Monday, October 8, 2007

Apologies to my readers

I must apologize for the dearth of posts in recent days. I have, unfortunately, been busy making preparations for my imminent departure from Japan on Tuesday — my visa is set to expire next week, so it's off to New York City to finish Ph.D. applications and contemplate ways to return to Japan as soon as possible.

If anyone has any ideas (offers, sinecures, etc.) for how I can return to Japan quickly, I am eager to hear them.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

1 comment:

Jan Moren said...

Well, the five be's for immigration are not limited to Japan:

Be married
Be employed
Be a student
Be a relative
Be a permanent resident

Getting married to stay in a country - rather than the other way around - is a bad idea in so many ways. I wish I could say I've seen a single happy outcome from it, but racking my brain I can not find even one case (and I know of at least a dozen, here and in Sweden).

You should have some contacts; I'd think you could swing a job of some kind doing translation or teaching work. Of course that's unlikely to be a career position or anything and so it may not be too appealing since you may end up in your current situation again another year or two from now.

Or if you can, look for a graduate position in a university here. Not sure how hard that is to get, though I know people who's gotten offers complete with grants. Or start a PhD program in the US and aim to do part of it at a university here.

For the fourth and fifth, well, you should probably already know if you're a close relative of a resident, and likewise if you could get a permanent residency you'd likely already done so.