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Highly Skilled Professional Visa
The Highly Skilled Professional visa is Japan's points-based fast track for top-tier researchers, engineers, and executives: score 70 or more on the official points table and residence opens benefits no ordinary work status offers, including a 3-year or even 1-year path to permanent residency.1 Misreading the points history rule is the classic failure, so the retroactive criterion below matters more than the headline thresholds.
This article serves two readers: a professional abroad or in Japan deciding whether the points route beats an ordinary work status, and an ordinary work-status holder who may already qualify for the PR acceleration without switching statuses.
Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details in the Immigration Services Agency's points-based preferential treatment pages and Q&A. This article is general information, not legal, tax, or immigration advice; for your specific case, consult a licensed administrative scrivener (gyoseishoshi, 行政書士) for a points read, or an immigration lawyer (bengoshi, 弁護士) for a contested renewal, appeal, or permanent residency filing.
Last verified: 2026-10.
Overview
The HSP status, or 高度専門職 (kōdo senmonshoku, "highly skilled professional"), was introduced in May 2012 to pull advanced talent into Japan's research, technical, and management ranks.2 The gate is arithmetic: reach 70 points on ISA's official table and the status, with its preferential package, is yours.
The package beats ordinary work statuses on five fronts: a uniform 5-year period of stay from the start, permission to combine multiple professional activities, relaxed permanent-residency residence requirements, broader work latitude for a spouse, and conditional accompaniment by parents or a domestic worker.12 Standard work-status holders typically wait 10 years for permanent residency; HSP points cut that to 3 years at 70 points or 1 year at 80 points.1
Points criteria sit in a ministerial ordinance and apply nationally. No bureau or municipality runs its own version; only your salary, age, and credentials move the score.1
Unlike the Engineer/Humanities/International Services status, HSP has no degree-to-duty matching test and no experience-only path; everything runs through the score.
The three activity categories
Your activity must fit one of three buckets, and the points table you use follows the bucket.
| Category | Covers | Typical holder |
|---|---|---|
| (a) Advanced Academic Research Activities | University or institutional research and education | Researchers, professors on research track |
| (b) Advanced Specialized/Technical Activities | Corporate technical work at an advanced level | Engineers, specialists, developers |
| (c) Advanced Business Management Activities | Managing or directing a business | Executives, founders, officers |
Categories (b) and (c) carry a minimum contracted annual income floor (practitioner sources cite ¥3,000,000; confirm the exact floor against the ISA table before filing, as of 2026-09).2 There is one more precondition people miss: without a sponsoring organization and a concrete activity in Japan, HSP cannot be granted at all. It is not a job-seeker status.2
Each category scores differently, especially on salary bands and bonuses. Counting points against the wrong category's table produces a confident, wrong total; confirm the bucket with the ISA table first.
The points table
Seventy points is the recognition line. The table rewards schooling, pay, youth, experience, output, and Japanese ability together, so mid-career specialists often clear it on salary plus experience alone.1
Degree, salary, and age bands
Indicative scoring from current practitioner breakdowns of the ISA table (as of 2026-09; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency): doctorate 30, master's 20, bachelor's 10; salary bands scaled by age, with ¥10,000,000 scoring 40, ¥9,000,000 scoring 35, ¥8,000,000 scoring 30, and ¥7,000,000 scoring 25 in the younger bands; age around 29 scoring 15, around 34 scoring 10, around 39 scoring 5; related experience from 3 years scoring 5 up to 10 years scoring 20.3
Run the official ISA table for your filing. Bands and bonus lines shift by revision, and only the live table counts at the counter.3
Bonus points
Bonuses stack onto the core score: research achievements such as first-author papers, inventor-held patents, and competitive grants; graduation from designated top universities; job-relevant national qualifications; employer R&D expenditure ratios; and Japanese ability at JLPT N1 or BJT 480 or higher (as of 2026-09).3 Specified information-processing exams under the IT Notice can also substitute for criteria in the technical categories.3
HSP-i vs HSP-ii
HSP Type 1, or 高度専門職1号 (kōdo senmonshoku 1-gō), is the entry form: a uniform 5-year period of stay with the full preferential package.14 HSP Type 2, or 高度専門職2号 (kōdo senmonshoku 2-gō), follows after 3 or more years of qualifying Type 1 activity.1
Type 2's period becomes indefinite, and its permitted activity range widens toward permanent-resident latitude.12 Type 2 is a destination for settlers; Type 1 is the vehicle that gets you there.
