Hello good people!
I will start with the main question: Is it smart/safe to move to Japan (Tokyo) on an internship-to-hire position ?
I am currently searching for work in Japan, I have very basic Japanese language knowledge but I am very interested in learning it as I have been watching anime for years now and I grew to love the culture!. Also, I recently met a girl online who lives in Japan and things are going well! which gave me the incentive to take this step now
I work in IT, a Magento 2 backend web developer (PHP) with 2+ years of experience from my current Job and about 2 more years of experience from a past Job in C#. I also worked as a project manager for 3 years in between those 2 technical ones. I have a masters degree in software engineering from the University of Tartu. I am originally from Egypt and I moved to Estonia in 2016, so I have some expat experience already
Now, after a week of searching, I got a positive response from an employer and they sent me a video call meeting request to start the interviews process. The thing is, they are offering a Internship-to-Hire position for 8 weeks then (depending on my work) they would offer me a full time job.
Since Japan is far away, moving will involve a lot of risks, and the offer is not full-time I came here to ask experienced expats about my situation.
1. Should I move forward with this ?
2. Is it a logical move ?
3. Is it possible to find another Job while I am there, in case this one fails to be changed to full time ?
4. What type of Visa will I get ? what is it's duration ? can it be extended to have more time looking for work ?
5. How much money (in Euros) do I need to have as a starting asset ? for renting a place when I arrive (with deposit and stuff), for the first few months of extra spending (buying stuff for the apartment, etc..)
6. What guarantees should I ask from the employer during these interviews ?
7. What salary expectation should I give, and what is the minimum should I accept ?
8. Should I only consider jobs that is being offered full-time from the beginning ? although all the jobs I saw are offering a full time with a 2 months probation period (so probably all is risky)
I hope this was not very long - I am looking forward to your advice on these points