[Visa question] Different engineering field

1

Hello there,

I am new to this community and I would like to say thank you for this initiative as it contains a lot of useful information for current and aspiring developers. I wish I can bring some useful contributions in a not too distant future.

For now, I have a major visa question. Currently, I have a Master of Science in aeronautical engineering and I am following an online course to become a Web developer. After that, I plan to do some freelancing in France to build up my skills and experiences. Then, I plan to study Japanese in a language school in Japan (while still doing freelancing work for French clients) with a student visa. I plan to get a developer job in Japan with a working visa eventually.

So, the question is: I do not have a computer science degree but still one in engineering. As an aeronautical engineer, I did some programming, although it was not the main core of my education and activities. Would it be an issue with the immigration since my degree is for a different engineering field than software?

Many thanks.

2

Immigration doesn’t publish any fixed rules for this, and so the only way to know for sure is to have a company that’s willing to sponsor you, and go through the application process. That being said, I do know of people who have had engineering degrees that weren’t software related be approved for a visa for a software developer job, so most likely you’ll be OK.

What’s more, Japan has introduced the Highly Skilled Foreign Professionals visa, which you can obtain if you have enough points. That visa doesn’t strictly require that your university degree is related to your job, and if you have a Masters degree plus JLPT 2, you probably will be able to qualify for it.

3

Thank you for your reply and all the useful information. I will check out the HSFP visa as well. This one is particularly useful for permanent residency.