The fast track to permanent residency
This is the benefit most applicants actually come for. In principle permanent residency demands 10 or more years in Japan. HSP points shrink that to 3 years at 70 points or 1 year at 80 points.1
The retroactive-points criterion
The part guides gloss over: the score must hold across time, not just on filing day. For the 70-point route, you need 70 or more now and 70 or more calculated against your situation 3 years before the application. For the 80-point route, 80 or more now and 80 or more against the situation 1 year before.15 ISA's Q&A states both the as-an-HSP and the as-an-ordinary-resident variants, which produces the flag below.
Pull your 3-years-ago (or 1-year-ago) salary, age band, and credentials and score that date too. A raise that pushed you over 80 last month does not satisfy the 1-year lookback, and examiners check the history, not just today's total.
The exception also works without ever holding HSP status. Holders of ordinary work statuses such as Engineer or Business Manager who meet the points history can apply under the same relaxation; no prior switch to HSP is needed.5 The remaining PR conditions still apply in full: tax and social-insurance payment on the declared salary across the lookback, continuous residence, a clean legal and immigration record, and a guarantor.65
For applications filed through 2027-03-31, a 3-year period of stay counts as the longest period of stay the guideline expects at filing (as of 2026-10-10; confirm current details with the Immigration Services Agency).6 For applications filed from 2027-04-01, the guideline weighs whether the applicant holds the longest period prescribed for the current status, and the revised guideline adds consideration factors with no HSP exception: household income level, projected pension amount and supplementary assets, absence from Japan (a single absence of half a year or more, or 2 years 6 months or more in total, within the 10 years before filing without reasonable cause), not becoming a public burden, understanding of Japan's systems and rules, and school attendance of school-age children, with the household-income and public-burden items also reaching applications filed on or after 2026-04-01 that were still pending on 2026-10-01 (as of 2026-10-10).7
Japanese ability at B1 or above, a new factor for most applicants from that date, is generally not weighed for applicants under the guideline's HSP special cases and their families.7 Whether that carve-out also covers points-qualifying applicants on another status, such as Engineer, is unclear (as of 2026-10-10).7
For founders comparing doors, the Business Manager Visa Requirements for Founders guide covers the ordinary-status route that HSP (c) holders skip past.
Required documents
The points-evidence set is the heart of the filing: degree certificates, the employment contract stating salary, age evidence, research or patent or grant proof, language certificates, and qualification documents, layered onto the standard Certificate of Eligibility or change-of-status document set.389 Every claimed point needs its paper; an unscored claim is a missing claim.
Application process
Overseas entry runs through a Certificate of Eligibility filed by a proxy, with no application fee and electronic issuance available since March 2023.8 In-Japan applicants file a change of status instead.9 HSP filings get preferential, faster queueing for entry and residence procedures.1
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 2026-09; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).
