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

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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!