Intra-company Transferee Visa for Japan: Requirements and Process

A posting to the Japanese office of the company you already work for is not the same immigration problem as being hired in Japan from scratch. Japan has a dedicated status of residence for it, and the rules are unusual: no university degree, but a hard requirement that you were already on the payroll a year ago, and a permission that is welded to one specific office rather than to you.

Most of what follows comes straight from two documents — Appendix I, Table 2 of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, and the 1990 ministerial ordinance that sets the landing criteria for each status. Everything here reflects the position as of August 2026.

What Japan means by Intra-company Transferee

The Act describes Intra-company Transferee as the activity of an employee of an overseas office of a public or private organization that has a head office, branch or other office in Japan, who is transferred for a fixed period to the office in Japan and there carries out activities listed under the Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services entry of the same table.

Four things are packed into that sentence. You already work at the group's office abroad. The group has an office in Japan. The transfer runs for a defined period rather than being an open-ended relocation. And the work you will actually do in Japan sits inside the Engineer/Specialist box: engineering, IT, finance, planning, marketing, translation, international trade and similar white-collar work.

That last element catches people out. The status does not unlock a wider set of permitted activities. It borrows the Engineer/Specialist list wholesale. A transfer to work a production line, drive a delivery vehicle or staff a shop counter does not become permissible just because it happens inside a corporate group.

The words "for a fixed period" are not decorative either. In its July 2026 question-and-answer sheet for employers, the Immigration Services Agency states that this status is not granted indefinitely, and that where a stay longer than around five years is sought, the necessity will be examined carefully.

It remains a small category. At the end of 2025, 19,161 people held it, roughly 0.5 percent of Japan's 4,125,395 foreign residents, up 4.3 percent on the year before.

How it differs from Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services

The landing criteria ordinance sets out conditions status by status. For Engineer/Specialist the list is long: a degree in a related field, or a diploma from a Japanese vocational course meeting published requirements, or ten years of experience, counted so as to include time spent majoring in related subjects at a university, college of technology, upper secondary school or a vocational course; for work grounded in foreign culture, three years of relevant experience, waived for graduates doing translation, interpretation or language teaching; and Japanese-equivalent pay. One further exemption sits in the same provision: for work requiring information-processing technology or knowledge, the education and experience test falls away altogether if the applicant has passed an information-processing examination or holds an information-processing qualification designated by ministerial notice.

For Intra-company Transferee, the same ordinance lists two conditions. One year of continuous service immediately before the transfer, in Engineer/Specialist-type work at the office abroad. And remuneration at least equal to what a Japanese national would receive for the same work. Education is not mentioned anywhere.

Read that as a trade. You lose the degree requirement and gain a mobility restriction. A person on Engineer/Specialist can resign on Friday and start somewhere else on Monday, subject to a notification. A transferee cannot: the permission attaches to the transfer, to that office, for that period.

The one-year rule at the sending office

Condition one requires that, immediately before the transfer in question, you were engaged at a head office, branch or other office located abroad in work falling under Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services, continuously for one year or more.

Three words do the work. "Immediately" means the year has to run up to the transfer, not sit somewhere in your history. "Continuously" means a resignation followed by a rehire restarts the clock. And the work during that year must itself have been professional work of the Engineer/Specialist type — a year in a warehouse role before an internal promotion does not count toward it.

One clause is generous. If you have previously worked at the group's office in Japan on Intra-company Transferee status, that Japanese period is added to the overseas period when the total is worked out. Eight months in Tokyo, five months back at the home office, and a second posting: the combined figure clears the year.

Proving it falls to the employer. The Agency's checklist asks for a curriculum vitae naming the organizations, duties and dates, plus a document from the overseas employer covering the past year that states the work performed, the position held and the remuneration paid. Social insurance enrolment certificates and household registration extracts are named as supporting evidence.

Which offices count as the same organization

The statute says head office, branch or other office, which sounds narrow until you look at what the Agency actually asks people to file. Its document checklist is built around three transfer patterns, and each one reveals what relationship it will accept.

A transfer inside a single legal entity — the Japan branch of a foreign company — needs a certificate of registered matters for the branch, or equivalent proof that the entity has an office in Japan.

A secondment to a Japanese corporation needs documents showing the investment relationship between that Japanese corporation and the foreign company seconding you.

A secondment to a foreign corporation that has an office in Japan needs both: the branch registration for that corporation, and documents showing the capital relationship between it and the sending company.

Parent and subsidiary, sister subsidiaries, and companies linked by shareholding are all contemplated here, but the common thread is capital. A contractual alliance, a franchise, a distributorship or a long client relationship leaves you with no capital link to document, and the application has nothing to stand on.

The sending office also has to be shown to exist. Corporate registration issued by a public authority is the cleanest evidence; the checklist also accepts tax payment records, trading records, bills of lading, import and export permits and advertising material.

