Can I do a part-time job on the Specialist in Humanities visa?/Visa Application Service

You would be perfectly able to undergo a part-time job alongside your main form of employment.

However, there are a couple of big caveats. You must receive permission for this from your employer. Secondly, the part-time job must be compliant with the requirements of your visa.

The reason for this is that fundamentally, the ‘Humanities’ visa is not given on the condition of full-time employment. In fact, the type of employment contract has no relation to this. Be it full-time, part-time, or even contract work, as long as the actual work undertaken meets the criteria you should be eligible for the Humanities visa.

In other words, it is absolutely possible to undertake a part-time job alongside your main job or even undertake multiple contracts so long as these add up to a reasonable amount of income.

A good example of this would be someone working Monday to Friday for company A who then does Translation for company B on the weekend. In this case the chance of getting permission is relatively high.

However, conversely if we take the example of someone working Monday to Friday for company A but who wants to work at a bar or restaurant part-time at the weekend. In this case it would not be possible to get permission. This is because this kind of work does not meet the criteria for the Humanities visa.

However, recently due to the Covid-19 pandemic there are a number of cases where it may be possible to undertake a part-time job in this situation. This would require you to go to the immigration bureau to apply for permission to engage in activities other than permitted under current visa. This is limited to covid-19 related situations, however, in the case your company has told you not to come in or have reduced your hours this may be a possibility. Further, you will have to show paperwork proving that you have been ordered to stay at home etc. when applying and you will also have to receive permission from your company.