Until now, Myanmar nationals were granted “Designated Activities” status as an emergency evacuation measure and work permits were also issued when there were circumstances that made it unsafe for them to return to their home country. Recently, the operation of the emergency evacuation measures has been changed in light of the fact that the political situation in Myanmar is still unstable (https://www.moj.go.jp/…/publica…/materials/10_00036.html).

Previously, emergency evacuation measures were divided into three categories.

(1) For those who have graduated from a university or vocational school or completed technical internship but cannot return to Myanmar afterwards due to the danger (whose last status of residence has properly expired), they can obtain the status of “Designated Activities” for 6 months with unlimited working hours.

(2) In addition, if a person aims for the qualification of specified skills and is able to conclude an employment contract with a company that provides the applicable job, it is possible to change the status of residence with unlimited working hours for a year (however, the person needs to be working at the company they got the employment contract and should aims to obtain the “Designated Activities” status).

(3) On the other hand, for those who have dropped out of university or vocational school or quit during the technical internship, etc., they can obtain the “Designated Activities” status with 8-hour-per-week work limit for 6 months.

After the change, those who qualify for the “Designated Activities” status described in (1) will be able to change to the “Designated Activities” status with no limitation of working hours for a year. In addition, those who have stayed in Japan for one year without any trouble (those who have renewed their status twice) will be allowed to change their status to “Designated Activities” status with no restrictions on working hours for a year, even if they are subject to the restrictions described in (3). With this operational change, it is now permitted to change the status to the ones which allows peson to have longer and more sufficient works compares to before.

In some of the cases we have consulted, the applicant should have been able to change to (1) but ended up in (3) because they were unable to provide sufficient explanation to the Immigration Bureau or did not submit sufficient documents of their previous activities. In some of these cases, we have had success in changing the status to (1) as a result of our assistance.

If you are currently having trouble returning to Myanmar, please come and have a consultation with us.

For inquiries and consultation appointments, please refer to here.

弁護士　野原郭利

Hirotoshi Nohara, Attorney at Law