Japan Engineer Visa from Vietnam: Requirements, Documents, and the Direct Hire Advantage

Nearly 97,485 Vietnamese nationals in Japan hold the Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services visa — the formal name for what is commonly called the "engineer visa" or Gijinkoku. That number has grown steadily as Japanese companies recruit directly from Vietnamese universities, particularly in IT and manufacturing engineering.

If you have a university degree from Vietnam and a job offer in Japan that matches your field of study, this is almost certainly your pathway. Here is what the process actually involves for Vietnamese applicants specifically — including the degree verification step that most guides skip.

Who Qualifies: Degree and Job Alignment

The engineer visa (Gijinkoku) has two eligibility bases:

University degree route: A Bachelor's degree (or higher) from a recognized institution, where the major is directly relevant to the job duties in Japan. This is the standard route for most Vietnamese applicants.

Experience route: Ten or more years of full-time professional experience in the relevant field, with no degree required. This is theoretically available but rarely used from Vietnam in practice — documentation burden is extremely high and immigration officers scrutinize it carefully.

For Vietnamese graduates, "recognized institution" means a university accredited by Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training (MoET). This includes all public universities (Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam National University campuses, Da Nang University of Technology, Can Tho University) and many private institutions including FPT University and Phenikaa University. Junior colleges (cao đẳng — associate degree programs) are a gray area; some applicants have qualified, but the two-year curriculum must demonstrably cover the relevant specialization.

The alignment test is strict. A software engineering graduate working as a software developer: straightforward. A software engineering graduate who was hired as a marketing coordinator because the company liked their personality: this application will fail unless the job description specifically frames the role in terms of technical analysis, data systems, or digital operations tied to an engineering function.

Work with your Japanese employer to write a job description that reflects what you will actually do — and makes clear why that work requires your specific educational background.

The VN-NARIC Degree Verification Step

This is the step that Vietnamese applicants most often miss, and it is increasingly important.

The Center for Recognition of Degrees and Certificates — known as VN-NARIC — operates under Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training and provides digital verification of Vietnamese university degrees. The verification is available at naric.edu.vn.

For the Japan engineer visa, some Regional Immigration Bureaus now request the VN-NARIC verification certificate in addition to the standard notarized copy of your degree. This is not yet a universal requirement across all bureaus — the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau has been more consistent about requesting it than some regional bureaus — but submitting it proactively eliminates a common request for additional documents.

How to get VN-NARIC verification:

1. Create an account at naric.edu.vn
2. Upload scanned copies of your degree and transcripts
3. Pay the verification fee (currently around 90,000 VND per degree)
4. Receive a digital certificate with a QR code that Japanese immigration can verify independently

The result is a QR-coded digital certificate that Japanese embassy officers and immigration bureaus can authenticate without contacting your Vietnamese university directly. Build this step into your timeline — verification typically takes one to two weeks.

The Direct Hire Advantage: Why Engineers Skip the Agency

The SSW visa system requires Vietnamese workers to use a DOLAB-licensed sending organization (phái cử agency). The engineer/specialist visa does not.

This is one of the most significant financial advantages of the engineer route for Vietnamese graduates. Under the engineer visa, a Japanese employer can recruit you directly — no dispatch agency involved, no agency service fee to the worker, no "guarantee deposit," no documentation fee bundled into a package you cannot audit.

Japanese companies that recruit Vietnamese engineers directly — through campus fairs at HUST or FPT, through LinkedIn, through direct applications on Japanese job platforms like Rikunabi or Mynavi — handle the COE application themselves or through their in-house HR legal team. The cost is borne by the employer, not the worker.

This does not mean there are no legitimate preparation costs on your side. You still need to pay for:

• Degree notarization and certified Japanese translation
• VN-NARIC verification
• Lý lịch tư pháp (judicial record certificate) from your local Department of Justice or police
• Medical health certificate from a designated hospital

But these are transparent, fixed costs — nothing like the 200 million to 300 million VND packages that SSW workers sometimes face.

High-end recruitment agencies that specialize in placing Vietnamese engineers in Japan do exist — companies like some units of Esuhai that operate a university-graduate-focused program — and they typically charge nothing to the worker, operating on employer-side fees. If you use an agency, verify this fee structure explicitly before signing anything.

IT Engineers and Software Developers: The Specific Requirements

Japan's IT sector has strong demand for Vietnamese software developers, and the Gijinkoku visa covers this directly under the "Engineer (技術)" sub-category.

The specific requirements for a software developer or IT engineer role:

Degree: Computer science, software engineering, information technology, electrical engineering, or a closely related technical field. If your degree is in mathematics or physics with significant programming coursework, this can qualify, but the job description must make the connection clear.

Job description: The role must involve professional-level technical work — system design, software development, network engineering, database administration, data analysis at a technical level. General "IT support" or help-desk roles are harder to qualify because they do not typically require the level of specialized knowledge a degree provides.

Language: There is no mandatory Japanese language test for the visa application itself. However, most Japanese IT employers require at least N3, and senior roles at large companies typically expect N2. Some international Japanese companies recruit English-speaking Vietnamese engineers and do not require Japanese at all — these tend to be higher-paying positions in Tokyo's fintech and tech sectors.

Salary: Your offer must be equivalent to what a Japanese national with comparable qualifications would earn in the same role. Japanese immigration reviews this to prevent wage suppression. Salaries for fresh Vietnamese graduates in Japanese IT roles typically start in the range of 200,000 to 250,000 JPY per month, with experienced engineers earning 350,000 to 500,000 JPY or more.

The Application Process: Step by Step

1. Gather your documents in Vietnam (see below — this is the longest step).

2. Your employer in Japan submits the COE application to the Regional Immigration Bureau covering their location. They include both their supporting documents (company registration, financial statements, tax compliance records) and your personal documents. Processing time: one to three months.

3. COE is issued and sent to you. In 2023, Japan introduced a digital COE system — your employer can send you the COE electronically, which you print and bring to the embassy.

4. You apply for the visa at the Japanese Embassy in Hanoi or the Consulate-General in Ho Chi Minh City. Required documents: COE, passport, visa application form, photos, supporting documents. Processing time: five to ten business days.

5. Enter Japan within three months of the COE issuance date.

Documents You Need to Prepare in Vietnam

• Degree certificate (original Vietnamese, certified Japanese translation, notarized)
• University transcripts (same translation and notarization requirements)
• VN-NARIC verification certificate (increasingly requested)
• Lý lịch tư pháp Number 1 (judicial record / no criminal record certificate) — issued by the provincial Department of Justice or police, valid for six months
• Medical health certificate from a MoET-designated hospital (Bach Mai, E Hospital, Cho Ray, etc.)
• Passport (valid for the duration of your intended stay, ideally 18+ months remaining)
• Detailed CV in Japanese or English, with employment history consistent with your stated experience

The translation and notarization of degree documents is done at a "Văn phòng công chứng" — notarization offices in any major city. The typical cost for Vietnamese-to-Japanese translation and notarization runs 500,000 to 1,500,000 VND per document depending on document length and the office's rate.

The Vietnam to Japan Work Visa Guide includes the complete engineer visa document checklist with current validity requirements, the VN-NARIC registration walkthrough, and guidance on writing a job description that aligns your Vietnamese degree with your Japanese employer's requirements.

See more Japan guides →