I got 99 problems and my visa ain't (but) one*

My Japanese work visa expires on 9/13. After the 13^th I’m not allowed to work in Japan, and without a visa I’m not actually allowed to stay here either. If I overstayed my visa they wouldn’t necessarily deport me, but I might not be allowed to set foot in Japan again once I left. To solve that problem I planned my trip to Korea to happen while my visa expired so I could return and simply be issued a regular 90 day tourist visa (Seoul, 9/10-9/14).

Problem solved? No! I was originally thinking that I would leave in late September or early October (9/24 or 10/1). But then I decided that I might stay through part of October to either a) visit China with a friend after her visa expires on October 10^th or b) stay in Tokyo until Columbus Day weekend when my sister will be able to be in NC the same week I get home. Either way it could be at least three weeks from the time that my work visa expires to when I want to leave; but if I’m going to be here for 3 week then I’ll want to be working. So resign with Nova and go with a tourist visa or renew my contract and stay for another month? Because of the time it takes to process a visa renewal I had to notify Nova if I wanted to resign or renew my contract. To gain the most flexibility I decided to renew; as my block trainer reminded me, I can always change my mind once I say yes to a new contract, but it would be difficult to do the opposite. So renewing my contract and visa is all well and good, except… Enter problems #3-5:

I’m not allowed to leave the country while my visa is being processed. It might be Sept. 12 or 13 before I get a new visa; I have a flight to Seoul booked on the 10^th.

I would want to continue working up until the last week of September, or as late as the 2^nd or 3^rd weeks of October, BUT I have to give Nova, the sponsor of my work visa, 4 weeks notice before I leave. If I gave 4 weeks notice in late August or early Sept. would they even continue the visa/contract renewal process? Would I be able to work that extra 2 or 3 weeks?

Whatever the answers to these questions are, the default is to go home sooner rather than later. But luckily, I think there are some answers.

Yesterday I confirmed with Nova Foreign Personnel that I’m not allowed to leave the country while my visa is being processed. I immediately called the person in charge of my visa/contract renewal, my regional assistant area manager (RAAM), and spoke to him about it. He told me that there’s a good chance I can get a new visa before I leave, but that technically Immigration allows up to 6 weeks to process visas. He guessed that I might need it to happen in 3-4 weeks. Luckily for me, my RAAM called the Nova Head Office in Osaka to try to fast track the Nova side of my visa renewal. Here is what we came up with: he thinks that he’ll have all the materials by Friday, on which day (my day off) I can pick up the papers, do my part to complete them, and ideally bring them to Immigration the same day. That gives them/me 5 weeks in order to be able to pick up my new visa the Friday before I leave. My RAAM also suggested that I bring a copy of my flight reservations and make some sort of explanation/apology for the situation in hopes that they might make an effort to issue my visa sooner rather than later.

If this doesn’t work I’ll go to Korea and forfeit my contract and work visa; and probably return to the States ASAP… which I hope doesn’t happen because a) I’m not wild about the idea of booking last minute (I consider 2 weeks as last minute) international air travel, and b) I would feel really bad if I couldn’t give Nova 4 weeks notice. I don’t so much feel like I owe Nova anything, but I’d hate to put my RAAM in a scheduling bind.

If it does work, then I’ll have found myself in quite the sweet spot! There are still a couple of details I have to confirm, but it’s possible that once Immigration has my visa papers that Nova can’t touch it, regardless of when I quit. With that I can continue to work and quit any time I want! Now, if only I could decide what I wanted to do.

*the title of this post is a reference to which song? bonus points for artist and album.