Pay, and the paperwork that proves it

Condition two is a single line: you must receive remuneration equal to or above what a Japanese national would receive for the same work. No yen figure is published, and there is no separate floor for this status. The comparison is internal, against what the Japanese office pays its own staff at a comparable grade.

This is what catches transfers priced off a home-country payroll. An assignment package that lands materially below the Japanese office's own rate for the role will draw questions, however generous it looks measured against salaries in the sending country.

The evidence depends on the pattern. Inside one legal entity, the Agency asks for a copy of the transfer order or the assignment letter. Across entities, it asks for the written statement of working conditions that Article 15(1) of the Labour Standards Act and Article 5 of its enforcement regulations require. For directors and others who are not employees, the articles of incorporation or the shareholders' meeting minutes fixing remuneration are used. Whichever document is used, it has to show the activity, its period, the position and the remuneration.

How much else the employer files depends on its size, because the Agency sorts organizations into four categories and asks larger ones for less.

• Category 1 — companies listed on a Japanese stock exchange, mutual insurance companies, national and local governments in Japan or abroad, incorporated administrative agencies, special and authorised corporations, public interest corporations, public corporations under Appended Table 1 of the Corporation Tax Act, companies covered by the innovation-promotion measures under the Highly Skilled Professional ordinance, and certain certified companies — those holding designated ministerial certifications such as Youth Yell, Kurumin, Eruboshi or safety-and-health excellence certification.
• Category 2 — organizations whose statutory report of withholding for the previous year shows withheld income tax of 10 million yen or more, or organizations that wished to file with Category 2 documentation, submitted the materials required for the category review, and had their application to use the online residence application system approved.
• Category 3 — organizations that filed a statutory report of withholding for the previous year but fall below the Category 2 threshold.
• Category 4 — everything else, including newly established offices, which face the fullest document list.

Period of stay, fees and how long each step takes

Four periods can be granted: 5 years, 3 years, 1 year or 3 months. Which one you get is a matter of examination, and a first grant at the long end is not automatic.

If you are still abroad, the receiving office applies for a Certificate of Eligibility at the regional immigration bureau covering your intended place of residence or the receiving organization. Applications are made in person at the regional immigration bureau or through the Immigration Services Agency's online residence application system; postal filing is not accepted, and there is no fee. The certificate is issued either on paper or, since 17 March 2023, by email, and then goes to you for the visa application at a Japanese embassy or consulate.

One extra step applies by nationality. Since 23 June 2025 for nationals of the Philippines and Nepal, and since 1 September 2025 for nationals of Vietnam, a visa application for a medium- to long-term stay must be accompanied by a tuberculosis non-disease certificate issued by a medical facility designated by the Japanese government. The certificate is valid for 180 days from the date of the chest X-ray. Indonesia, Myanmar and China are designated as future target countries with no start date announced yet.

Mind the certificate's clock. One issued on or after 1 August 2022 is valid for three months from the date of issue, because it certifies that the conditions were met when it was issued rather than serving as an open-ended entry ticket.

Those fees took effect on 1 April 2025 and are subject to change; the processing periods are targets the Agency publishes, not guarantees. You do not have to file it yourself either. The applicant, a staff member of the receiving organization, or a notified representative such as a lawyer or a registered administrative scrivener may submit it. In practice the Japanese office runs the filing, since most of the evidence is corporate.

Bringing your spouse and children

Intra-company Transferee appears on the Agency's list of statuses that support Dependent status, so a spouse and children you support can come with you or follow later. Parents, siblings and unmarried partners are outside it.

A dependent's period of stay is designated individually within a five-year ceiling and is normally aligned with yours. Two routes work: file their Certificate of Eligibility applications alongside yours, which tends to get everyone on the same flight, or file after you have landed and hold a residence card, which is slower but does not hold up your start date.

Dependents cannot work on the status alone. With permission to engage in an activity other than that permitted, they may work up to 28 hours a week — the cap comes from Article 19(5)(i) of the enforcement regulations — and adult-entertainment work is excluded whatever the hours. Full-time work requires a work status of their own.

One consequence is easy to miss. Because your status is tied to a defined assignment, theirs is tied to yours, and it does not survive on its own once yours ends.

What happens when the assignment ends

The permission was granted for an activity, and the law keeps watching whether that activity continues. Under Article 22-4(1)(vi) of the Act, a status may be revoked where the holder has spent three consecutive months not performing the corresponding activity, absent a justifiable reason. Staying on in Japan after a posting has quietly wound down is a real exposure.

There is a reporting duty as well. Article 19-16 places this status in the group that must notify the Immigration Services Agency within 14 days when the organization's name or location changes, when it ceases to exist, or when you leave it or move to another one.

Three exits are normal. You go back to the sending office. The assignment is extended and the employer applies to extend the period of stay, which is possible though longer stays attract closer scrutiny. Or the Japanese entity hires you directly and you apply to change status, usually to Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services.

