Hiring an international graduate for April 2027: apply from December 1

If you plan to hire a student who graduates in spring 2027 and starts in April, the Immigration Services Agency (ISA) asks for the change of status application to be filed between December 1, 2026 and the end of January 2027. The student can apply with a certificate of expected graduation and shows the actual graduation certificate when the permission is granted. Applications filed late, or with documents missing, may not be decided by the start date.

Why December and January

The ISA's notice for students planning to switch to a work status (in Japanese) explains that applications aimed at April starts pour in between January and March every year. Its request is direct: to start work in April, apply between December 1 and the end of January. One exception applies. A student whose Student status expires on or before January 31 and who will keep studying after that date has to renew the Student status first, and should not file the change during that window.

The ISA's model timeline for an April start (PDF, in Japanese) shows the rest of the sequence: the job offer, an application from about December to March with the expected graduation certificate, then the permission at the end of March or in April once the graduation certificate is in hand.

Which status fits the job

Most graduates move to Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services. The job has to draw on what the person studied, and jobs where general service or manufacturing work is the main activity do not qualify. Our article on which jobs qualify for this visa goes through the details.

Graduates of Japanese universities have a second option, Designated Activities No. 46. Under the ISA's guideline (PDF, in Japanese, last revised April 2026), it is open to people who graduated from a Japanese university or completed a Japanese graduate program, plus certain junior college, technical college and accredited vocational school graduates, who also have high Japanese ability: JLPT N1, a BJT Business Japanese Proficiency Test score of 480 or more, or a university major in Japanese. The work must involve two way communication in Japanese, and on that basis it can include service or manufacturing tasks the Engineer/Humanities status would not allow. Pay must be at least what a Japanese employee would receive.

The guideline sets limits worth knowing before the offer goes out. The status covers full-time staff only, so short part-time contracts do not qualify. The person may only do the contracting company's own work, not work at a client site as a dispatched employee. Because the designation names the employer, a later job change needs a new change of status. And the period of stay granted on the switch from Student, and at the first renewal, is one year in principle.

For fields covered by the Specified Skilled Worker system, that status is a third route.

Fewer documents for some applications since December 2025

Since December 1, 2025, some changes from Student to Engineer/Humanities or Researcher can be filed with fewer documents, at the level allowed for category 2 organizations. It covers three groups: graduates or expected graduates of Japanese universities, including graduate schools and junior colleges; graduates of foreign universities ranked in the top 300 in at least two of the QS, THE and ARWU world rankings; and people joining a company that already employs someone who switched from Student to a work status and has had at least one renewal there. Employment through dispatch is excluded. To use it, the applicant attaches the ISA's explanation form to the application.

After the application

For counter applications, the regional immigration bureau mails a postcard once the review is finished. It may arrive before graduation. The ISA asks students to come in only after their Student activities have ended and they have their graduation certificate, bringing the required documents to collect the new residence card, unless the bureau sets a specific date and time. The ISA also says it cannot answer questions about the progress of individual applications and asks people not to call about it.

If the start date comes later than graduation

Not every company starts new graduates in April. A graduate with a job offer can switch to a Designated Activities status that lets them stay until hiring, if they meet the conditions on the ISA's page for job offer holders (in Japanese): hiring within one year of the offer and within one year and six months of graduation, duties expected to qualify for a work status, no problems in their record of stay, and a pledge from the company to keep in regular contact and to inform the immigration bureau without delay if the offer is withdrawn. With permission, they can work part time up to 28 hours a week while they wait, the same cap explained in our article on the 28 hour rule.

How many students make the switch

According to the ISA's report on 2024 (PDF, in Japanese, published November 2025), it decided 41,142 applications from students changing status to work for Japanese companies that year and approved 39,766 of them. China accounted for the most approvals at 14,511, followed by Vietnam at 8,484 and Nepal at 3,909.