" 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 !

>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.

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.
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 !

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