Interview Questions and Advice 2014

[Ini]

??????? I have never heard of anybody doing that. Just go to immigration and get a new stamp put in your new passport.

[Gizmotech]

LOL, is it really that easy? My friend was carrying her old passport around for 2 years after she got it renewed. Noone in immigration ever bothered to transfer it over for her.

[Antonath]

When I renewed my visa a couple of years ago, it was with a new passport, and I got the new gaijin card at the same time. My new passport has nothing visa-related in it; the guy behind the desk told me the new gaijin card handled everything.

I flew out and back through Narita a year later with no issues, so I figure he must have been at least partially correct.

[Gizmotech]

When I renewed my visa a couple of years ago, it was with a new passport, and I got the new gaijin card at the same time. My new passport has nothing visa-related in it; the guy behind the desk told me the new gaijin card handled everything.

I flew out and back through Narita a year later with no issues, so I figure he must have been at least partially correct.

Really? Nothing stamped in the passport other than entry and exit? Cool.

[miamicoordinator]

When I renewed my visa a couple of years ago, it was with a new passport, and I got the new gaijin card at the same time. My new passport has nothing visa-related in it; the guy behind the desk told me the new gaijin card handled everything.

I flew out and back through Narita a year later with no issues, so I figure he must have been at least partially correct.

This is correct. When you renew your visa, they put a little sticker that serves as your status in japan in conjunction with your zairyuu card.

The problem before was with people who had their current visa in their old passport and had to get a new one while in japan. While things have become more streamlined with the new zairyuu system, people here are confusing two important things.

There is a difference between reentry permission and permanent status in japan.

The zairyuu card system replaced on the reentry permit mess they had before as long as you are not out of the country for more than 1 year. If you will be out for more than a year(unlikely for jets) then you are required to get a special renentry permit before leaving japan.

While the zairyuu card works for many things, all foreigners in japan are still required to have valid visa status while in the country.

Your zairyuu card is not your visa status, but rather proof of WHAT your visa status is. It will say "specliast in humanities/int. Services" for CIRs and "as instructor" for ALTs, along with the date when your status in japan in set to expire.

If you were to get into any trouble while in japan, you would be required to present your passport, which shows your current status as well.

[Ini]

When you renew your visa, they put a little sticker that serves as your status in japan in conjunction with your zairyuu card.

no they dont. the little sticker for visa renewals was under the old system. now they just scan your passports barcode and the visa status flashes up on their screen. you then show them your zairyuu card. like antonath there is nothing visa related in my latest passport.

[johnny]

Thanks for the info, I'm headed off to Korea this month and I was wondering about this.

[miamicoordinator]

[QUOTE=Ini;849436]no they dont. the little sticker for visa renewals was under the old system. now they just scan your passports barcode and the visa status flashes up on their screen. you then show them your zairyuu card. like antonath there is nothing visa related in my latest passport.[/QUOTE

There are passports which are not machine readable.

They still use status stickers in many circumstances.

[Ini]

non machine readable passports? In the year 2014? I knew america was a bit backwards when it comes to international relations but I would have hoped they could manage to keep up with mighty powerhouses like latvia when it came to passport technologies......

[miamicoordinator]

non machine readable passports? In the year 2014? I knew america was a bit backwards when it comes to international relations but I would have hoped they could manage to keep up with mighty powerhouses like latvia when it came to passport technologies......

Yep, you would be surprised how many non-machine readable passports come across my desk still. Passports made in the U.S. are normally machine read-able now a days, but if you were in another country and needed to get your U.S. passport renewed because it was lost or stolen, it is very possible for your passport to be non-machine readable. My point is, answers are not always so black and white. There are gray areas when it comes to immigration proceedings, especially since things are very case by case in many situations.

[Ini]

If you are getting a sea of non machine readable passports on your desk you should probably be telling people to get new passports ASAP. The ICAO announced 2 months ago that non machine readable passports will no longer be valid from 2015.

[ninja_raj]

Quick question: Do the rejection/acceptance letters come at the same time in April?

[miamicoordinator]

Quick question: Do the rejection/acceptance letters come at the same time in April?

Yes, they do. After we receice the list from tokyo, all of the u.s. jet coordinators coordinate a specificndate and time for notifications. We send out acceptence/rejection emails at the same time. There may be a difference of a few hours here and there due to time zones, and email lag, but generally everyone will know their status on the same day, at least from my consulate.

