I have some questions related to visa and getting a job.
I am planning to go to Japan about october 2018. I will graduate with a bachelors degree in august 2018, in computer science. I want to find a job in Japan with android and/or ruby development. And also get a work visa.
The issue is the following. As I am not japanese descendent, I am thinking about what kind of visa should I get. Work holiday visa is not possible to get, because Brazil does not have such an accord with Japan. Also a holiday visa, just three months looks so short time to get a job.
I was thinking about getting a student visa in a japanese language school, but have no idea about prices. Does anyone have some recommendations about it? some affordable ones?
If you have any advice, I will be happy to listen from you.
First off, I’d caution you from coming to Japan with the expectation that you’ll be able to find a job. While you might be able to find one, it is by no means guaranteed, so be prepared for the possibility that you won’t.
You’re not supposed to get a tourist visa if your intention is to find work here. Though as I understand it, if you’re visiting as a tourist and just happen to land an interview, that’s permitted.
If you have a student visa, I believe you can apply for special permission to work up to 28 hours a week. I don’t think it is guaranteed that you’ll be granted permission, but I don’t think people tend to get denied either. This is something to clarify with the Japanese schools. Note to maintain a student visa you need to actually attend class. I believe the cost for language school fee is around ¥1 million for one year. You’ll probably spend ¥1 ~ ¥2 million more on living expenses.
I’d recommend doing whatever you feel comfortable with doing even if you weren’t to land a job.
For instance, if you were to consider spending a year studying Japanese to be worthwhile, even if you never got a job here and needed to go back to Brazil at the end, then it could be a worthwhile option.
IMHO to get a job in Japan you need to either be good/experienced at what you do or speak Japanese fluently. If you get both that’d be ideal.
Unfortunately I don’t speak Japanese fluently, so my job chances were more limited. I’ve heard from several trusted sources that I could get ~20% more salary if I was fluent.
Luckily I have several mid-to-high profile Javascript projects on Github, so I got contacted by 4 companies (and got 2 Offer Letters) in 1 month. Some of these came from meeting people in programming meetups.
If you have neither of those, it’s still possible but a lot harder and I’d recommend to get some code public and learn the basics of Japanese. Companies here appreciate when someone wants to stay long-term by investing in their Japanese.