my husband got working visa for japan but now employer not calling him to work there because of budget issue for project. can my husband use this working visa to find job in japan ?? there is expiry and validity mentioned in visa. expiration is in feb 2020 and validity is 5 years. what it means by expiration date??
It’s my understanding that Japan treats formal job offers like employment contracts, and as such cannot easily withdraw them:
Regarding the legal nature of a job offer, Supreme Court precedents have confirmed that a job offer is indeed an employment contract, sealed with the initial application of the potential employee and the consequent job offer by the employer. This means that canceling a job offer is legally equivalent to terminating an existing employee, requiring “rational and socially acceptable grounds.”
– Burden of proof lies with employer to justify withdrawing job offers
This is backed up by these official Employment Guidelines, which are in English, albeit it poorly translated.
The particulars of your situation may be different, and so these rules don’t apply, and even if they do, it could be hard to enforce them if you aren’t based in Japan, but it could be worth seeing if you have a case, as at the very least you might be able to get some compensation from the company (if they haven’t already offered this).
For the visa expiration, it is my understanding that to use it, you need to enter the country by that date to use it. So if he doesn’t use it by Feb 2020, it will expire. Otherwise, it is valid for five years from entry into Japan.
As for using that visa for another job, it depends on what visa he has. The “Highly-Skilled Foreign Professionals” visa is tied to the issuing company, so if he has that one he can’t use it.
Other working visas, like the Engineering visa, are not tied to the employer though. If he was already in Japan on this visa, and laid off by the company, it’s my understanding that immigration officially gives you three months to find another job, though I’ve heard they don’t strictly enforce that. If he isn’t in Japan though, it is more of a grey area to me, especially if he attempts to move to Japan without any offer of employment. If he was to have another company offer him employment before February, I suspect he could just use the visa he’s already been issued, though when being hired, the company would probably want to confirm this with immigration as it is an exceptional situation.
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