1 Year is counting down, advice please!!!

[Minihux]

Hello,

Basically I'm currently living in Japan on a 1 year working holiday visa.
I have a job here, a girlfriend and a car. Since I was born in New Zealand i can only get a 1 year working holiday visa but of course i want to stay in Japan for much longer.

I hear so many people complaining about Japan, but if it was really that bad we would all not be living here. Australia is quite boring compared to Japan and i have so many great friends here.

My parents and I lived in Australia for 12 years before i came to Japan so i was thinking about going back to Australia to see my parents for a while and "losing" my NZ passport then getting a new Australian passport and applying for another visa on a fresh passport.

But i would prefer not to leave the country. Is there any advice people could give me? I was thinking about going to see someone at Japanese Immigration.

Thanks any useful help would be appreciated!

- Luke

[ichigo partygirl]

you say you have a job - is there no way of getting your work to sponsor you a visa??
Losing your passport will be paper-work hell on earth and i would totally talk you out of doing that - You will still need your NZ passport to get an Australian passport even though you lived there for long enough.

[halfnip]

I dunno what you expected. There really is no way for you to stay in Japan unless you are on a work sponsored Visa, student Visa, or a spousal Visa. No matter which route you take, you'd still most likely have to leave at least once and then re-enter again once things are done.

1. Have your company sponsor your Visa.
2. Apply for a student Visa.
3. Marry your girl and have her sponsor your Visa.

I know it's not positive advice, but I think you are in a pretty difficult situation and are left with no other choices but the 3 I listed above. I am sure a few on this board will surely think of a few other options. Right, peeps?

[FG Lurker]

A student visa is an option but you have to understand that "pre-college" student visas (for Japanese study basically) start ONLY in April or October. You need to apply to the school at LEAST 6 months in advance. It has been more than 10 years since I had a pre-college student visa here but when I did it the paperwork was a nightmare. You also need to study 20 hours per week and have a way to pay school fees.

There are only two other (legally allowed) options as far as I can see. Neither is going to be particularly appealing:

1) Get married.
2) Go home and get a degree.

[Minihux]

Hey guys and girls,

Thanks for the replies I really appreciate it!
Im sorry if this is the 100th thread about this topic.

I don't have a degree so does that mean my work cant sponsor me? I know they will sponsor me 100% but i don't have a degree.

I don't mean to offend any degree holders by this.
But what happened if one day I just found a degree so to speak? But then again I have heard a lot of bad reports about this option. I understand how hard people work for degree's and I am not really up for this option but i need to stay here.

I'm not a drop kick living in Japan cause it's the only place I'm accepted, i worked my ass off in Australia to get here because i love this country and its people and I work 5 days a week now. So by no means am i failure of life.

- Luke

[FG Lurker]

I think you can bypass the degree requirement if you have 10 years' experience in your chosen field.

If you get married you can probably apply for PR after about 5 years.....

[DrP]

Getting married is no guarantee you'll get a spouse visa -- only that you can apply for one. You still have to prove you can support yourself (and your family) in Japan.

[kamome]

I think you can bypass the degree requirement if you have 10 years' experience in your chosen field.

If you get married you can probably apply for PR after about 5 years.....

Hey Lurk, is there such a thing as self-sponsorship through being a small business owner? I seem to recall that you had started a business and that this may have let you stay in Japan on a different visa.

[kusai Jijii]

I'm not a drop kick living in Japan cause it's the only place I'm accepted, i worked my ass off in Australia to get here because i love this country and its people and I work 5 days a week now. So by no means am i failure of life.

- Luke

You da man!
Hardest working Kiwi I've ever heard of!

[Minihux]

Well i cant argue with you there, it is rare to find NZ'ers that actually work more the one day a week let alone a full week. I was just trying to say im not leaching, but beside the usless post help or advice would be much appreciated.

- Luke

[kusai Jijii]

but beside the usless post help or advice would be much appreciated.

- Luke

Oh ok, sorry.

1) On your idea of 'losing' your NZ passport containing your first working holiday so as to reapply with an Ozzie one...I would STRONGLY ADVISE you not to do that. It aint one of your better ideas (and by Christ, you've had a few:rolleyes: )

2) On marrying your girlfriend, well fuck me, who am I to say? All I can say is that over a decade ago, a mate gave me some good advice for living in Japan that has served me quite well: he said, before any rash decisions / behaviour, ask yourself 'would I be doing this back home?' So I say, if you would marry a bird in NZ that you had known for less than 12 months, all the power to you!

