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Instructor Visa
The Instructor visa is the status of residence for teaching inside Japan's formal school system, and it is the status the JET Programme lists for its Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs).12 Filing under the wrong teaching status, or lingering on this one after leaving school employment, is how teachers drift into unauthorized activity, so the school-scope test below comes before everything else.
This article serves two readers: a prospective ALT or teacher confirming this is their status, and a current holder facing renewal, a school change, or an exit from the public-school track.
Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at the Immigration Services Agency's status page for the Instructor status. 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 an eligibility read, or an immigration lawyer (bengoshi, 弁護士) for a contested renewal or appeal.
Last verified: 2026-10.
Overview
The Instructor status, or 教育 (kyōiku, "instructor"), covers 語学教育 (gogaku kyōiku, "language education") and other teaching at qualifying schools. ISA's status page gives junior-high and high-school language teachers as its example, and an ISA explanatory slide adds 外国語指導助手 (gaikokugo shidō joshu, "assistant language teacher", ALT) to that list.13
Grants run 5 years, 3 years, 1 year, or 3 months.1 Eligibility is statutory and national; no board of education improvises the criteria, though hiring channels differ by contract as described below.
Unlike the Engineer/Humanities/International Services status, which covers corporate language instruction, this status belongs to schools only. The employer's nature decides the status, not the classroom activity alone.
Which schools count
Qualifying institutions are elementary schools, junior high schools, compulsory-education schools, high schools, secondary schools, special-needs schools, 専修学校 (senshū gakkō, "specialized training colleges"), 各種学校 (kakushu gakkō, "miscellaneous schools"), or institutions equivalent in facilities and organization.1
Two common confusions end here. University teaching sits under the Professor status, not this one. Private eikaiwa conversation schools are businesses, not qualifying schools, so their instructors fall under ESHI international-services duties instead.14
The three applicant categories
ISA sorts applicants by post type, and the document weight follows the category.
| Category | Who | Document weight |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Full-time at elementary, junior-high, 義務教育学校 (gimu kyōiku gakkō, "compulsory-education"), high, secondary, or special-needs schools | Lightest: beyond the common documents, other materials are basically unnecessary |
| 2 | Full-time at other qualifying institutions | Heavier: employment terms, CV, education/career proof, employer profile, registry certificate, plus financial documents |
| 3 | Part-time teaching | Heaviest relative to hours: Category 2-style evidence for every contracting institution |
These category definitions and their document lists are ISA administrative classifications, so confirm the current checklist before filing (as of 2026-09; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).1
Qualification requirements
The criterion sits in the 上陸基準省令 (jōriku kijun shōrei, "landing-permission criteria ordinance"), the Ministry of Justice ordinance that sets the landing criteria for each work status. Its Instructor row has two numbered items, and they reach different applicants.5
Item 二 (ni, "two") applies to every Instructor applicant: pay at least equal to what a Japanese national would receive for the same work.5
Item 一 (ichi, "one") sets the education criterion, but only for two groups: anyone teaching at a 各種学校 or an institution equivalent to one in facilities and organization, and anyone teaching in a post other than 教員 (kyōin, "teacher", the formal teacher post) at the other qualifying schools.5 An applicant inside item 一 must meet both of its sub-items:
- イ (i): one of three qualifications. These are a university degree or equivalent or higher education; completion of a 専門課程 (senmon katei, "specialized course") or 専攻科 (senkōka, "advanced course") at a Japanese 専修学校 in a subject tied to the teaching, where the completion meets a Ministry of Justice notice; or a license for the teaching in question.5
- ロ (ro): for foreign-language teaching, 12 or more years of education in that language; for any other subject, 5 or more years of experience teaching it at an educational institution.5
A proviso narrows this for one school type. A 各種学校 or equivalent set up to give primary or secondary education in a foreign language to the children of Diplomat, Official, or Dependent status holders requires only イ.5
| Applicant situation | Education criterion in the ordinance | Pay (item 二) |
|---|---|---|
| 教員 post at an elementary, junior high, compulsory-education, high, secondary, or special-needs school, or at a 専修学校 | None | Required |
| Non-教員 post at those schools | イ and ロ | Required |
| Any post at a 各種学校 or equivalent | イ and ロ | Required |
| 各種学校 or equivalent giving primary or secondary education in a foreign language to the children of Diplomat, Official, or Dependent status holders | イ only | Required |
The table restates the ordinance's current text.5 The 専攻科 option in イ arrived with an amendment in force from 2026-04-01; ISA material dated before then names the 専門課程 only.53
The ordinance does not name ALTs. An ISA explanatory slide lists 外国語指導助手 among the status's examples, and MEXT describes the ALT as assisting the responsible teacher, who leads the lesson.36 On a reading of those sources, an ALT holds a non-教員 post and falls under item 一, which means both an イ qualification and ロ's 12 years of education in the language taught; neither ISA nor MEXT states that conclusion in those words.
ISA's three applicant categories and item 一 run on different axes. The categories set document weight by school type and full-time or part-time work, while item 一 turns on school type and whether the post is a 教員 post.15 A full-time ALT at a public junior high school can be Category 1 for documents and still fall under item 一 for the criterion.
Corporate and eikaiwa teaching falls under a different status with its own criteria, covered in the Engineer/Humanities/International Services Visa article.
