Engineer/Humanities/International Services Visa
The Engineer/Humanities/International Services visa is the status of residence that covers most white-collar foreign employment in Japan, from engineering and IT to marketing, translation, and other office-based specialist roles.1 Getting the eligibility path or the renewal timing wrong can mean a rejected application or a lapsed status, so the details matter whether you are confirming eligibility before a job offer or you already hold the status and are approaching a renewal or job change.
This article serves two readers: someone with a job offer trying to confirm they qualify before applying, and a current holder approaching renewal or a job or employer change who wants to avoid a rejection.
Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at the Immigration Services Agency's official status-of-residence page for the Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services status. This article is general information, not legal, tax, or immigration advice; for your specific case, consult a licensed gyoseishoshi (administrative scrivener) for an eligibility read, or an immigration lawyer for a contested renewal or appeal.
Overview
The Engineer/Humanities/International Services status was created on April 1, 2015, when Japan merged the former Engineer (技術) status with the former Specialist in Humanities/International Services (人文知識・国際業務) status into a single status of residence.1 The full statutory name is Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services; this article uses the shorter Engineer/Humanities/International Services form that most guides and search queries use.
It covers three kinds of work: work needing technology or knowledge in the natural sciences, such as engineering or IT; work needing knowledge in the humanities or social sciences, such as law, economics, or sociology; and work needing thinking or sensitivity grounded in a foreign culture, such as translation, interpretation, or international-business duties.1
The status's Japanese name, 技術・人文知識・国際業務 (Gijutsu, Jinbun Chishiki, Kokusai Gyōmu), is often shortened in casual and online use to Gijinkoku (技人国).1
It is often described as the default corporate work status. Unlike the Highly Skilled Professional (HSP) status, it has no points-threshold gate.
Unlike an Intra-Company Transferee status, it does not require the applicant to already work for an overseas affiliate of the Japan-based employer. Unlike the Instructor status, it is not limited to teaching at primary, secondary, or comparable institutions.12
Eligibility is decided nationally. A regional immigration bureau examines the application, but it applies statutory criteria set by the Immigration Services Agency (ISA), the national body under the Ministry of Justice that administers Japan's statuses of residence.13 Eligibility itself does not vary by ward, city, or region; only processing speed and practical strictness can differ in practice, covered under Costs and timelines below.
Eligibility
There are three paths to this status, and you need to satisfy only one. Which path applies depends on your degree, your work experience, and the kind of duties the job actually involves.
Degree-matching-the-role path
Applicants generally need a university degree (or higher), or a diploma from a Japanese senmon gakko (専門学校, a vocational or professional training college) carrying a Senmonshi (専門士, a professional-title diploma) or Kōdo Senmonshi (高度専門士, an advanced professional-title diploma) in a field related to the job duties.13
Whether a degree counts as "related" is judged case by case. Examiners compare the degree's coursework to the actual job duties, and a mismatch is a documented cause of denial.45
Examiners compare your coursework to your job duties individually; there is no fixed list of accepted degree-to-job pairings. This is exactly the kind of borderline case where a gyoseishoshi's read on your specific transcript and job description is worth getting before you apply.
An IT-specific alternative exists. Applicants who pass specified information-processing examinations or hold specified certifications designated under a Ministry of Justice notice (the "IT Notice") can satisfy the education or experience requirement for IT-related work without a matching degree. Recognized exams include certain Japanese national Information Processing Engineer exam grades, plus equivalent exams from certain other countries.67
Salary must be at least equal to what a Japanese national doing the same duties at the same employer would earn. Examiners compare against co-workers in the same role, or, where none exist, prevailing pay for the role at similarly sized and located firms. One documented denial involved a graduate offered ¥170,000 per month against a Japanese new-hire comparator earning ¥200,000 per month for the same duties.38
Ten-years-experience path
Applicants without a matching degree can instead show 10 years or more of professional experience in a directly related field. This is evidenced by an employment certificate (在職証明書) or equivalent document from the prior employer or employers.13
This experience-based substitute applies to the technology and humanities tracks only. The international-services track, covering translation, interpretation, and similar culture-dependent work, uses a separate and shorter experience threshold, described below.1
Language-role path (International Services track)
The international-services track, called 国際業務 (Kokusai Gyōmu) in the statute, covers work requiring thinking or sensitivity grounded in a foreign culture: translation, interpretation, language instruction, public relations, overseas trade or sales duties, and clothing or interior design tied to foreign aesthetics, among others.19
The baseline requirement is 3 or more years of practical experience in the relevant field, evidenced the same way as the technology and humanities tracks' work-history proof.110
There is an exception. Applicants holding a university degree in any field, not necessarily a language- or culture-related major, do not need to show the 3-year experience history when the duties are specifically translation, interpretation, or language instruction.109
A new documentation layer applies to some international-services-track applicants starting April 15, 2026 (as of 2026-04-15; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).1 It adds evidentiary material rather than changing this 3-year or degree-exception structure itself; see "The April 2026 language-documentation requirement" under Good to know for the details.