Fee schedule
| Item | Amount | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Certificate of Eligibility application | No fee | 2026-09 | 8 |
| Status change or extension grant (1 year) | ¥33,000 (¥27,000 online) | 2026-10-01 | 10 |
| Status change or extension grant (3 years) | ¥64,000 (¥56,000 online) | 2026-10-01 | 10 |
| Status change or extension grant (5 years) | ¥75,000 (¥65,000 online) | 2026-10-01 | 10 |
| Grandfathered rate (applications filed by 2026-09-30) | ¥6,000 (¥5,500 online) | 2026-09-30 cutoff | 10 |
Fees follow the October 1, 2026 tiered schedule scaling from ¥10,000 for 3 months up to ¥75,000 for 5 years at the counter, with discounted online tiers.10 Counter fees are paid via revenue stamp (収入印紙); online filings pay electronically via convenience store or bank transfer.10
Processing times
| Application | Standard published range |
|---|---|
| Certificate of Eligibility | 1 to 3 months, with preferential queueing for HSP |
| Status change | 1 to 2 months |
| Period-of-stay extension | 2 weeks to 1 month |
These are ISA's standard published ranges, not guarantees (as of 2026-09).8911
Period of stay and renewal
HSP-i renews at 5 years a cycle. File before expiry, about 3 months ahead per ISA's general guidance for longer stays, so document requests do not collide with the deadline.111
Changing sponsors
HSP-i permission is tied to the sponsoring organization and the approved activity. Leaving the sponsor without a new qualifying sponsor and fresh permission ends the basis of stay; this status does not float between employers on its own.1 Organization changes in the covered subcategories trigger the 14-day notification duty below.12
Negotiate the next sponsor and its permission paperwork before resigning the current one. A gap with no qualifying sponsor is not neutral time; it starts the inactivity clock described under Good to know.
Good to know
The items below are the ones most likely to end a renewal, sink a PR filing, or strand a sponsor change.
Tax and pension arrears sink renewals and PR filings
Extension and PR examination both weigh payment history: national and residence taxes plus pension and health-insurance contributions, checked against the salary you declared for points.
For PR applications filed through 2027-03-31, tax or premiums not paid within the original payment period are evaluated negatively in principle even if settled before filing, at 80 points as at 70 (as of 2026-10-10; confirm current details with the Immigration Services Agency).6 For applications filed from 2027-04-01, a past failure to pay properly, such as a 滞納処分 (tainō shobun, "delinquency disposition"), is evaluated negatively in principle even when nothing is unpaid at filing (as of 2026-10-10).7 The multi-year lookback means a skipped year follows you.
The Residence-Tax Year-Two Surprise explains the year-two bill shock; the Shakai Hoken Overview maps correct enrollment. Clear arrears before filing, not after a denial.
The 14-day organization-change notification
Under Immigration Control Act Article 19-16, covered HSP holders must notify the regional immigration bureau within 14 days of an affiliated-organization change: name or address changes, extinction, or the relationship starting or ending.12 File through Notifying Immigration of the Employer Change channels; each sponsor move generates one of these filings.
Job loss and the 3-month inactivity rule
Under Article 22-4, ISA can revoke a status where the holder continuously fails for 3 months or more to do the authorized activity without legitimate reason (the threshold is 6 months for HSP (b) subcategory holders).13 The 3-Month-Unemployment Renewal Risk article traces how examiners read gaps. Keep evidence of active same-field job seeking, and treat sponsor loss as a countdown, not a pause.
A points dip below 70 is not an automatic cancellation
ISA's Q&A is explicit: once resident, constantly maintaining 70 or more is not required to remain in Japan.1 A salary cut or birthday that drops the score does not cancel the status by itself. It does freeze the escalator, though: HSP-ii and the PR accelerations need the thresholds met when claimed.
The J-Skip sibling route
The 2023 Special Highly Skilled Professional (J-Skip) system runs a separate track with its own requirements.4 The PR guideline gives applicants who meet the J-Skip criteria a 1-year PR item, kept unchanged in the 2026-10-01 revision (as of 2026-10-10).76 Check the MOFA page before assuming HSP points are your only door; a small number of applicants fit J-Skip better and never need the points table at all.
See also
- Business Manager Visa Requirements for Founders
- Permanent Residency in Japan: Overview
- Inter-Employer Movements: Same Industry, Cross Industry, Cross Status
- The Dependent (Fuyo) System
- The Gyoseishoshi for Visa and Immigration
- Pension Compliance and Visa Renewal