Changes in status of residence are not permitted under any circumstances, and there are certain cases in which permission is not granted in principle. An example of this is changing from technical intern training to other employment status.
Why is it not approved?
The purpose of technical intern training is to make an international contribution by returning the knowledge and experience gained to your home country after completing your internship in Japan, so you are required to return to your home country as soon as you complete your internship. Changes to the status of residence are not permitted unless there are circumstances such as transitioning to a specified skilled worker, being forced to transfer due to circumstances at the training site, or marrying a Japanese person. (Please note that the situation will change as technical training will be abolished soon and replaced with training employment.)
Exceptional cases
However, according to the examination guidelines, if the change is to contribute to the technical intern training system, it is considered to be permitted, and the requirements are as follows. (Of course, the employment status you are trying to change must be compatible with your residence status.)
- The business content of the affiliated organization is related to the acceptance of technical intern trainees.
- The applicant must provide guidance to technical intern trainees from their home country regarding the skills they acquired while they were technical intern trainees.
- Must have Japanese language ability equivalent to N2 or higher
- Considering the number of technical intern trainees, there is a sufficient amount of work (for guidance) and the activity is not technical intern training itself.
- Achieving the current technical training goals
My thought
Currently, we have a client of our firm who is applying for a change of status of residence in the direction mentioned above, but there are some uncertainties as to whether all the requirements have been met, and we are anxiously awaiting the results.
In the current situation where the international contribution perspective has been removed from the technical intern training system and there are no job opportunities even if you return to his/her home country, I think it would be okay to allow changes to his/her status of residence without limiting it to the purpose of teaching technical intern trainees, as long as he/she meets the requirements for the status of residence that he/she is trying to change, such as graduating from a university.