As a permanent resident, you can own a business in Japan, without having to deal with the same level of requirements that is needed for the business manager visa.

Note that for PR there is more than just being in the country 10 years and clean records (tax pension etc).
https://www.isa.go.jp/en/applications/procedures/16-4.html
https://www.isa.go.jp/en/applications/procedures/zairyu_eijyu03.html
One of the items is being on the longest period of stay under your current status of residence (which is five years for many categories). Swapping to a working visa category for teaching you might get set back on that one. Still, I know someone that received a three-year status of residence on their first try, for a small business with modest income.

@JapanCustomTours

I think you are confusing some things. I know for a fact that you can switch between various Japanese visa types and it will still count towards your permanent residency. It's only switching to certain types of visas that can cause a reset on time. For instances if the person switched to temporary visitor (tourist), then got their work visa again. In that case the clock is reset to zero. work visa -> temporary visitor (tourist) -> work visa again.

What the 5 years is about is that for people under work visas, they have to show 5 years of tax returns, etc... The law has changed. It used to be 3 years, but they changed to 5 years (making it even harder). So 10 years total time in Japan (normal work visa), and 5 years of tax returns and such.

With marriage visas, it used to be 2 years of tax returns, and they changed it to having to show 3 years worth. I think it gets a bit tricky with marriage visas, because it used to be that they could look at only the spouse's tax returns and such, but they scrutinize them both now.

I have heard of a few instances where if the person applying for the permanent residency was not working and giving tax returns that the application has been rejected, as they have not proven to be able to support themselves if alone. But, this appears quite strange to me, as that looks like blatant discrimination against housewives or stay at home spouses. In the cases that I was told about, this discrimination appears to be directed at male foreigners or it might be a matter of the officials deciding the case.

Another scenario where time towards permanent residency can be counted differently is if you go from a marriage visa to a work visa or long-term resident visa. So where you could have got permanent residency after 3 years on the marriage visa, the time jumps up to 10 years for such non-married people who have switched to a work visa. Thus they would have say 7 more years to go.

In this case, going from a business manager visa to a work visa, the total time of both visas should count towards permanent residency. However, you need to have at least a 3 year work visa to apply for permanent residency. If you are given only a 1 year visa, you can't yet apply. In various cases, immigration might give the 1 year visa two or three times in a row. But, the OP has to wait at least 4 more years anyway, so multiple 1 year visa/extensions would probably not be an issue.

@Rejo, no I was not confusing anything - certainly the total of the valid status of residence counts and would for the OP in the situation they were looking at. The requirements are pretty clear and something like five years of records is certainly not difficult or a problem for someone that qualifies.
Your response simply reflects some of the current requirements which are in the linked material and advice from the Ministry.
There are certainly some changes in visa/status of residence that cause the 10-year requirement to be reset, but I was not discussing that.

@Rejo and @JapanCustomTours

Thanks for the response.

We are hoping the covid situation will ease by end of next year, hence we are only planning to go on the work visa for short amount of time. We are thinking of doing the following:

currently (business management visa) ==> work visa (for 1 year or less) ==> new business management visa (if covid is over).

If we were not able to obtain a new business management visa for whatever reason, are we still allowed to work at our business and make sales under our work visa obtained for teaching job? We are currently running the business as sole proprietors.

If this is not possible, then what if we incorporate our business, therefore hiring ourselves while we are on work visa, are we allowed to do that? In this case, the incorporate business will hire us and pay us a salary and the incorporated business pay the Japanese corporate tax instead.

Thanks

If we were not able to obtain a new business management visa for whatever reason, are we still allowed to work at our business and make sales under our work visa obtained for teaching job?

A working visa (residential status) for teaching is for teaching, I think? Generally permission is needed when
a visa holders (except spouse visa holders and some others) engage a thing other than permitted thing with the visa. For example, student visa holders who want to engage a work other than study at school, which is permitted need a permission. I suggest you to search whether you can do your business by obtaining this permission or not, by enquiring immigration or lawyer. If yes, it is better check if there is limitation of time (working hours) , at least student visa holders has.

If you decide teaching is the best opinion for your current situation, I suggest you to search ALT jobs. It is time that recuruit of ALT position which start in March/April 2022 by agencies and BOE can be found, even though I don't know when your current visa (residential status) expires and when you need to start teaching jobs. At least being in Japan already is advantage, because we don't know when the borders will be opened and many employers prefer candidates in Japan.

Excuse me, I forgot to mention that many employers don't allow their employees to engage another work, even if you are allowed to do it by immigration with a permission.

@hevene

You have a complex situation. I have seen and heard of people running businesses under work visas, but it gets tricky, including tax paperwork involved. For instance if the business is incorporated in a foreign country or Japan. There is nothing that can stop you from carrying on the operations of your foreign business, though your tax situation will be complex.

In Japan, with a work visa, the issue is who is running the business. A person with a work visa can't legally run the business, though oddly can be the owner or an employee. In your case, if you are a sole proprietorship and not a KK or GK, that can work. However, it is best for you to consult with immigration or an immigration lawyer as to what is exactly allowed when under a work visa. Maybe present it as a hypothetical situation representing your situation and see what they have to say about it.

I know that some types of situations lend themselves to being a sole proprietorship better than others. Like if the person is a graphic designer, accountant, etc... While other don't, such as import/export businesses, restaurants, etc... We don't know the nature of the business that you do (and do keep that private on the internet), but what I'm referring to is how well does your present business and being under a business manager visa match with encompassing it under a sole proprietorship. That might affect how it is viewed by immigration or your plans.

Also, your plan- "currently (business management visa) ==> work visa (for 1 year or less) ==> new business management visa (if covid is over)", seems a bit wonky to me. Not sure how immigration would evaluate such, because you wouldn't be "new", and already have a history.

If you can make things work under a sole proprietorship and teaching English, why not tough it out until reaching 10 years (as you have 6 years in) and submit for permanent residency? It's just 4 more years. Even under your current plan, in the best case, a person can expect to wait 1 or 2 years before covid isn't an issue. Then you have just 3 to 2 years left until attempting permanent residency.