Required documents
Required documents split into two sets: what the employer provides to establish its category classification, and what you provide to establish personal eligibility.
Employer-side documents
The employer's required evidence depends on which of four categories it falls into, a classification ISA assigns based on the organization's size, listing status, and tax record.
| Category | Definition |
|---|---|
| 1 | Listed companies (stock-exchange-listed), certain public-interest or innovation-certified entities, and comparable large or established organizations |
| 2 | Organizations with ¥10,000,000 or more in the prior year's withholding tax on employment income, or approved users of ISA's online application system |
| 3 | Organizations that submit the prior year's withholding tax payment record (源泉徴収税額表) but do not meet Category 2's threshold |
| 4 | All other organizations, typically smaller or newer employers |
These category definitions and the ¥10,000,000 threshold are administrative classifications set by ISA, not statute, and ISA can revise them (as of 2026-07-20; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).1
Category placement determines which of ISA's published checklists applies: a common checklist for all categories, an additional checklist specific to Categories 3 and 4, and a separate checklist for renewal applications.111
Underlying employer documents typically requested include the employment contract or offer letter, plus category-dependent tax and employee-registration documents, such as withholding tax records and registry documents for the organization. ISA's own checklists enumerate the exact line items category by category; this article does not attempt to reproduce that full document-by-document list.111
ISA publishes a separate checklist for each category and one for renewals. Confirm the exact document set against the current version of these checklists rather than relying on a general summary, since the line items can be added to or changed.
Effective for applications filed April 15, 2026 or later, Category 3 and 4 employers must additionally submit a Statement Regarding the Representative of the Sponsoring Organization (所属機関の代表者に関する申告書). It declares whether the organization's representative is a Japanese national or special permanent resident, in which case no further detail is required, or falls into another category, which requires additional detail. The same requirement applies in parallel to Business Manager, Skilled Labor, and Nursing Care applications from the same date (as of 2026-04-15).11213
Applicant-side documents
| Document | Who needs it | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Degree certificate (卒業証明書) or equivalent | Degree-matching path | Professional-training-college graduates submit proof of a Senmonshi or Kōdo Senmonshi title instead |
| CV/resume | All applicants | |
| Work-history certificate (在職証明書) | Ten-years-experience path, or language-role baseline without the degree exception | Covers the claimed period from the relevant prior employer or employers |
| Language-proficiency evidence | International-services-track applicants at Category 3/4 employers in interpersonal, language-dependent roles, for applications filed April 15, 2026 or later | See Good to know |
For first-time applicants applying from overseas, these documents accompany the Certificate of Eligibility (COE) application. There is no separate visa-application document set beyond what the receiving overseas embassy or consulate requires once the COE is issued.14
Starting April 15, 2026, applicants whose duties are primarily interpersonal and language-dependent, such as customer-facing interpretation or front-desk work with a language component, at a Category 3 or 4 employer must submit evidence of CEFR B2-equivalent proficiency (as of 2026-04-15). Category 1 and 2 employers, and most other duty types, are not subject to this specific document.11513
Application process
There are two distinct routes into this status, and which one applies depends on whether you are already in Japan.
From overseas: the receiving employer, the applicant, or a registered proxy such as a lawyer or gyoseishoshi files a Certificate of Eligibility (COE) application at the regional immigration bureau covering the employer's or intended residence location. Postal submission is not accepted, and there is no application fee.14
The Certificate of Eligibility application must be filed in person, electronically through ISA's online system, or by an authorized proxy at the bureau counter. A mailed application will not be processed.14
Once ISA issues the COE, you present it at a Japanese embassy or consulate overseas to obtain a visa, or at the port of entry. Since March 2023, ISA can issue COEs electronically by email rather than only on paper.14
Status change in Japan: an applicant already in Japan under another status, most commonly a graduating international student on a Student status, files an Application for Permission to Change Status of Residence (在留資格変更許可申請) directly at a regional immigration bureau. This route carries an application fee and does not use a COE.16
Both routes go through a regional immigration bureau. ISA does not publish a rule tying processing speed to a specific bureau, so treat any claim that one bureau is categorically faster as practitioner opinion, not an ISA-stated fact.1718
Costs and timelines
Fees and processing times below reflect ISA's published figures. Confirm current fees and timelines with the Immigration Services Agency before filing, since both can change (as of 2026-07-20; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).
