I'm a 27yo web developer from Spain, and I wish to go live and/or work in japan for some years. The thing is I do not have a degree. So as I read multiple times here it would be almost impossible for me to get a normal work visa. So I was hoping I could qualify for the HSP visa, but I've been looking around the point system and I think I may be really close to 70 but not enough maybe… I was hoping you guys could help me figure out if I have any chance.
For reference, I'm using this site https://www.wahlandcase.com/tools/hsp-visa-points-calculator to get the point values. Let's do some math.
- Academic Background: As I said I don't have a degree so obviously I don't have access to master's/doctor's degrees either. I do have something called CFGS in Spain (Equivalent to EU's EQF Level 5), which is right below a college degree. Also my CFGS is not exactly related to my work. I wonder if that would score me any points, but for now I would say no. So… 0 points.
- Professional Career: 7 years or more, so 15 points.
- Age: I'm 27 so 15 points.
- Annual Salary: Given my porfolio, experience and the job offers I've seen in recent months, I would say I can pull off something between 6 to 8M yen a year, wich would grant me a range of 20-30 points. I'd rather be conservative with this.
- Research Achievements: None, 0 points.
- License: None, 0 points.
- Contracting organizations: Okay, so this is a tricky one for me, because these are the options, but what I would like to know is, is there a way for me to publicly check this information? Or should I just ask the company?
- Work for an organization which receives financial support measures for the promotion of innovation – 10 points
- The organization is a company that comes under I, and constitutes a small or medium-sized enterprise under the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Basic Act – 10 points
- Work for an organization which receives support as a target organization of the Project to Promote Acceptance of Highly-Skilled Foreign Professionals in National Strategic Special Zones – 10 points
- Achievements and benefits: I don't think any of these apply to me, so I would say 0 points.
- Japanese language: I'm around N4 so yeah, nope. 0 points.
- University: This one I have doubts about, because they award 10 points for graduating from "Foreign universities ranked in the top 300 in at least two university rankings or Japanese universities ranked in one of them". As I said I do not have any college degree, BUT the CFGS I do have is actually given to me from the University of Barcelona, which is in the list, so I don't know if that counts… So 10 points?
So, doing the math, if section 10 actually counts and I manage to get a 8M yen salary, that would hit exactly 70 points. If section 10 does not count I could maybe still get some points from section 7 maybe?
At least that's my understanding of this whole thing, but honestly I feel like maybe I just have not chance and should take another route. Obviously going to a language school would be great (I'm studying Japanese and will keep doing so), but I don't really have that much money. I also have a job here in Spain so quitting it to take a degree would be hard.
I don't know, I feel like I'm going crazy with this, like I'm gonna spend so much time building my portfolio and job-hunting to then just have my visa rejected. So any help / advice would be great.
by cortvi