On Tue, 21 Oct 2003 15:45:29 +0900, "cc" <cpasuneadresse@spam.com>
belched the alphabet and kept on going with:

>
>" Louise Bremner" <dame_zumari@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>
>> > Will I be unable to begin working for 2-4 months while I wait for my
>work
>> > visa?
>>
>> In practice, you can start working as soon as you've applied to convert
>> your visa (presumably you'll come in on a tourist visa).
>
>Certainly not. You have to wait for the visa. What you say is right when
>it's about converting from a visa that allows you to work to another with
>the same possibility. Maybe working holidays can go on working while waiting
>the new visa, but not tourists !

When I returned to Japan this time, my BN-S-YJW came ahead of me by a
couple of months and failed to send to me in time the papers I needed
to apply for a re-issuance of my spouse visa while still in the US. So
I came back on a tourist visa. Immigration wasn't too happy about me
showing up with a tourist visa and then changing to a spouse visa, but
there I was and there wasn't much that could be done about it.

Anyway, I needed a spouse visa so I could go to work. But I needed to
show some proof of gainful employment to help the spouse visa thingy
along. Catch-22.

I told the Immigration folks in Takasaki that I would like to look for
work and begin working, but since I couldn't actually work until I got
the visa it was going to add a level of complication to the job
hunting process. In my field, despite having the appropriate licenses
and work experience, my skin condition makes it hard to get
prospective employers to even agree to interview me. I certainly
couldn't ask them to promise me a spot, do some paperwork for me, and
hold the spot until my visa was issued. I *could* ask, but since it
would be easier to fill the spot with a Japanese candidate and avoid
the hassle, it would pretty much ensure I would *not* get a job.

Know what the Immigration people told me?

They said to go ahead and find a job and start working anyway. Yes, it
would technically be illegal, but since the eventual issuance of a
visa was pretty much a sure thing and I had a family to provide for in
the meantime, it was a "shikata ga nai" situation. So, with their
blessing, I found a job and went to work. On a tourist visa.

Immigration can very much be a YMMV proposition.
>
>>Provided, of
>> course, you are a decent law-abiding person who doesn't engage in
>> activities that fall outside the scope of your prospective visa....
>
>I'd say that if you cheat, you have 10 000 less chances of getting caught by
>the Immigration working in a bar that pays you in cash than starting with
>your sponsor in advance.

Note to the original poster: In your situation, what cc is saying
*does* apply. Go ahead and do things the right way to begin with and
you will likely save yourself some headaches down the line.
>
>These days they check eikaiwai employers more often and are able to visit
>schools to see the people "waiting for a visa" are not already teaching and
>they check the bank accounts of both the school and candidate for a visa.

Do they actually do that?

>If they catch someone working without visa, it's deportation ! There are a
>few recent stories like that in Osaka. They even checked and deported people
>at organisations that were much more "serious looking" (if not
>"official"...) than eikaiwa.
>The teachers are no longer in Japan, never saw them again ! And they did
>only 3 or 4 hours a week !

There was a case recently of a Chinese woman who was in Japan on a
student visa. She was caught working more than 20 hours per week and
ordered deported. She filed a civil suit requesting that her deportion
be stayed and that she be freed from detention pending an appeal of
her deportation order. In a very unusual ruling, the court displayed
some common sense and granted her request. Normally, people file an
appeal of their deportation and are deported before there is a
decision on the appeal. So that even if it is decided that the person
*not* be deported, it is already too late. I e-mailed The Dave and
asked him if he were going to make some public commentary on this
landmark case. For whatever reason, he chose not to reply to me and,
so far as I know, has made no mention of the case at all. Maybe the
woman was the wrong color to get his attention. I dunno.