In order to prevent international students accepted by universities and vocational schools from going missing for reasons such as employment, the government has decided to revise the “Ministerial Ordinance on Landing Standards,”‘ which sets the criteria for granting residence status to foreigners.
It seems that the policy is not to grant study abroad status to students who wish to study abroad at universities that have problems managing the enrollment of international students.
When granting the student status of residence, the educational institutions that accept students are already managed by the Immigration Bureau into schools that are appropriate and those that are subject to careful screening.
<What is an appropriate school?>
If the ratio of the number of enrolled students who fall under any of 1 to 5 below to the number of enrolled students at the end of January of the previous year (problem enrollment rate) is 5% or less, the school is considered to be an appropriate school.
- person who stayed illegally
- Persons whose application for extension of period of stay has been rejected (limited to applications related to residence history such as poor academic status, including those who have been notified that the application cannot be granted based on the content of the application).
- Person whose status of residence has been revoked
- Persons whose permission to engage in activities other than that permitted under the status of residence has been revoked
- Persons to whom a deportation order has been issued
<Advantages of appropriate schools>
For example, if a foreign national are planning to study abroad at a university that has been deemed an appropriate school (it has received a notification from the Immigration Agency that it is appropriate), he/she will have the benefit of not having to submit the following documents when applying for residence.
- Graduation certificate of last school
- Materials related to Japanese language ability
- Expenses support letter
- Deposit balance certificate (original)
- Materials clarifying the history of fund formation over the past three years
- Materials proving the relationship between the financial sponsor and the applicant
- Documents proving the profession of the financial supporter (if the stay expenses are paid by someone else)
- Documents proving the income of the financial supporter for the past three years (if the stay expenses are paid by someone else)
In addition to the above, the period of stay granted will differ depending on whether the university you plan to accept is an appropriate school or not. For example, if the foreign national plans to stay at a school for 4 years or more, it will be 2 years and 3 months when attending an appropriate school, but it will be 1 year and 3 months when attending not an appropriate school. (Examination guidelines)
Under the current system, the content of “selection of educational institutions” is to give preferential treatment to foreigners who wish to study at an appropriate school in terms of two points: the number of documents submitted and the period of stay granted.
Based on the government policy reported this time, I think this will mean that students will not be given with the status of residence of “Student” when applying universities that are subject to careful screening(not appropriate school in the current system), or universities that are further categorized, for example, with a problematic enrollment rate of over 10%) and that exceed that standard).
It can be said that this is a fairly impactful change to the system as it adds negative elements as well as assertive criteria.
This post is available in Japanese.