Status of Residence

Status of Residence After Graduation or Program Completion

The status of residence "Student" is only valid while you are at school.
Even if the period of stay for your "Student" status of residence has not expired, you can not stay with the status of residence "Student" after graduation.
Please change your status of residence to an appropriate one according to your career path after graduation.
Musashino University holds a guidance session for students who will be graduating in the current year.
All the international students are required to participate it.

  Changing the status of residence in preparation for returning home

If you wish to stay in Japan after graduation in order to prepare to return to your home country, please contact the Immigration Bureau and change your status of residence to appropriate status.
It is illegal to remain under the status of residence "Student".
After changing your status, please prepare to leave Japan within approximately one month.

Important!
- If you change your status of residence to "Short stay" in preparation for your return home, you will no longer be considered a mid- to long-term resident. You will no longer be eligible for benefits, etc., from the ward or municipalities. Please consult  the ward or municipalities beforehand for more information.
- You cannot do part-time work after changing your status of residence to "Short stay." You also cannot change your status of residence from "Short stay" to other status.

  If Starting Work in Japan (Changing to a Status of Residence that Allows You to Work)

You are not allowed to work under the status of residence "Student," so if you plan on starting your employment with a Japanese company or other organization in Japan, you must change your status of residence from "Student" to other one that permits work, such as "Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services".
The Tokyo Regional Immigration Services Bureau accepts applications for changing the status of residence to other that permits work from December of the previous year.
If you have not changed your status of residence by the time you start working, you will not be able to work, so please check with your prospective employer in advance about the procedure for changing your status of residence.
If there is a period of time between your graduation and the start of employment, you can change your status of residence to "Designated Activities" (No. 14)" for the period until you begin employment (indicating that you are waiting for an offered job to begin) with permission from the Immigration Bureau.
You will need a written unofficial job offer or explanatory document (such as a pre-employment training schedule) from the prospective employer, so be sure to consult the prospective employer ahead of time.

  If continuing job hunting activities after graduation or program completion

Please note that you cannot continue job hunting activities with a "Student" status of residence after graduation or program completion. If you wish to continue job hunting activities after graduation, you can apply to change your status of residence to "Designated Activities (No.9)"  to allow you to remain in Japan for up to one year after graduation (This is only for regular students. It is not available for students in special courses for foreign students, credited auditors or other non-regular students.) .
You will need a letter of recommendation from the university to change your status of residence to "Designated Activities (No. 9)" for job hunting. Letter of recommendation issuance will be explained at the guidance for graduation year student.

  Notification concerning the accepting organization ("Student" status of residence)

When leaving a school (e.g., graduation, program completion, withdrawing or expelling from school ) , you must submit a notification to the Immigration  Services Bureau within 14 days of the change. For information on how to submit a notification, see [MUSCAT → My Tools → e-Cabinet → International Relations Office → 1visa renewal → (5) Notification of leaving (changing) the accepting organization] 
*The university (as the academic institution that accepted the international student) will also submit a mandatory report to the Immigration Bureau about the status of the international student and that information will be compared to the notification received from the international student. 
Reference (Immigration Services Agency of Japan)