Visa and Status of Residence
In order to be employed by IPMU, you must obtain an appropriate status of residence that permits you to work, which is called status of residence of "professor." Status of residence will be awarded when you enter Japan. By the University of Tokyo regulations, you must obtain this status at least one day before your official appointment date. Therefore, you must enter Japan one day or more before the appointment date. The first step in order to obtain status of residence is to have the “certificate of eligibility” issued. IPMU will submit application form for your certificate of eligibility to the Immigration Bureau on behalf of you. Our staff will contact you in regard to this after your appointment is finalized. Please send us a copy of your passport, photo of your face using .jpg file and other necessary documents to apply for the certificate. Issuance of the certificate will take about four to six weeks after the application form has been submitted. The certificate is valid for three month after issuance. After we receive the certificate from the Immigration Bureau we will send it to you using express mail. Please apply for a professor visa at nearby Japanese Embassy or Consulate General with the certificate of eligibility and enter Japan while it is valid. Visa will normally be issued within two weeks after you submit application. When you enter Japan, you will be authorized by immigration officer that you have status of residence of professor. Please plan ahead of time so that you have enough time to apply for visa.
If you would like to accompany your family to live with you in Japan, your family needs to obtain dependents’ status of residence. Original copy of marriage certificate for a spouse and original copy of birth certificate for a child will be required for certificate of eligibility application. For Chinese nationals, notarized document for each will be required. Please consult us well in advance.
Find out more about visa from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.
http://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/visit/visa/index.html
Employment Process
In order for us to process your employment, we need your personal history documented according to the University of Tokyo format. We will email the form to you. Please fill out the form, sign it and mail the original copy to us at least one month before your intended appointment date.
Appointment Date
Your appointment with IPMU starts either on 1st or 16th of the month, given that you already hold status of residence of professor as described above. This is required by the Japanese law and possibility of delay on the landing date for any reason should be reported to us immediately. If such event occurs and you will not be able to make it on 1st or 16th, we will do our best to shift the starting date to one day after your landing date, however, please be reminded that in the most unfortunate case we might end up shifting your starting date to the 1st or 16th of the following month.
Please come to our office before the starting date with your passport. We will double check that you have a proper status of residence. We will also ask you to sign some documents as part of employment process. In Japan, “Hanko” (a personal seal) is more often used than signature. It will be useful when you do administrative paperwork, open a bank account, sign contracts and etc., so we advise you to purchase one for yourself. Inexpensive hankos will cost about a several hundred yen. You can order one using alphabet, kanji (Chinese characters) or katakanas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_(East_Asia)
Relocation
Airfare will be reimbursed if you have used airplane for relocation in order to work at IPMU. Make sure you purchase one-way economy class ticket. After you have purchased it, please send us using email, either e-ticket or copy of air ticket receipt with both itinerary and price indicated. After you arrive in Japan, please submit all original boarding stubs. Your family’s airfare will also be reimbursed with the same necessary items described above.
We will provide relocation allowance to support relocation expenses incurred for starting to work at IPMU. If you were employed at an institute before coming to IPMU, The amount of relocation allowance will be determined by the distance between that institute and IPMU and if you were a graduate student, it will be determined by the distance between your house and IPMU. It will be transferred to your bank account with the above mentioned airfare after you have your own bank account in Japan. Since you can only open bank account in Japan after you sign a contract for your apartment, a rough estimate of when you will receive the relocation allowance will be one to two month after you arrive.
Email Account and PC Request
Please access to the following link and let us know what kind of PC you would like to use.
http://db.ipmu.jp/trac/ipmu/login
Let us know if you need a password to log in.