[HN Gopher] How I obtained a business manager visa in Japan
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How I obtained a business manager visa in Japan
Author : pwim
Score : 56 points
Date : 2023-12-22 11:20 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.tokyodev.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.tokyodev.com)
| benknight87 wrote:
| As another Asia-based software dev (Vietnam), this was an
| interesting read. I am currently going the spousal visa route but
| this carries its own advantages and disadvantages. I've always
| loved Japan but generally unsure of living there due to high cost
| of living, aging population, and strict immigration laws. As
| least in the case of the latter, it's good to know a path exists!
| jasonjei wrote:
| Actually Japan is significantly lower cost to live than to live
| in SF. The average salary of a college grad that's 30 years old
| is roughly $30K. Their prices are roughly the same because
| wages are the same, and they can't afford to increase prices
| without causing huge systemic problems. As long as you're not
| eating kaiseki or expensive sushi, Japan is absurdly cheap from
| USD standpoint, especially with recent exchange rates. 1
| bedroom apartment might only cost you $600/month in more remote
| parts of Tokyo. A very filling yakitori meal might only be 1000
| yen ($7-8) per person.
| aetherson wrote:
| However, the cost of living in Japan is certainly higher than
| the cost of living in Vietnam, where your parent poster is
| apparently residing.
| rwmj wrote:
| The exchange rate (if you're buying Yen) is pretty good at
| the moment too.
| askonomm wrote:
| I mean, 99% of the world is lower cost than SF, with SF being
| in many of the top 10 lists of most expensive cities to live
| in.
| fnord77 wrote:
| not for much longer
| askonomm wrote:
| Because SF is coming down in cost or rest of the world is
| going up? Or Both?
| yellow_lead wrote:
| How about healthcare? I've heard this is still quite
| expensive especially for non-residents.
| peterlada wrote:
| Laugh cries inconsolably in American...
| bcherny wrote:
| I've never had to pay more than a fixed copay. (I use
| public insurance)
| bcherny wrote:
| I moved from SF to Japan, can confirm. YMMV -- like any other
| country, cost of living depends on what city and neighborhood
| you're in, lifestyle, etc.
| brudgers wrote:
| _helped me put together a three-page document that I was sure
| wouldn't be sufficient for the Japanese immigration authorities._
|
| This struck me as a case of bureaucracies operating the same way
| everywhere (though I could be wrong).
|
| The magic key to documents submitted to governments: don't say
| anything that requires denial.
|
| So less is often more and it is critical to use the right words
| and not their apparent synonyms even when the synonyms mean
| pretty much the same thing.
|
| I.e. if you plan to paint your shed green, don't mention that in
| your building department application. It doesn't help and can
| only hurt.
| netsharc wrote:
| Yeah, this part smells like the government agency needing a
| document with the correct contents so someone working there can
| tick several boxes saying "Requirement fulfilled". The post
| ends with him wondering why he got the visa, I suppose he just
| met all the requiments...
| Ao7bei3s wrote:
| Can't speak for Japan, but in the US, the immigrant does have
| the burden of proof that all requirements are satisfied and not
| submitting enough evidence can lead to a request for evidence
| (RFE) or notice of intent to deny (NOID). And so the law firm
| we used had the opposite strategy: submit as much evidence as
| possible and really help the adjudicator check all the boxes.
| Our petitions tended to be 250-500 page documents.
| apwell23 wrote:
| Yea exactly my thoughts. Onus is on the US immigrant to prove
| that they are committing immigration fraud.
| anigbrowl wrote:
| I think you're mean 'not committing...'? The US immigration
| system is almost uniquely hostile, by design.
| freetime2 wrote:
| Thanks for the great writeup! It's good to know that this option
| exists for remote software developers who wish to live in Japan.
|
| > My visa has been renewed four times now, with the most recent
| renewal being for three years (the first three were one-year
| renewals).
|
| Having to renew every year sounds pretty inconvenient. How bad
| was the renewal process for the Business Manager visa, in terms
| of time and cost? Also, is it possible to apply for permanent
| residence after a certain number of years?
| nosrepa wrote:
| The closing sentence answers your last question.
| lmm wrote:
| The actual visa renewal fee is only JPY4000 (for full-time
| employees, spending one of your limited days off going down to
| the immigration office stings a lot more than the monetary
| cost). If you want to pay an advisor to prepare the documents
| that will cost more, but you probably don't need to do that if
| it's a straight renewal where nothing's changed.
