Explaining the procedures and documents foreign workers must prepare when you hire foreigners employed elsewhere as Specified Skilled Workers

Documents the foreign national must collect for the Specified Skilled Worker application

1. Withholding tax certificate (gensen choshu-hyo)
2. Taxation certificate
3. Tax payment certificate
4. Medical examination results
5. Copy of National Health Insurance card
6. Certificate of National Health Insurance premium (tax) payment
7. Copy of National Pension premium payment receipts
8. Resume from the Technical Intern Training period

1. The withholding tax certificate must correspond to the fiscal year of the taxation certificate you obtain. For example, if you obtain a taxation certificate for fiscal year Reiwa 2, you submit the withholding tax certificate for fiscal year Reiwa 1.

2. You must submit the most recent one fiscal year of taxation certificate that can be obtained.

Also, new fiscal year taxation certificates become available around June each year. The issue date may vary depending on the municipal office with jurisdiction.

3. The tax payment certificate must cover the most recent one fiscal year for which all payment due dates have passed. For that reason, it may be for a different fiscal year than the taxation certificate. For example, if you obtain a tax payment certificate for fiscal year Reiwa 2 but not all payment due dates have passed, you would issue and submit the previous fiscal year Heisei 31 certificate.

4. For foreigners in Japan, medical examination results must be from an examination conducted within the past year. If you are bringing a foreigner from overseas as a Specified Skilled Worker, only medical examination results from an examination conducted overseas within the past three months may be submitted. The items that must be examined are designated by the immigration authority, and if the results include items marked, for example, “re-examination required,” you may be asked to have the person re-examined and resubmit the medical examination results, so caution is needed.

5. A copy of the National Health Insurance card is required when the person is enrolled in National Health Insurance themselves, not company health insurance. This case arises when you hire a foreigner who completed Technical Intern Training but could not return home due to COVID-19 and had no work at the company where they did Technical Intern Training. Because the employment contract with the Technical Intern Training company had already ended and they were obligated to enroll in National Health Insurance during any period of waiting at home, a copy of the National Health Insurance card must be submitted.

6. The certificate of National Health Insurance premium (tax) payment is a document proving that National Health Insurance premiums have been paid without arrears. Because National Health Insurance premiums must be paid by the foreign national themselves, unpaid cases are common, so you must instruct them to make sure payments are made.

7. A copy of National Pension premium payment receipts is submitted, as with National Health Insurance, to prove that pension premiums have been paid.

8. The resume from the Technical Intern Training period is obtained from the company or the supervising organization. Even during Technical Intern Training, resumes and work histories are submitted to the Organization for Technical Intern Training and the immigration authority, but the person often does not know that history, so you need to confirm the history that was actually submitted. Submission of a resume used to be required for Specified Skilled Worker applications but is no longer required. However, the Specified Skilled Worker application form still has a field for work history, so you still need to confirm the work history submitted previously.

Documents that should mainly be obtained by the resignation date for onboarding procedures

1. Employment Insurance insured person certificate
2. Pension handbook
3. Bank account
4. Document showing the My Number
5. Submit a change-of-address notice to the post office

1. The Employment Insurance insured person certificate is needed so that Employment Insurance information from the previous job can be carried over to the new company. Some companies mail it some time after resignation, so obtaining it can take time.

2. The pension handbook may be held by the company, so you need to tell the foreign national you are hiring to receive it from their previous employer by the time they resign.

3. For the bank account, the account opened during Technical Intern Training can sometimes continue to be used, but depending on company or association policy the account may be closed, so confirmation is needed. Also, when five years of work as a Specified Skilled Worker end and the person returns to their home country, the bank account must be closed, and that procedure generally must be done at the branch where the account was opened, so caution is needed.

4. For a document showing the My Number, those transitioning from technical intern trainee to Specified Skilled Worker hold a My Number notification card, which can be used to confirm the My Number. The notification card is not reissued if lost, so the simplest method is to obtain a residence certificate that lists the My Number.

5. The post office change-of-address notice must be submitted promptly after the move-out date. Documents from the company they are leaving may also arrive, so be sure to complete it.

Summary

Hiring Specified Skilled Workers from other companies involves more effort than transitioning foreigners who completed Technical Intern Training at your own company to Specified Skilled Worker status. To reduce that effort as much as possible and avoid procedural mistakes, we recommend confirming the procedures and required documents in advance.