That third route is where a missing degree returns. Step outside the transfer framework and the full Engineer/Specialist criteria apply: a degree in a related field, a qualifying Japanese vocational diploma, or ten years of practical experience (which may include time spent studying related subjects at university, college of technology, upper secondary school or a vocational course) — three years for work grounded in foreign culture. One escape hatch is worth knowing about: for IT work, the ordinance waives the education and experience test altogether if you have passed an information-processing examination or hold an information-processing qualification designated by ministerial notice. Someone who entered Japan without a degree, precisely because the transferee route did not ask for one, may otherwise find the change of status is the harder application. Mapping that exit before the assignment begins is worth the hour it takes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a university degree for the Intra-company Transferee status?

No. The ministerial ordinance setting the landing criteria lists only two conditions for this status: one year of continuous service in Engineer/Specialist-type work at the group's office abroad immediately before the transfer, and remuneration at least equal to a Japanese national's for the same work. Education is not part of the test. This is the main practical advantage over Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services, which does require a related degree, a qualifying Japanese vocational diploma, or ten years of experience — counted so as to include time spent majoring in related subjects at a university, college of technology, upper secondary school or a vocational course. Even there, the same ordinance waives the education and experience test entirely for information-processing work if you have passed an information-processing examination or hold an information-processing qualification designated by ministerial notice.

Can I change employers while I hold this status?

Not within the status. The permission is granted for a transfer to a specific office for a defined period, so it does not carry over to an unrelated employer. Moving to a different company means applying for a change of status of residence, and the new status will be judged on its own criteria — usually Engineer/Specialist, where the degree or experience requirement applies in full. Separately, Article 19-16 of the Act requires you to notify the Immigration Services Agency within 14 days if you leave the organization or move to another one.

Does the one year of service have to be at the exact office I am transferring from?

The criteria refer to a head office, branch or other office located abroad belonging to the same organization, and the year must be continuous and run up to the transfer. Part-time work or non-professional duties during that year do not count toward it. There is one addition: if you previously worked at the group's office in Japan on Intra-company Transferee status, that period is added to the overseas period when the total is calculated.

How long can I stay in Japan on this status?

The periods that can be granted are 5 years, 3 years, 1 year and 3 months, and extensions can be applied for. However, the Act describes the transfer as being "for a fixed period," and the Immigration Services Agency stated in its July 2026 guidance for employers that the status is not granted indefinitely and that stays beyond roughly five years will be examined carefully for necessity.

Can my spouse work in Japan while I am on assignment?

Your spouse and the children you support can apply for Dependent status, whose period of stay is designated individually up to a five-year maximum. Dependent status itself does not permit work. With permission to engage in an activity other than that permitted, a dependent may work up to 28 hours a week under Article 19(5)(i) of the enforcement regulations, excluding adult-entertainment businesses. Anyone who wants to work full time needs their own work status.

Summary

Intra-company Transferee is a narrow status with a specific shape: an employee of an overseas office of a group that has an office in Japan, transferred for a defined period, doing work that falls inside the Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services categories. Nothing broader is permitted under it.

The two landing criteria are the whole test. One year of continuous, professional service at the office abroad immediately before the transfer, and pay at or above what a Japanese national would receive for the same work. There is no education requirement, which is why the route works for experienced staff without a degree.

The link between the two offices has to be documented, and capital is the thread. A branch of the same legal entity, a secondment to a Japanese corporation with an investment relationship, or a secondment to a foreign corporation with a Japan office and a capital relationship all qualify. Contracts, franchises and client relationships do not.

On process: the Certificate of Eligibility route carries no fee and a published processing target of one to three months, the certificate is valid for three months from issue, and a change of status or extension from inside Japan costs 6,000 yen at the counter or 5,500 yen online under the fees revised on 1 April 2025. Periods of 5 years, 3 years, 1 year or 3 months can be granted. Nationals of the Philippines, Nepal and Vietnam must also file a tuberculosis non-disease certificate with the visa application. Spouses and children can accompany you on Dependent status, with a 28-hour weekly work cap if they obtain the relevant permission.

The exit deserves planning before the entry. A status can be revoked after three consecutive months without the corresponding activity, changes at the organization must be notified within 14 days, and moving to a direct hire with the Japanese entity means meeting the full Engineer/Specialist criteria — the degree or experience requirement that the transfer route waived, unless the IT qualification exemption applies.

This article reflects the laws, ministerial ordinances, published fees and administrative guidance in force as of August 2026, based on materials published by the Immigration Services Agency of Japan and on statutes available through e-Gov. Immigration criteria, fees and processing periods change, and every application is decided on its own facts by the examining immigration office. Nothing here is a guarantee of approval or a substitute for advice on your individual case. Visa applications and related procedures are handled by Tree Administrative Scrivener Corporation; TreeGlobalPartners Inc. provides job placement for foreign nationals, which is completely free of charge for the worker.