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VISA Q and A on FM COCOLO 76.5 MHz Special Permission to work under the Cultural status On Aired Data: May 7, 2002 |
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Summary of the Aired Program |
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Client: Canadian male staying under the Working Holiday Visa. Case: He is now teaching at an English school, and is also continuing his practice of Karate which he has been learning since he was a child. Right now he is in the second grade of Karate. His working holiday visa is about to expire, but he hopes to remain in Japan and continue his Karate classes, and also start some other martial arts. And to pay for these expenses he would like to continue his job at the English school. Right now he is working 20 hours a week. The status for a person who would like to practice Karate would be the Cultural visa. Since our client has the certificate for second grade in Karate, he should have no problem in changing from the Working Holiday visa to the Cultural visa. The problem is that he cannot have an income under the Cultural visa. The status for English teachers would be the Specialist in Humanities/ International Services. But there are conditions the applicant must clear. For instance the applicant must have a college degree. Considering that our client doesn't have one, he is not qualified to apply under this status. Although, if he has 3 years or more experience in teaching or interpreting,, he still has a chance in applying even if he doesn't have a college degree. But unfortunately our client doesn't seem to have that much experience either. This means that he is not qualified to apply for a status as an English teacher. His only chance, according to the information we have, is to apply for the Cultural status, be permitted, and then apply for the Permission to be engaged in activities other than those permitted under the previous visa. Keep in mind that this is a special permission to be able to earn money from a part time job. As we mentioned before, basically the Cultural status doesn't allow one to have any income. The basic condition required under the Cultural status is that one must be able to afford living in Japan without having to work. Those under the pre-college, or student visa are allowed to have a part time job, as long as they have received the permission to be engaged in activities other than those permitted under their status, and that he/she does not work for more than 28 hours per week. But the immigrations has not yet revealed how many hours a person who is currently a Cultural status holder, can work under the special permission. There must be a restriction as to what kind of work they can be involved in, but basically if it has to do with Karate there should be no problem. But if one should apply to work as an English teacher, that is really close to the conditions allowed under the working visa. So if that is allowed there would be no meaning as to have separate status if they can do the same thing. Mr. Nakano predicts that our client should have no trouble in changing his visa from a working visa to a Cultural status. But should he choose to continue working as an English teacher, and apply for the Special Permission to be engaged in activities other than those specified under his visa, he may not be permitted. |
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