I want to come to Japan for 4-6 months on a Digital Nomad Visa, and we are discussing with my German employer how exactly could we implement it on our side.
My employer told that the most realistic option on German side would be to put my employment contract "on pause" and get temporary freelancer contract with the same company for the period I would work from Japan (because German regulations are complex and nothing can be done in a simple way here. Duh.).
My question is - will Japanese state (embassy, immigration authorities, you name it) accept it if I show up with documents essentially saying "here's my employment contract, but actually it's on pause for this amount of time I'm asking for your visa, and during this time I will freelance for the same company"?
Not so friendly reminder time for people who are thinking about commenting:
It is illegal to work on a tourist visa in Japan. Yes, even remotely. No, it's not a "gray area". This is a settled matter as far as the moderators of this subreddit are concerned.
We do not allow any discussion about illegal activity here. This includes any form of suggesting that OP ignore the Digital Nomad visa and "just come as a tourist".
If we have to keep removing comments like this we're going to start handing out temporary bans.
When I applied in Bangkok for Japan DN last year I didn't submit any contract at all. I submitted my yearly income statement with my gross salary and taxes withheld and a signed letter from my employer saying I'm allowed to work abroad. Had no issues and my visa was approved.
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I asked ChatGPT what is the equivalent in Germany and it said it's called "Lohnsteuerbescheinigung". It's not quite a tax return from what I understand.
Why would you show the embassy the employment contract that is paused? Just show them the new freelancer contract, and have a tax statement handy too in case they ask for more documents - mileage may vary.
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Is it possible to have the freelance contract state a 6 month period? That way you would cover the max period of the visa anyway.
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Yeah I don’t think you are going to have any issues at all. From what I’ve seen people haven’t really had any dramas at all. The most ‘trouble’ I’ve seen someone have is an Australia who runs his own marketing company while travelling the world. For some reason they picked on him and he ended up having to provide quite a lot of documentation BUT he still got the visa in the end regardless. It’s within the scope of the visa so all is good.
Digital nomad visa requires you to have at least 10m yen annually in revenue. How can you prove that with a freelance status?
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Source of income for Digital Nomad Visa
I want to come to Japan for 4-6 months on a Digital Nomad Visa, and we are discussing with my German employer how exactly could we implement it on our side.
My employer told that the most realistic option on German side would be to put my employment contract "on pause" and get temporary freelancer contract with the same company for the period I would work from Japan (because German regulations are complex and nothing can be done in a simple way here. Duh.).
My question is - will Japanese state (embassy, immigration authorities, you name it) accept it if I show up with documents essentially saying "here's my employment contract, but actually it's on pause for this amount of time I'm asking for your visa, and during this time I will freelance for the same company"?
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This appears to be a post about securing a visa to legally live or work in Japan. Please consult our visa wiki for more information. (This is an automated message from the friendly subreddit robot - don't worry, humans can also still reply to your post! However, if your post covers a topic already answered in the wiki or in previous threads, it will probably be locked by a moderator.)
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Well you need proof of work and income plus health insurance and it's not necessary but a COE helps out. As long as you meet the requirements you should be fine but it will take time to get it so don't go getting airline tickets yet expecting to land next week like some people do.
Geuinely not worth the hassle trying to do a digital nomad visa in Japan unless you run your own digital business or are rich enough for it to not matter anyway.
Why are you planning on working so short term in Japan out of curiousity? Is it to travel while still getting a pay check? May just be worth saving up and travelling for an extended period of time
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Theres rarely enough cake to have and yet still eat.
I was in your same boat, wanted my well paying Aussie job, but with the background of Japan. Its never really that simple unfortunately
What I ended up doing was semi retiring in Japan, where I worked 6 months in my country, and spent 6 months in Japan after buying a house there. It worked out for me because my wife is Japanese and had just got into university in Aus when I met her. Made the full transition to going back with her to Japan much much easier.
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I mean go for it, just letting you know there'll be roadblocks. It wasnt worth it for me having tried that route with my job. Mind you, tech is usually pretty flexible as well, especially AI roles. But I still struggled with this specific visa
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