Immigration Agency raises annual income requirements for “highly-skilled foreign professionals” due to wage increase

The Immigration Services Agency has decided to raise the minimum annual income requirement for the ``Highly Skilled Professional'' status of residence for foreigners with advanced skills and specialized knowledge from the current ``3 million yen or more.'' In response to wage increases in recent years, experts have voiced the need to tighten conditions in order to properly accept highly skilled workers. We aim to revise the ministerial ordinance within this fiscal year. This was announced by multiple Immigration Agency officials on the 18th.

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Highly-skilled professionals fall into three fields: "academic research," "specialty/technology," and "business/management." The ``minimum annual income standard'' for specialized/technical and business/management fields is 3 million yen or more, and there is no minimum standard for academic research.

All qualifications will be evaluated using the ``Highly Skilled Professional Points System.'' If the total score of points set for each item such as annual income, age, educational background, and work experience reaches 70 points, it will be certified as Category 1. A period of stay of 5 years will be granted. If you have been active for three years or more, you can stay indefinitely as a Category 2 person.