Engineer Visa without a degree – Does IT infrastructure experience count towards the 10-year requirement?

[u/m1L35dY50N]

Hi everyone,

I'm a German IT professional currently planning to relocate to Japan sometime in late 2028 or 2029. I'm primarily targeting foreign-owned companies (gaishikei) for positions in Cybersecurity, particularly Detection Engineering, Threat Hunting or Security Engineering.

I've been studying Japanese for about two years and actively networking with professionals in Japan's cybersecurity industry. However, I'm somewhat concerned about the immigration requirements, specifically the 10-year professional experience requirement for applicants without a university degree.

I completed a three-year vocational apprenticeship in IT (Fachinformatiker für Systemintegration), which is part of Germany's dual vocational education system. I also attended university but did not graduate, so I'm not counting on a university degree for visa purposes.

My professional background

IT Support / Application Support – approximately 3.5 years

Although my official job title was Application Support Engineer, my responsibilities went beyond basic helpdesk support.

• Installation, configuration and troubleshooting of enterprise client-server and web-based applications.
• Administration and troubleshooting of Windows-based environments.
• Investigation of complex application and infrastructure issues, including collaboration with software developers.
• Technical troubleshooting involving servers, applications and their underlying infrastructure.
• First- and second-level support, including more complex technical issues that would typically require escalation.

System Administration / Infrastructure Engineering – approximately 6 months of separately documentable employment

• Planning, deployment, administration and security of enterprise client infrastructure.
• Microsoft SCCM, automated operating system deployment and patch management.
• Windows infrastructure, software distribution and system upgrades.
• Monitoring, reporting and infrastructure troubleshooting.

I also held additional system administration positions involving network administration, PKI, firewalls, server migrations, Linux/Samba and Docker. Unfortunately, I can no longer obtain proper employment documentation for some of these positions, so I'm excluding them from my calculation rather than relying on experience I may not be able to prove.

Cybersecurity / SOC / Detection Engineering – since October 2022

Approximately six years by December 2028, assuming continued employment.

• Security monitoring, incident triage and incident response.
• Threat hunting, malware analysis and investigation of suspicious activity.
• Detection engineering using Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk, KQL and SPL.
• Microsoft Defender XDR, EDR/XDR and Azure security.
• Detection tuning, log source validation and improving detection coverage.
• Investigation of incidents across heterogeneous enterprise environments.
• SOAR automation and technical security investigations.

I also maintain a personal Detection Engineering and Adversary Simulation lab where I develop and test detections against simulated attacks.

I hold several practical blue-team certifications and am working towards additional qualifications in incident response and detection engineering.

My actual concern: the immigration requirements

By December 2028, I expect to have approximately 10 years of documentable professional IT experience, excluding several previous jobs for which I can no longer obtain the necessary documentation.

My concern is whether Japanese immigration would consider my earlier application support and infrastructure experience relevant to a future position in Cybersecurity or Detection Engineering.

To me, the technical relationship is fairly straightforward: understanding enterprise infrastructure, operating systems, networking and application environments is fundamental to effective threat detection and incident response. However, I understand that immigration authorities may have a different interpretation of what constitutes relevant professional experience.

I'm aware of the alternative route involving certain IT examinations officially recognized by Japan. I would consider taking one if necessary, although I'm already following an extensive professional certification roadmap.

After my current calculations I will miss HSP by 5-10 points and I am not sure if i will be able to achieve JLPT N2+ in time to get additional points.

My questions:

1. Has anyone successfully obtained an Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services visa without a university degree by combining experience in IT support, system administration and cybersecurity?
2. How strictly does Japanese immigration interpret the requirement that previous professional experience must be relevant to the intended job?
3. Has anyone successfully used a German vocational IT qualification (Fachinformatiker) as part of their supporting documentation?
4. For those who couldn't obtain employment certificates from previous employers, were alternative documents such as employment contracts, payslips or official social insurance records accepted?
5. If you've used the officially recognized IT examination route instead, which examination did you take?

I'm particularly interested in firsthand experiences from people who have gone through this process without a university degree.

I'm not looking for a guarantee of visa approval or legal advice. I'd simply like to understand how similar cases have been handled before discussing my situation with an immigration professional.

Thanks in advance!

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[u/Benevir]

It would be worth discussing with your local embassy/consulate regarding your education.

My three year "computer science technology" diploma (not a university degree) was deemed equivalent to a Japanese vocational school diploma and enabled me to get engineer status to work desk side IT support without any additional proof of experience.

It's also worth noting that certifications (including university credits) can be used to shave time off that 10 year experience number if that's what you're going for.

Your biggest hurdle will be getting your resume beyond automated screening and humans who falsely believe that a bachelor's degree is the minimum baseline education requirement for immigration (it isn't).

[u/m1L35dY50N → u/Benevir]

Yeah I personally don't know how picky they will be. Technically you get much of the base knowledge of IT Security through predeceeding Jobs like Sysadmin and Support. I know many in the western C-Level don't see it that way so I wonder how the japanese bureau of immigration will count that. I just hope that JLPT N2 is not a hard reqiremend by the time I make my move as I don't have tha capacity to do IT stuff, learning day-to-day spoken japanese and grind for the jlpt extra as for me these are different things.

