Working Visa? Getting hopeless.

[praey]

Hey all,

I'm new here. This seems to be the most friendly site I've found so I figured this would be the best place to ask advice. I'll keep this as short as possible, hope someone can help even if it is just a little. I hope I'm in the right place with this question, my apologies if I am not.

My situation is probably normal, but I need advice as I have no alternatives left that I can think of. I have a girlfriend in Japan, she speaks English, and we have been together for about a year. I had graduated, if you can call it that, from a University with an Associates degree in Multimedia. I have a little over 2 years experience working in an Information Technologies dept. doing in-house design work and have designed a few webpages for businesses, no big deal. I thought I would really like to give teaching a shot, English of course, in Japan until my girlfriend graduated college, she has a year and a half left. I really don't know that it is impossible for me (is it?) but I found it difficult to find a job to say the least. I don't know if it is possible to get any job, or if there is any way for me to stay there with her until she graduates but I am getting pretty miserable. I spent about 3 months there with her on my passport with no real problems, I can read/write and communicate to an extent. I was hoping to get better at the latter. During the 3 months I had been looking for a job but couldn't really dig anything up and had to come back to the states and am now doing some computer related work for a internet solutions company. Beside all that I am an American (no working holiday, why is that?) and 20 years old.

Given all this, can anyone offer some advice on how to work this out? Is there any type of work that I am eligable for, I'll grab anything at this point? I really don't want to give up yet.

[trip_hop]

US citizens - no WHV - ask your State Department ! They are generally bilateral agreements with countries that offer similar programmes. The US offers nothing like that to others.

Finish up a full degree - best chance. No degree, no working visa for US citizens, besides which a WHV is only good for 12 months, so if you were to extend, you'd still need a degree for Immigration purposes.

Other than that, binding each down with a spouse visa, maybe too young for that?
Got lots of money - student visa - good for short time, but you'll still need the degree for Immigration for a real job.
Culture visa - ned lots of cash for that too.

Looks like you have to balance some short term pain for some long term gain.

It's your life.

But if you really want to support a future wife, you'll probably need to do better than an English " teacher's salary", esp. if you decide to move on from Japan. Lots of post elsewhere on this topic, esp. from paulh. Work on your language too.

[Glenski]

If you are American, you have pretty much no chance. The work visa requires a bachelor's degree (or years of teaching experience). You have neither, it seems.

The only other options for you to get a visa that allows you to work are long shots, but here they are.

1. Spouse visa. Marry your Japanese girlfriend. You will still have a hard time finding work without a degree. The good news is that this visa allows you to take ANY type of work, not just teaching.
2. Dependent visa. Marry a non-Japanese with a FT job in Japan, and you can get special permission to work PT. Any work, I think.
3. Student visa. Enroll in a Japanese school and you can work PT. Of course, you still have to keep up your studies, so finding time to work may be tough.

Your hopes for other work are rather bleak, too. IT work usually requires high fluency in Japanese, as well as the degree. Even with bartending, you need a proper visa to work legally.

Americans can't get the working holiday visa because Japan and the USA don't have such an agreement between them. Some other countries do, but you are out of luck.

[paulh]

I'll keep it short and sweet:

you will need a Bachelors degree or a full 4 year degree if you want to get a work visa. Best you can hope for with no previous experience is a plain vanilla teaching job at a conversation school. the salary at those schools wil support a single person in minimum comfort. You wont starve but you wont get rich on it either. Forget about supporting two people on a conversation school salary. Maybe if she is working you will be OK for a while but if/when she quits work and you have kids the expenses will pile up. With two kids my outgoings are around 400,000 yen a month. IF you decide to get married you will need to think about increasing your skills and potential for earning. i know marriage is not what you are thinking but it has to remain an option until it is ruled out for you. The missus will want to know how you plan to support her too.

It comes down to the question of what you can do in Japan that

1. qualifies you for a work visa (need a university degree, minimum)
2. that an equally qualified bilingual Japanese person can not do (how many jobs for Japanese IT geeks in the US who can't speak good English?)

You need to develop some skills that people need here and want, and for most foreigners/Americans that means teaching English. A few IT jobs around but most require some Japanese skills.

You will have to think about how much this girl means to you, as otherwise you are sh_t out of other options, as Glenski has pointed out.

[praey]

Alright, I see. I would head back to school if I had the money for the rest of my degree right now. I'll look into the spousal visa, doubtful though. Maybe I'm just restricted to visiting until she graduates.

Thanks all.