Intra-Company Transferee Visa
The Intra-Company Transferee visa moves an employee of a multinational into its Japan office without the degree or experience proof that an ordinary work status demands; one continuous year of qualifying overseas employment stands in for all of it.1 Getting the immediacy of that year or the duty-scope test wrong is how transfers fail, so both rules below deserve a slow read before HR sets the transfer date.
This article serves two readers: the employee preparing for a posting to Japan, and the HR planner sequencing the transfer paperwork.
Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at the Immigration Services Agency's status pages and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs transferee page. 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.
Last verified: 2026-09.
Overview
The Intra-Company Transferee status, or 企業内転勤 (kigyō-nai tenkin, "intra-company transfer"), covers personnel transferred for a limited period from a foreign business office to a Japan office to perform professional work.2 It runs in three directions: foreign HQ to Japan subsidiary or branch, overseas subsidiary to Japan HQ, and overseas affiliate to Japan affiliate where a capital relationship links the companies.2
The transfer is legally temporary, so the Japan employment period must be defined in the paperwork.3 That fixed-term framing shapes everything downstream, including the eventual decision to stay permanently under a different status.
Eligibility is national and ordinance-based. No bureau improvises the 1-year rule; assignment mechanics like home-versus-host payroll differ by employer but do not change the immigration test.1
Unlike the Engineer/Humanities/International Services status, this status asks for no degree and no 10-year history. The year of overseas service is the substitute.2
The 1-year overseas-employment rule
Immediately before the transfer, the applicant must have worked continuously for 1 year or more at a foreign head office, branch, or other office, in duties listed under the ESHI categories.12 Three words in that sentence do the work: continuous, immediate, and qualifying.
Continuous means unbroken service with the group. Immediate means the year must lead directly into the transfer; a year of tenure years ago followed by a recent rehire may not satisfy the order.1 Time already spent in Japan on this same status counts toward the year when aggregated under the ministerial order, which protects serial transferees.2
The pre-transfer duties need not match the Japan duties. Any service listed under the ESHI right-hand column qualifies, so an engineer transferring into a management-track posting still clears the history test.2 Part-time or unskilled labor during that year generally does not count.13
HR calendars built around quarter starts sometimes schedule the move days short of 12 continuous months. The order counts 1 year or more, so a premature transfer date fails the whole filing; confirm the vesting date against employment records first.
Eligible duties: the ESHI-scope test
Japan-side duties must fall under the ESHI substance: technical or humanities specialist work, or international-services work needing foreign-culture grounding.12 Translation, trade duties, engineering, and specialist office functions pass; primary unskilled labor such as factory line work, construction labor, or cleaning does not.3
A genuine group transfer doing mostly manual tasks is still ineligible. Unless the manual component is a minor, temporary part of a formal program, the filing will be judged on the duties, not on the corporate relationship.
What this status does not require
No university degree. No 10-year experience history. Those ESHI landing-criteria hurdles simply do not apply to transferees, which is why this status is the vehicle for experienced staff without formal credentials.2
One requirement does carry over in full: compensation must equal or exceed what a Japanese national earns for the same work.13 Examiners compare against real comparators, so a discounted expatriate package invites questions.
Required documents
The set proves three things: the transfer, the year, and the corporate link. Expect the transfer order or secondment agreement, employment evidence covering the 1-year overseas period in qualifying duties, documents showing the capital or affiliation relationship between the offices, a Japan duty description inside ESHI scope, and the standard Certificate of Eligibility set filed by the proxy.124
Application process
The standard route is a Certificate of Eligibility filed by a proxy in Japan: no application fee, with electronic issuance available since March 2023.4 Transferees at stock-exchange-listed or highly trusted companies may get relatively quick visa issuance at the embassy even without a COE, but that is consular discretion, so confirm with the post rather than planning around it.5
Press reporting describes tighter pre-arrival screening for intra-company transfers from April (as of 2026-09).6 Treat that as a lead-time warning: confirm the current documentary expectations with ISA and file earlier than the corporate calendar suggests.
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 | 4 |
| Status change grant (in person or paper) | ¥6,000 | 2025-04-01 | 7 |
| Status change grant (online) | ¥5,500 | 2025-04-01 | 7 |
| Period-of-stay extension grant (in person or paper) | ¥6,000 | 2025-04-01 | 7 |
| Period-of-stay extension grant (online) | ¥5,500 | 2025-04-01 | 7 |
Fees ride on a revenue stamp (収入印紙) under the April 1, 2025 revision (as of 2025-04-01).7
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).489 Practitioner sources describe 2 to 6 months end to end once corporate preparation is included, so the bureau range is only part of the calendar.1
Period of stay and renewal
Grants come as 5 years, 3 years, 1 year, or 3 months, keyed to the planned employment length and any prior ICT grant history.51 Longer postings with qualifying history draw longer grants; short assignments draw short ones.
File renewal before expiry, about 3 months ahead per ISA's general guidance for longer stays.9 A posting extended mid-assignment still needs its paperwork on the same clock.
Staying long-term: the path off this status
Transferees who stay on permanently commonly change to the Engineer/Humanities/International Services status. That change is a fresh examination, not a conversion: the degree-matching, experience, or language-role criteria must be met at that point, and the filing is a standard change-of-status application.128
The transferee permission rests on the group's transfer order. If the posting winds down while the Engineer filing is still pending, the basis of stay gets murky; file the change while the assignment, and its paperwork, is still live.
Good to know
The items below are the ones most likely to end a renewal, sink a transfer date, or strand an assignment.
Tax and pension arrears sink renewals
Extension examination weighs tax and social-insurance payment history like any work status. Clear national and residence taxes plus pension and health contributions before filing. The Residence-Tax Year-Two Surprise explains the year-two bill; the Shakai Hoken Overview maps enrollment while posted.
The 14-day transfer-change notification
Under Immigration Control Act Article 19-16, affiliated-organization changes must reach the regional bureau within 14 days: name or address changes, extinction, or the relationship starting or ending.10 File through Notifying Immigration of the Employer Change channels; secondments that restructure mid-posting generate these filings too.
Assignment 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.11 An assignment that ends early with no successor posting starts that clock, and the 3-Month-Unemployment Renewal Risk article traces how examiners read gaps. Keep evidence of the ongoing or next assignment.
Criminal penalties end this status fast
Convictions that trigger deportation grounds end residence with no multinational leniency. 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.
Tighter pre-arrival screening reports
Press reporting describes tightened pre-arrival screening for this status from April.6 Details beyond the headline were unverified at writing time, so treat this as calendar risk rather than a rule change: confirm documentary requirements with ISA directly and build buffer into the transfer date (as of 2026-09).
See also
- Engineer/Humanities/International Services Visa
- Permanent Residency in Japan: Overview
- Inter-Employer Movements: Same Industry, Cross Industry, Cross Status
- Tenshoku Procedure: The Job-Change Sequence
- The Gyoseishoshi for Visa and Immigration