Fee schedule
| Item | Amount | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Certificate of Eligibility (COE) application | No fee | 2026-07-20 | 14 |
| Status change application (in person / paper) | ¥6,000 | 2025-04-01 | 1619 |
| Status change application (online) | ¥5,500 | 2025-04-01 | 1619 |
| Period-of-stay renewal application (in person / paper) | ¥6,000 | 2025-04-01 | 2019 |
| Period-of-stay renewal application (online) | ¥5,500 | 2025-04-01 | 2019 |
| Legacy fee (applications received on or before 2025-03-31, regardless of later approval date) | ¥4,000 | 2025-04-01 cutoff | 19 |
Fees are paid via revenue stamp (収入印紙) even for online applications. ISA does not yet accept credit-card or other electronic payment for these fees (as of 2026-07-20).19
Fees are paid with a revenue stamp, sold at post offices and some government-building kiosks, not by card or online payment. Buying it in advance avoids a wasted trip to the bureau.19
Processing times
| Application | Standard published processing time |
|---|---|
| Certificate of Eligibility (COE) | 1 to 3 months |
| Status change | 1 to 2 months |
| Period-of-stay renewal | 2 weeks to 1 month |
These are ISA's standard published ranges, not guarantees (as of 2026-07-20).141620
ISA has published monthly average processing-time statistics since around October 2024, broken out by status of residence, but the underlying reports do not give a separate figure per regional bureau; they present a nationwide average (as of 2026-07-20; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).17
Some practitioners describe the Tokyo and Osaka bureaus as commonly running longer than the national average. This claim is not verifiable against an ISA-published, bureau-specific breakdown, so treat it as practitioner impression rather than fact.18
Period of stay and renewal
Grants are one of four periods: 5 years, 3 years, 1 year, or 3 months. The grant length is at the examining officer's discretion within that set, regardless of which period you request.1
Renewal, technically an extension application, should be filed before the current period expires. ISA's general guidance for statuses with a stay period of 6 months or more is to apply approximately 3 months before expiry, with earlier filing possible in some circumstances.20
ISA's general guidance allows filing roughly three months ahead of your current period's expiry date, and sometimes earlier. Filing early gives more buffer if the bureau requests additional documents.20
Good to know
The items below are the ones most likely to cause a rejected renewal, a revoked status, or a stalled application.
Job duties that drift from your approved category
A renewal is commonly denied when actual job duties have drifted away from the approved category. This most often happens because non-specialist duties, such as routine front-desk or manual tasks, have become the majority of the role rather than a minor, incidental part of it.45
The 90-day unemployment limit
Under Immigration Control Act Article 22-4, ISA can revoke a status of residence if the holder continuously fails, for 3 months or more, to engage in the activity their status authorizes, unless there is a legitimate reason for the gap. The threshold is 6 months for a Highly Skilled Professional (b) sub-category holder.21
The 3-month grace period is not an unconditional safe harbor. A 2016 amendment allows revocation before the 3-month mark elapses if the holder is not engaging in the authorized activity and is instead engaging in, or preparing to engage in, some other activity.21
The 14-day job-change notification rule
Under Immigration Control Act Article 19-16, mid- to long-term residents on statuses tied to a specific organization, including this one, must notify ISA within 14 days of a change to their affiliated or contracting organization. This covers the organization's name changing, its address changing, the organization ceasing to exist, or the relationship with it changing, which includes ending one employment contract or starting a new one.22
The correct online channel is ISA's own electronic notification system (出入国在留管理庁電子届出システム), available 24/7 and identified by ISA guidance as the most convenient method. It is not officially called a "Digital Residency Portal"; that phrase does not match any ISA product name. Notification can also be filed in person at a regional immigration bureau, or by mail addressed to the Tokyo regional bureau.22
Employer compliance problems that sink your application
An employer that has a foreign employee perform activities outside their authorized status commits a form of the offense known as 不法就労助長罪 ("crime of promoting illegal employment").23
Reported penalties for this employer-side offense are described inconsistently across the practitioner sources available for this article, including conflicting claims about the effective date of a recent tightening. Because the specific figures could not be confirmed against a primary statutory citation, this article does not state them. Treat any employer history of this kind as a serious red flag regardless of the exact penalty attached.23
The April 2026 language-documentation requirement
For applications filed April 15, 2026 or later, applicants at Category 3 or 4 sponsoring employers whose duties rely primarily on language ability for interpersonal business, such as interpreting or translation-facing customer contact, must submit evidence of CEFR B2-equivalent proficiency in the language used for work (as of 2026-04-15; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).11513
Category 1 and Category 2 employers are not subject to this specific added document; the added burden targets smaller or less-established sponsoring organizations (as of 2026-04-15).115
The B2-equivalent standard is presumed satisfied by any of the following: JLPT N2 or higher, a Business Japanese Proficiency Test (BJT) score of 400 or higher, 20 years or more of residence in Japan, graduation from a Japanese university or specialized/professional training college, or completion of compulsory education and high school in Japan (as of 2026-04-15).11513
This requirement runs alongside, not instead of, the separate Statement Regarding the Representative of the Sponsoring Organization document required from the same date for Category 3/4 applicants, described under Required documents above. It applies in parallel to Business Manager, Skilled Labor, and Nursing Care applications too (as of 2026-04-15).11213
This is an added evidentiary requirement layered onto the existing international-services-track rules, not a replacement of the 3-year-experience or degree-exception structure described under Language-role path above. It does not create a new eligibility bar for the whole status.19