# Japanese Company, Cyprus Subsidiary, Residence Sponsor



## DaSelva (Aug 25, 2011)

Hello All!

I am an American currently living in Japan and working in Tokyo for a mid-sized Japanese trading company. Recently, I was offered a position to work for our 'subsidiary' in Europe. The reason I put quotes around the subsidiary is because it is not really much of a company. 

Basically it consists of a paper company in Cyprus, one Japanese-Italian citizen in Milan, and a Japanese General Manager in Finland. Both work from home offices. I know that we have a secondary subsidiary company in Finland which basically just functions to sponsor the General Manager's visa and comply with tax laws. 

I will be taking over the General Manager's position as he will be heading back to Japan. Since we do not have customers centered in any particular country, I have been given the option of living 'wherever I want'. However, since I am not an EU citizen, living 'wherever I want' seems really complicated.

Either way, I am not really interested in moving as far north as Finland and was thinking more about moving to Northern Italy because at least we already have a base there and it is fairly centralized. 

However, I am lost regarding finding what I need to do to get a residence and work permit. I assume that I would need to start at company there, then sponsor my own visa... But from what I read online there is a good chance I might not be able to secure that permit the first year, thus making starting a company a huge waste of resource.

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of situation? Any suggestions regarding how to move forward would be greatly appreciated.

Please let me know!!


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

DaSelva said:


> Hello All!
> 
> I am an American currently living in Japan and working in Tokyo for a mid-sized Japanese trading company. Recently, I was offered a position to work for our 'subsidiary' in Europe. The reason I put quotes around the subsidiary is because it is not really much of a company.
> 
> ...


I don't know about Italy, but here in UK there is an immigration category of a sole representative of an overseas company, with a lot less onerous requirements than the usual work visa route. I'm pretty certain that similar things exist in other EU countries. The relevant embassy or consulate in Japan is your first port of call - go through their commercial department rather than the visa section for more helpful advice.
FYI, UK Border Agency | Representatives of overseas business


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