Language Mastery Can Accelerate Your Residency Application in Japan or Canada

If you decide to stay in a foreign country for a significant period of time, to the point where you want to apply for a residency permit or even become a citizen, proof of language mastery is crucial. Besides navigating day 2 day situations like ordering food or telling someone not to cut you in line, it's a vital part of assimilating into the culture and being accepted.

In some countries, knowing the language is perceived as so important that the government will actually fast-track your application if you can prove mastery. For example in Japan, there's a Highly-Skilled Professional (HSP) visa, and to get it you're assessed on a points system. You can get fast-tracked for Permanent 5-year Residency in as little as 1-3 years. Normally this can take up to 10 years!

In this system, passing the JLPT N2 gives you a 10 point boost. This is equivalent in weight to:

• 5 years of professional work experience
• having a bachelor's degree
• earning 4MM yen / year (~30,000 USD / year)

Similarly, Canada has an Express Entry system that creates a pool of candidates to fast-track for permanent immigration. Bilingual candidates (French/English) are strongly favored. From the website:

"You can earn up to 50 additional points for strong French language skills (even if French is your second language).

If you score a niveaux de compétence linguistique canadiens (NCLC) level 7 or higher on all four French language skills, you can get

• 25 additional points if you scored a Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) level 4 or lower in English (or if you didn’t take an English test)
• 50 additional points if you scored CLB 5 or higher on all four English skills"

Tell Momma studying languages pays off!