Hi everyone, I’m in a tough spot. My Highly Skilled Professional (HSP) COE was just denied. I have 80+ points and a Category 1 sponsoring company, but the reason given was: "Doubts regarding the submitted documents and the credibility of the application content."
Timeline & Context:
2022: Signed a temp contract with a Japan firm but cancelled for medical reasons.
February 2026: After accepting the job offer, my sponsoring company applied for new COE under the HSP visa category.
Early March 2026: Received a notice from the Immigration Bureau stating there were some discrepancies on the first page of the application form. I’ve double-checked my travel/personal history and found no errors. I’ve never been to Japan nor ever had a visa. Previous lawyer confirms no COE was ever filed. Immigration lawyer submitted a letter of explanation.
Late March 2026: Denial received.
These are my own suspicions:
Past Company Acquisition: I submitted a 2024 verification letter from "Company A," and confirming my dates of employment there (2017-2021) but they were acquired by "Company B" a year ago. Could using the old letterhead and the acquisition look like an invalid document to Immigration?
The 2022 cancelled contract: Could there be a "ghost record" from my cancelled 2022 contract causing a mismatch? Some sort of pre-check sent to the Immigration Bureau?
What do you think the primary reason for a "credibility" denial is in this case?
Should I have proactively explained the 2022 cancellation or the company acquisition?
What are my chances if I re-apply? I still have 80+ points even if I drop the disputed work history.
Is it safer to pivot to a standard "Engineer" visa to simplify things?
Any insights on navigating a "credibility" rejection would be huge. Thanks!
by lordkemosabe187
5 comments
Man at this point if you seem like you did everything by the book and still get fucked, I wouls go hire an immigration lawyer (again) because no one else on this sub can help you. Good luck!
This is all kind of confusing with Company A and B and dates spanning four years. But if no COE was ever filed for the 2022 cancellation and you never came to Japan, how did it even come up on your application? Did you write it under “work history” or something, despite never actually having worked there? How do you have “dates of employment” signed by a CEO on outdated letterhead for a job you never had?
You should apply for a normal work visa and if you really want HSP, apply for a change in status of residence while you are already working. It’s better to get a work visa and start your PR timer than delay just to get an HSP visa.
The standard work visa is better than a HSP visa anyway because it’s not tied to your job. You can get PR via HSP points on a standard work visa. PR borrowed the HSP points calculation but has no relationship with the HSP visa itself.
There are only a few reasons you would want an HSP visa over a work visa. The reasons are: 1. you want to sponsor a parent to take care of your baby or 2. you keep getting 1 year visas and need to guarantee a 5 year visa.
You already hired an immigration lawyer/scrivener, right? They should be the ones making inquiries with immigration. That’s what they get paid for.
I suppose the first thing to do would be to verify with your employer whether they’re prepared to continue with trying to get you into Japan or if they’re going to terminate the contract and go with another candidate. Once the rejection is received there is a 6 month cool down period before you’d be allowed to try again.
If they’d like to continue with hiring you then get the lawyer they hired to do the leg work to find out what specifically the issue was. They don’t officially provide detailed explanations but informally the immigration legal firms hire former immigration officials who maintain back channel networks who can provide more insight (to an extent).
Good luck!
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