2 certificates of eligibility

Hi ! I got a job offer from 2 Japanese firms (1 month apart). I started giving interviews for both just after my graduation. The second interview process took a while to end but is much better than the first one that I got 1 month ago. The problem is the the first company has already applied for my COE. And now the second company is applying. What are the rules regarding this ? Will the Immigration Department in Japan catch me as a no good double-crosser or is this allowed ? If allowed it means I would have two COEs and I can use any one to apply for my Work VISA in my home country? Where can I find more information about the Japanese rules on COE ??

You mean you got an offer from one company already, you said yes, and that one already applied for COE for you, and you still continued with the interview process with another one?

I mean, if you thought you liked the first one and said yes, you should have stopped the other interview process right there, telling the second one honestly that you already got an offer. OR, had you been more interested in the second one to begin with, you should have told the first one so earlier, so that they could retract the offer and stop the application.

If you've got two applications underway, it's like... in your country, having said yes to an offer from one employer, and already when the contract has been signed and they get you an office and desk for you ready, you say yes to a second one and that second employer starts buying office furniture for you and you don't do anything to stop either of them.

Immigration will notice the two applications, and will see that (I assume they are both full-time positions) this is impossible, they will know that it concerns the same one person (from the passport number), who is doing something that is impossible to fulfill, so might return them to the respective applicants saying that something is wrong. Upon application, your CoE is tied to your employer.

You've got to make up your mind immediately who you want to go with, and inform the other one that you cannot work for them, apologize, and get them to revoke their application. In any case, this is quite a misconduct... I'm not a lawyer, though, and it's not that I know firsthand what Immigration will do, but the above is what I suspect they might do.

Looking at the admission and CoE/visa application procedures at Japanese language schools, where the school would apply for CoE for Student visa on behalf of the student-to-be, just like your employer would apply for CoE for work-permitting visa on your behalf, I've found some comments by the schools' admission offices saying "you (potential student) can apply with more than one school, but if you get accepted by another school, please be sure to inform us. Otherwise you could end up with double applications for CoE, in which case no CoE will be granted."

http://www.ic.keio.ac.jp/nncenter/jp/index.html?url=160.html

One law firm spoke of a case where the applicant's employer applied for CoE for a work visa, during which process he also applied for CoE for Spouse of Japanese national visa (at the same time). In this case the law firm says that normally CoE will not be issued due to double application.

http://www.atlo.jp/bbhonyakujp.html

(Sorry that the links are all in Japanese, but just to show that I'm not pulling it out of nowhere.)

A book on Immigration rules/procedures I have at hand does not describe any specific ban on double application, but seeing that admission offices of schools are giving those cautionary notes, you might want to look into this seriously.

Thanks for the information ! Two applications with the same applicant passport number would definitely puzzle the immigration authorities. I have already asked the first company to withdraw the CoE application.