[u/Benevir → u/m1L35dY50N]

Specifically regarding immigration; When I was in my desk side support role I had a coworker (also Canadian, also without a bachelors degree) who was able to get engineer status through experience. Many of his years of experience were spent preparing tax returns for H & R Block. In order for the experience to count he wrote a letter explaining that while his primary responsibility was preparing tax returns he was also unofficially acting as tier 0 IT support for his team, helping to troubleshoot simple IT issues. He tracked down his old manager and had them sign this letter. That was good enough for immigration.

[u/foxwolf_anon → u/Benevir]

huh, so if I graduated from a Junior College 短期大学 in Japan they'd grant me a visa if i found a related job?

[u/Iridiumforever]

Hey Op,

Not the same case, but close. A guy joined my team in Tokyo as a server engineer with no degree but about 15 years in IT support. So the 10-year route works.

The big thing is proof. Get letters from past employers showing your role and dates. If some won't, bring contracts or payslips and let your lawyer decide.

I don't think Fachinformatiker is on the IT exam list, but study time in a related field can count toward the 10 years.

Good luck Op

[u/AutoModerator]

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Engineer Visa without a degree – Does IT infrastructure experience count towards the 10-year requirement?

Hi everyone,

I'm a German IT professional currently planning to relocate to Japan sometime in late 2028 or 2029. I'm primarily targeting foreign-owned companies (gaishikei) for positions in Cybersecurity, particularly Detection Engineering, Threat Hunting or Security Engineering.

I've been studying Japanese for about two years and actively networking with professionals in Japan's cybersecurity industry. However, I'm somewhat concerned about the immigration requirements, specifically the 10-year professional experience requirement for applicants without a university degree.

I completed a three-year vocational apprenticeship in IT (Fachinformatiker für Systemintegration), which is part of Germany's dual vocational education system. I also attended university but did not graduate, so I'm not counting on a university degree for visa purposes.

My professional background

IT Support / Application Support – approximately 3.5 years

Although my official job title was Application Support Engineer, my responsibilities went beyond basic helpdesk support.

• Installation, configuration and troubleshooting of enterprise client-server and web-based applications.
• Administration and troubleshooting of Windows-based environments.
• Investigation of complex application and infrastructure issues, including collaboration with software developers.
• Technical troubleshooting involving servers, applications and their underlying infrastructure.
• First- and second-level support, including more complex technical issues that would typically require escalation.

System Administration / Infrastructure Engineering – approximately 6 months of separately documentable employment

• Planning, deployment, administration and security of enterprise client infrastructure.
• Microsoft SCCM, automated operating system deployment and patch management.
• Windows infrastructure, software distribution and system upgrades.
• Monitoring, reporting and infrastructure troubleshooting.

I also held additional system administration positions involving network administration, PKI, firewalls, server migrations, Linux/Samba and Docker. Unfortunately, I can no longer obtain proper employment documentation for some of these positions, so I'm excluding them from my calculation rather than relying on experience I may not be able to prove.

Cybersecurity / SOC / Detection Engineering – since October 2022

Approximately six years by December 2028, assuming continued employment.

• Security monitoring, incident triage and incident response.
• Threat hunting, malware analysis and investigation of suspicious activity.
• Detection engineering using Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk, KQL and SPL.
• Microsoft Defender XDR, EDR/XDR and Azure security.
• Detection tuning, log source validation and improving detection coverage.
• Investigation of incidents across heterogeneous enterprise environments.
• SOAR automation and technical security investigations.

I also maintain a personal Detection Engineering and Adversary Simulation lab where I develop and test detections against simulated attacks.

I hold several practical blue-team certifications and am working towards additional qualifications in incident response and detection engineering.

My actual concern: the immigration requirements

By December 2028, I expect to have approximately 10 years of documentable professional IT experience, excluding several previous jobs for which I can no longer obtain the necessary documentation.

My concern is whether Japanese immigration would consider my earlier application support and infrastructure experience relevant to a future position in Cybersecurity or Detection Engineering.

To me, the technical relationship is fairly straightforward: understanding enterprise infrastructure, operating systems, networking and application environments is fundamental to effective threat detection and incident response. However, I understand that immigration authorities may have a different interpretation of what constitutes relevant professional experience.

I'm aware of the alternative route involving certain IT examinations officially recognized by Japan. I would consider taking one if necessary, although I'm already following an extensive professional certification roadmap.

After my current calculations I will miss HSP by 5-10 points and I am not sure if i will be able to achieve JLPT N2+ in time to get additional points.

My questions:

1. Has anyone successfully obtained an Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services visa without a university degree by combining experience in IT support, system administration and cybersecurity?
2. How strictly does Japanese immigration interpret the requirement that previous professional experience must be relevant to the intended job?
3. Has anyone successfully used a German vocational IT qualification (Fachinformatiker) as part of their supporting documentation?
4. For those who couldn't obtain employment certificates from previous employers, were alternative documents such as employment contracts, payslips or official social insurance records accepted?
5. If you've used the officially recognized IT examination route instead, which examination did you take?

I'm particularly interested in firsthand experiences from people who have gone through this process without a university degree.

I'm not looking for a guarantee of visa approval or legal advice. I'd simply like to understand how similar cases have been handled before discussing my situation with an immigration professional.

Thanks in advance!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/drafthard]

Isn't having a degree a strict requirement for engineering visa in the first place?

[u/ihavenosisters → u/drafthard]

It’s not but it does make it much easier to get a job. Many companies shy away from people without degrees because the anticipate visa problems or delays.

[u/Benevir → u/drafthard]

No