For language teaching under item 一, including ALTs on the reading above, 12 years of education in the language taught is required in addition to a degree, a qualifying 専修学校 completion, or a teaching license, not instead of one.5 ISA's checklist asks for 「次のいずれかの文書」 ("one of the following documents") and lists four document types (as of 2026-10-10; confirm current details with the Immigration Services Agency).1 Read side by side with the ordinance, the first two evidence イ and the last two evidence ロ; ISA does not state that mapping itself, so the checklist works as a filing list, not as the criterion.15
JET and the ALT reality
JET participants are appointed by individual institutions or local government organizations, which JET calls "contracting organisations", and serve as ALTs, Coordinators for International Relations (CIRs), or Sports Exchange Advisors (SEAs).2 JET maps each position to a status: Instructor for ALTs, Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services for CIRs, and Skilled Labor for SEAs.2
Two hiring channels feed the same status. Direct-hire ALTs contract with the board of education itself; dispatch ALTs contract with a private dispatch company that posts them to schools. The status is identical either way, but the contracting organization differs, which changes who you name in the 14-day notification when the relationship changes.1
Instructor vs Engineer: the eikaiwa line
The test is the employer's legal character. Teaching English at a city junior high school is Instructor activity. Teaching the same English at a private conversation school is ESHI international-services activity, because the employer is a company rather than a qualifying school.14 Accepting the wrong status for the employer type is a refusal or revocation waiting to happen.
Required documents
The common set is the application form, a photo, and for in-Japan filings the passport and residence card, with category-weighted extras layered on: employment-terms documents, a CV, education or career proof (ISA's checklist lists four document types, but the ordinance criterion above, not the checklist, decides who qualifies), employer profile material, and for Category 2 and 3 the registry and financial documents ISA lists.1
Two standing ISA rules apply to every filing. Japan-issued certificates must be within 3 months of issuance, and foreign-language documents need Japanese translations attached.1 ISA warns that incomplete sets cause major delays or disadvantageous dispositions, so treat the checklist as mandatory, not advisory (as of 2026-09).1
Application process
Overseas entry runs through a Certificate of Eligibility filed by a proxy, with no application fee and electronic issuance available since March 2023.7 In-Japan applicants, often graduating students taking school posts, file a change of status instead.8 Holders changing schools without changing status type generally proceed through renewal and notification rather than a fresh change application.
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 | 7 |
| Status change or extension grant (1 year) | ¥33,000 (¥27,000 online) | 2026-10-01 | 9 |
| Status change or extension grant (3 years) | ¥64,000 (¥56,000 online) | 2026-10-01 | 9 |
| Status change or extension grant (5 years) | ¥75,000 (¥65,000 online) | 2026-10-01 | 9 |
| Grandfathered rate (applications filed by 2026-09-30) | ¥6,000 (¥5,500 online) | 2026-09-30 cutoff | 9 |
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.9 Counter fees are paid via revenue stamp (収入印紙); online filings pay electronically via convenience store or bank transfer.9
Processing times
| Application | Standard published range |
|---|---|
| Certificate of Eligibility | 1 to 3 months |
| 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).7810
Period of stay and renewal
Grants come as 5 years, 3 years, 1 year, or 3 months. File renewal before expiry, about 3 months ahead per ISA's general guidance.110
Renewal carries a notable ISA demand: Category 1 applicants must submit residence-tax taxation (or non-taxation) and payment certificates showing a year of income and payment status.1 This is the rare status where the tax check is not inference but an explicit document requirement, which makes the Good to know section below unusually literal. Category 2 and 3 holders file extra employer and activity evidence at the first renewal after a job change.1
Leaving the public-school track
ALTs leaving public-school teaching for private-sector, eikaiwa, or freelance work must change status, typically to Engineer/Humanities/International Services, promptly. Continuing the new activity on Instructor status risks revocation, and ISA's change-of-status page says to file swiftly when the activity changes for exactly this reason.18 The change is a fresh examination, not a paperwork update.8
Starting eikaiwa shifts before the ESHI grant lands means working outside the authorized activity. Time the contract start to the permission, not to the employer's preferred first day.
Good to know
The items below are the ones most likely to end a renewal, break a school move, or strand a contract gap.
Tax and pension arrears sink renewals
ISA demands residence-tax certificates at Instructor renewal, so arrears surface by design rather than by audit luck.1 Pension and health-insurance arrears weigh the same way. The Residence-Tax Year-Two Surprise explains the year-two bill; the Shakai Hoken Overview maps enrollment. Clear arrears before filing, not after a denial.
The 14-day school-change notification
Under Immigration Control Act Article 19-16, affiliated-organization changes must reach the regional bureau within 14 days.11 School changes, board-of-education reassignments that alter the contracting party, and dispatch-company switches all count. File through Notifying Immigration of the Employer Change channels; dispatch ALTs notify against the dispatch-company relationship.
Contract gaps 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.12 Yearly ALT contracts with spring or summer gaps need continuity evidence, and the 3-Month-Unemployment Renewal Risk article traces how examiners read gaps. Keep the next contract or active same-field job seeking on record.
Criminal penalties end this status fast
Convictions that trigger deportation grounds end residence, and schools add employment consequences on top of immigration ones. Anyone charged should consult an immigration lawyer before engaging with examiners; the Bengoshi, Gyoseishoshi, Shiho-shoshi, and Zeirishi: Who Does What guide sorts which professional fits which problem.
Part-time hours and the Category 3 paper trail
Part-time teachers carry the heaviest evidence load relative to hours: employment terms and career proof for every contracting institution, not just the main one.1 Collect each school's paperwork at signing time; reconstructing it across multiple employers at renewal season is where Category 3 filings stall.
See also
- Engineer/Humanities/International Services Visa
- Student Visa Process Through a Language School
- Tenshoku Procedure: The Job-Change Sequence
- The Gyoseishoshi for Visa and Immigration
- How Residence Tax Is Calculated