3) On the merits of going home and getting a degree I would say this - if you intend to stay here long term, try to project where you would like to be in 5, 10 or even 20 years from now. Do you think that you would need a degree? If you look at the majority of long term expats that got here post Bubble, I would say 'yes'. There are exceptions of course, but frankly you dont strike me as being one of them.

so my helpful advice is...

[SIZE="7"]DONT GET MARRIED... AND
FUCK OFF BACK TO NZ![/SIZE]

[Minihux]

Why thank you!

- Luke

[maraboutslim]

I figure getting married so one can live in another country is one of the better reasons for marriage that I've ever heard of. After all, there is no need to bring the government into one's personal life unless doing so is going to give you some legal advantage you didn't have before, right?

If you figure you can get along with her at least as long as you'd like to stay in Japan, then why not? You'll get your visa, can stay in japan as long as you'd like, and can then drag her back to NZ someday if she wants to go.

I did it 15 years ago and got to stay in Japan as long until I was sick of it and then relocated to California.

[Iraira]

I did it 15 years ago and got to stay in Japan as long until I was sick of it and then relocated to California.

Until you were sick of Japan or of being married?

[FG Lurker]

Getting married is no guarantee you'll get a spouse visa -- only that you can apply for one. You still have to prove you can support yourself (and your family) in Japan.

Correct that it is not a 100% guarantee but it is a 99.9% one. A good long-term friend of mine here (who left 2 years ago) had a spousal visa and had absolutely zero* income. He had none when they applied and none during the 5 or so years that he was on a spouse visa.

The trick? They told immigration that her parents were supporting them.

(* "reported" )

[FG Lurker]

Hey Lurk, is there such a thing as self-sponsorship through being a small business owner? I seem to recall that you had started a business and that this may have let you stay in Japan on a different visa.

Yes, I believe you can get a visa as a business owner but I don't know the requirements. I was on a student visa when I started my first business here and now have PR.

[Ptyx]

Have you check if the NZ working holiday could be extended ?
It depends on the country, a german working-holiday visa can be extended up to two years if i recall correctly.

[maraboutslim]

Until you were sick of Japan or of being married?

ha! sick of japan. there have been times when i was pretty sick of the girl, too, but we're still together. she lets me do whatever the hell i want and i return the favor so being married is pretty painless.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Why are you guys even giving this loser the time of day? He already knows the answers to the questions he's asking and pretty much everyone told him to get a degree before coming if he wanted to stay long term when he first got on here asking about it a year or so ago.

[Minihux]

Thanks for the help everyone.

The real loser is the person asking "why they are giving me the time of day" when you actually spent time out of your day to post a useless comment.
90% Of the comments offered good information, so does that not provide you with the answer to your question?

90% Of the people that posted were not people that have a cert and who think they're top shit. I got more knowledge in my field of work then most people with a degree, i just did not want to go to Uni so i spent 7-8 years working and traveling around the world.

Thanks for taking time out of your day to express your feelings, it makes me feel like an important loser.

- Luke

[halfnip]

I got no problems with you, but you've got to seriously think about options you really have here. I believe what SJ is trying to emphasize here is that you will find it EXTREMELY difficult getting a country to issue you a Visa without a particular "specialty skill", which in turn, could mean a degree. You cannot expect to walk up to immigration stating that you're the best thing since the dryer feature on a Toto toilet and expect them to issue you a Visa. If you say you're company will sponsor you, go ahead and start working on it. I guarantee you that there will be some pot-hole sized issues that pop-up once you get started...

All in all, don't expect anyone to give you a pass because you're sounding like things are a cakewalk when you've got industry vets getting laid off by the masses struggling to find work and or stay in this country. But then again, it sounds like you're doing things on your own, so more power to you.

Good luck...

[Minihux]

Ahhh by no means am i special, i was just asking advice. I also don`t expect immigration to just hand me out a Visa, once again just wondering about options i have. And in this thread i have heard all my options and got the advice i was looking for.

There are just a couple people with chips on there shoulders and there only outlet for anger in this suppressed society is an internet forum.

- Luke

[kusai Jijii]

There are just a couple people with chips on there (their) shoulders and there (their) only outlet for anger in this suppressed society is an internet forum.

- Luke

Sorry to be a 'keyboard warrior', but why the fuck (as SJ said) do you keep asking this shit on this forum? You already know the answers to the questions, right? If you want serious immigration advice, why dont you seek a fucking immigration lawyer instead of us morons?

[Minihux]

Haha you are not sorry, if you dont like the posts or thread just ignore them.

Only 2 morons out of all the people that posted, no big issue.
Why you still wasting your time in here, bugger off.

- Luke