|
| > Also, is it possible to apply for permanent residence after a
| certain number of years?
|
| 10 years generally; there's also a fast-track points system.
| (You can also naturalize after 5 years, but you have to
| renounce any other citizenships for that).
| electriclove wrote:
| How is he marrying Japanese nationals so quickly?
| freetime2 wrote:
| Of course I can't comment on his specific circumstances. But
| two things stand out for me:
|
| First, he is a software developer working for international
| companies, which probably makes him a pretty high earner
| relative to most people in Japan. Earning a high income
| improves mens' eligibility for marriage pretty much anywhere in
| the world.
|
| Second, Japan places a high value on marriage - both culturally
| and legally. It's less common to see people date/live together
| for many years before getting married than in say the US or
| Europe.
| NegativeLatency wrote:
| Sounds like it was more than 3 years after divorce. Which is
| not a long time but I wouldn't exactly call it short.
| csa wrote:
| > How is he marrying Japanese nationals so quickly?
|
| Interestingly phrased question, but I will bite:
|
| 1. We don't know how long the courting period was for any of
| his marriages (he mentions two).
|
| 2. For women who are disposed to getting married, my direct and
| indirect experience is that they often make the go / no-go
| decision fairly quickly -- think weeks (or even days) rather
| than months or years.
|
| 3. As another poster said, he probably has relatively high
| income and decent social status in Japan.
|
| 4. The marriage market is not very good in Japan right now. The
| changes that led to the lost decade in the 90s is starting on
| its 4th decade (imho). Significant aspects of the social
| contract that bound Japanese society together from post-ww2 to
| the late 80s was largely destroyed, with young people (many of
| whom are not so young now) left to pick up the pieces.
| Marriage, much less kids, seems daunting when one's income is
| not stable, and this economic instability is not uncommon.
|
| 5. A less popular observation is that there is no shortage of
| Japanese women, especially in Tokyo, who want to marry foreign
| men. There are a variety of potential reasons for this
| disposition, with self-serving interests being a non-zero
| percentage of these reasons across the population. Common self-
| serving reasons I have seen or heard are things like escape
| Japanese society, escape family, get a US green card, milk a
| sugar daddy, etc. On a rare occasion there are very (what I
| call) cosmopolitan women who quite naturally fit into an
| international oriented lifestyle and/or community.
| anigbrowl wrote:
| Is it so quick? He talks about getting divorced in 2017/8, now
| in 2023 he's 'recently remarried'. Staying out of relationships
| for a year or two after a divorce seems wise, to deal with
| difficult emotions and get a fresh perspective. But life goes
| on.
| resolutebat wrote:
| Imagine running a business with a series of one-year guns pointed
| at your head, never knowing if they'll go off. Countries can and
| do summarily change the rules for work visas all the time: for
| example, in Singapore during COVID, the government decided to
| shore up local employment and score political points before an
| election by suddenly announcing that spouses of employees could
| no longer apply for work rights (Letter of Consent) and that
| existing LOCs would not be renewed, throwing a lot of families
| into disarray.
|
| It's even worse for an unusual visa like this, where a lot is
| left to interpretation. You may get a different officer this year
| who is going to nix what the previous one allowed last year, and
| appeals are uncertain, cumbersome and may require you to leave
| the country.
| cybrexalpha wrote:
| Maybe things are different with Japanese immigration authorities,
| but posting this feels dangerous.
|
| In other countries there's a lot of attention on "fraudulent"
| visas, and it's often vague what "fraudulent" means. I'd be
| worried that some of the 'tricks' in here (the admission that the
| business doesn't really need to be in Japan, the office
| arrangement, etc.) could make immigration authorities revoke the
| visa if they feel it was done under false pretences.
| rdl wrote:
| While I agree if he were doing anything questionable, IDK, my
| reading is that he's exporting software development services
| from Japan and paying taxes in Japan correctly on both business
| income and personal income incident to doing this.
| edandersen wrote:
| This is also the visa that many middle class Taiwanese and
| Chinese people use to move to Japan. It's basically a visa for
| sale under the auspices of a "business visa".
| nextworddev wrote:
| And Tokyo is already showing signs of becoming Vancouver for
| Canada, which pursued that visa strategy
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