How would changing jobs affect my visa?

BY ASHLEY THOMPSON
 JUL 31, 2012
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S.E. has been working at the same English school for 16 years but is
thinking of leaving her job and moving to another part of Japan.
溺 y visa is 全 pecialist in Humanities’ and will expire in October 2013. I
don 稚 have a job but a friend of mine is going to open an English school
and I plan to work there.”
S.E. asked several related questions, two of which we 値 l cover in future
columns, but the questions we 値 l address here are: 滴 ow will moving
and leaving my job before my visa expires affect my status? Will the visa
become void? Can I keep my visa status until it expires without getting
another job?”
If you change jobs before your visa expires, how it affects your status
depends first on the type of job you change to. For example, if you teach at
an English conversation school now and plan to work at a different school,
you will, in most cases, keep the same visa. So given that you want to work
at another school, you would probably keep your current visa rather than
get a new one. So you would only need to report your new employment
information to Immigration — nothing else would, in most cases, change.
If you change job types, such as going from teaching at an English school
to a public elementary school, or if you go from a working visa to a
dependent or spouse visa, you would need to get a new visa (permission
for change of status of residence), and your other visa would become void.
That said, if you leave your current job and don 稚 have a new one lined
up, you generally have 90 days to start before Immigration begins the
process of revoking your visa. However, if you 致 e lost your job but have
proof you are actively trying to find something, such as by using a
recruitment agency or Hello Work, Immigration will consider giving you
more time before they revoke your visa.
Keep in mind that you still must report employment changes to
Immigration within 14 days of leaving your job, even if you don 稚 have a
new job lined up yet.
In other words, let 痴 say you leave your current job on Aug. 1, 2012, but
don 稚 have your next job lined up. You need to report the change in your
employment status by Aug. 15. You 値 l then have 90 days from Aug. 1 to
start a new job, up until Oct. 30.
Generally, you can 稚 keep your visa until it expires if you 池 e not
working, or as Immigration puts it, not 兎 ngaging in authorized
activities.” Ultimately, however, Immigration will make decisions on a
case-by-case basis, so the examples above are only a guide.
K.K. asked if there is a limit to the number of hours someone with an 的
nstructor” visa can work.
的致 e heard somewhere that we 池 e restricted by law to working only 35
hours per week, but I can 稚 for the life of me find it.”
Immigration doesn 稚 determine the maximum working hours for those
with working visas — this is decided by the Ministry of Health, Labor and
Welfare. As such, the workweek in Japan is, by law, 40 hours a week,
divided into eight hours per day (this doesn 稚 include overtime; see our
Aug. 9, 2011, column, 鉄 cant legal justification for unpaid overtime,” for
more about this). However, a lot of employers, particularly public schools
and English conversation schools, have working hours less than 40 hours
a week, such as 35 or less than 30. This varies by employer, as each can
decide their employees’ working hours.
All that said, if you 池 e here on an Instructor visa, other than the
maximum 40 hours a week and possible overtime, the number of hours
you work each week will be determined by your employer and set out in
your contract. Some firms will not allow any outside paid work, in which
case you are limited to the hours determined by your contract, which will
be 35 hours in many cases.
Many thanks to David Thompson for his research assistance. Ashley
Thompson writes unique how-tos about living in Japan
at  ⤢www.survivingnjapan.com. Send questions
to lifelines@japantimes.co.jp