[johnny]

Yes, they do. After we receice the list from tokyo, all of the u.s. jet coordinators coordinate a specificndate and time for notifications. We send out acceptence/rejection emails at the same time. There may be a difference of a few hours here and there due to time zones, and email lag, but generally everyone will know their status on the same day, at least from my consulate.

Hey MC, how many alternates are generally selected in relation to shortlisted candidates? If you had 25 shortlisted candidates, how many alternates would be picked?

[miamicoordinator]

Hey MC, how many alternates are generally selected in relation to shortlisted candidates? If you had 25 shortlisted candidates, how many alternates would be picked?

The number of alternates depends on a couple of factors. First, we have to see how many people we sent the previous year. CLAIR likes us to have a healthy list of alternates because there are always people who decline being short-listed, or they pull out because they are not in the part of Japan that they want to be in. Also, people break contract after getting to Japan, so if we do not have enough alternates, it can be a problem.

The amount of alternates also depends on how well everyone did in their interviews. I like hypothetical numbers because it makes explaining certain things easier. Lets say Miami interviewed 40 people, and last year we sent 20 people to Japan. We can hope that maybe this year we will be able to send 20 people again(but like I have said previously, it could be higher or lower number). So, lets say we eliminate 5 people from the 40 because they did not pass their interview. That leaves us with 15 potential alternates. Now, out of those 15 potential alternates, there might be some that technically "passed" their interview, but they received a very low score, and for whatever reason, we do not want to send them. Each Consulate determines a cut off score based on their numbers. So lets say that cut off score leaves us with 10 people, they will be out alternate list.

If the 15 people all did well on their interviews though, our alternate list could be as high as 15.

With your number of 25 short listers though, I would say typically we would shoot for an alternate list of 10-15 people. Of course, it would all depend if we had sufficient people who we feel we wanted to recommened. CLAIR does not like us having a small number of alternates though because if we run out, it can be a problem.

It is always a number game!

[CrouchingMouse]

Thanks for all this info! It's really interesting to get an idea of how the process works, considering it's usually so shrouded in secrecy. Hope you won't get in trouble for telling us all this. =p

I have a question as well, if you know the answer...what percentage of alternates would you say typically get upgraded in an ordinary year?

[miamicoordinator]

Thanks for all this info! It's really interesting to get an idea of how the process works, considering it's usually so shrouded in secrecy. Hope you won't get in trouble for telling us all this. =p

I have a question as well, if you know the answer...what percentage of alternates would you say typically get upgraded in an ordinary year?

There are certain things that I cannot talk about or publicize, for example, the exact way we score candidates is probably the biggest. For anyone who has worked with a Japanese company, or Government, things are often stated very vaguely. This is just a cultural aspect of Japanese society. Nothing can be said unless it is 100% confirmed and set in stone. If it is 99% set, then you cannot talk about it. This is why many people get frustrated, and we have the shroud of secrecy attached to the JET Program. It is not so much that coordinators do not want to be open with people. but rather we are instructed to not say anything unless we know for certain. I will give you a perfect example.

Many people want to know their position on the alternate list to know whether or not they are "close" to be upgraded or not. I completely understand this logic, because I would most likely think the same way. The problem is, even if you are next on the list, there is no guarantee of being upgraded. In order to not give flase hope to candidates, we are instructed to not say anything at all. If we tell someone "You are next! Don't worry" and then a spot doesnt open up for them, we are in huge trouble with our superiors. Also, being next on the alternate list does not mean you will necessarily be picked next. When get requests from COs seeking very specific conditions for candidates. Single, male, no family, with a license for example. So, if the next 4 people on our alternate list are female, or married, or have no license, guess who will upgraded next? This is another reason why the alternate list needs to be vague. It is more to protect candidates, and not give them a sense of hope where there is no promise.

But back to your question, the number of alternates that is upgraded really does vary greatly on the circumstances of the year. For example, when Fukushima happened, and people got placements in the Fukushima area, TONS of people dropped out when the heard their locations, this caused a large number of alternates to be upgraded. There are many people who are still worried with the Fukushima area who will refuse to go there. That is their perogtive of course. Some years we have a large number of alternates left on our list, and sometimes we nearly run out. It depends on how many short-listers accept and do not drop out/break contract.

Unfortunately, there is no average percentage of alternates that are upgraded yearly due to the circumstances the surround it. Sorry I could not give a more specific answer. Sometimes its 10% that get upgraded, sometimes its 90%.

[ninja_raj]

Thanks for that!