Apply Now to Get Your Visa

No, not a credit card. (Though I'm applying for one of those in the near future, too. Time to start building a credit history!) No, the kind of visa I'm talking about is a student visa.

US citizens can visit Japan for periods of up to 90 days with just their passport. However, a semester is a bit longer than that--usually somewhere around 100 to 120 days. I'll be in Japan for a bit longer even than that, due to the length of the semester I'll be attending. Point being, if you're in Japan for a whole semester, you're going to need a student visa.

Surprisingly enough, applying for a visa has been one of the easiest paperwork processes I've encountered so far in my preparations to study abroad. Of course, part of this is that the school took care of the first step for me.

Remember how I mentioned that in my application to the school in Japan, I needed four very-specifically-sized passport photos? Well, what the school needed those for was to apply to the Japanese immigration authority for a document known as the "Certificate of Eligibility." This document, which is valid three months from its date of issue, is a sheet of cardstock printed in both Japanese and English, which bears your photo, and information like your full name, date of birth, and so on and so forth. This document (known as a COE for short) is NOT a student visa (though you will need it to get into Japan in addition to your visa). However, it is one of the items you need to have to be able to apply for a visa.

My COE arrived in the mail early last week, just in time for me to put my visa application together over Thanksgiving break and drop it in the mail on Black Friday. So what do you need for a visa application?

Well, first of all, you need to find out of which Japanese consulate in the US you live in the jurisdiction. (You can find that out here.) My nearest consulate is the one in Chicago, so that's the one to which I applied for a visa.

Now, while the website recommends applying in person, as long as you live in the jurisdiction area (and not in the immediate area of the consulate), you are able to apply by mail. This is the option I used, as it would be quite difficult to get to Chicago twice (once to apply and once to pick up the processed visa). So, the advice I'll print here relates to how to apply for a student visa by mail. (You can find the official instructions for the Chicago consulate here, and there's a link farther down the page to help you find your local consulate.)

As mentioned above, the process to apply for the visa is pretty easy and straightforward. There's a two page application, but all that really asks for is things like your name, date of birth, ID number, passport number, and the like. The application itself does also ask for the "names and addresses of hotels and persons with whom applicant intends to stay" and a "guarantor or reference in Japan." Both of these items were provided for me in the printed matter the school sent me. In my case, the address was the address for the school, and the guarantor was the president of the school. If you're studying abroad, the situation for you will likely be similar, though your school will likely let you know for sure (and if you're not certain, you can always ask).

Besides the application form itself, you'll also need a passport photo (this time, one that's sized 2 inches by 2 inches, a much easier size to cut down to). Luckily, I had one extra photo left from my earlier photo adventures, so I didn't have to go bother the poor county recorder yet again.

Of course, you'll need the COE too, but we already covered that.

If you plan to work in Japan, you'll need a copy of your work contract, but for purposes of studying abroad, you probably don't have to worry about that. If you're a minor applying to join a parent who already lives in Japan, you'll need a copy of his or her passport, visa, landing permission, and residence card, but again, as a student, it's pretty unlikely that you fit into this category. If you're an immigrant to the US, you'll need a copy of your green card, F visa, J visa, or whatever other US visa you currently hold. If you're a US citizen, then you don't have to worry about that step at all.

And if you're a US citizen, there's no visa fee you have to worry about paying, which was a nice surprise I wasn't expecting. There's actually a pretty long list of countries that are exempted from the visa fee, which you can check here at number 12. Even if you do have to pay a visa fee, it's only $27 (unless you're a citizen of India, in which case it's only $7).

Lastly, you'll also need a simple form known as the Release of Liability, which you really just have to sign and date, signifying you won't blame the consulate if your application gets lost in the mail in either direction.

All this will need to be shipped by USPS Priority Mail, which only costs (at the time of this writing) $6.70 for a flat rate large envelope (a welcome fact, given how much the Priority mailer to Japan cost a couple months ago). However, you'll also need to pay for a second Priority Mail envelope, which you'll need to make sure is given a stamp and addressed back to you. This will go in the first envelope along with everything else, and is what the consulate will use to mail you back your COE, and your newly visa-bearing...

Passport.

Yup. You have to send your actual passport.

That bit did stress me out a little. After all, I need my passport to be able to leave the country and enter Japan, so the thought of it cheerfully floating around in the mail for several days does make me nervous. However, since the visa actually goes directly into the pages of the passport, it makes sense that it had to go in the mailer along with everything else.

The Chicago Consulate website says that the application will be processed in about 5 to 7 business days, plus mailing time. So, hopefully within two weeks, my passport, my new visa, and my COE will all be back in my possession.

One last important thing to note about normal student visas: like the COE, they're only valid for three months from the date of issuance, so you'll want to make sure you don't apply too early (but do make sure to give yourself time just in case any issues arise during the processing). Also, they're usually only valid for one entry into Japan, so if you're planning to visit Korea, China, or any other area nation beyond Japan's borders during your time abroad, you'll have to go about getting a multiple-entry visa. I'm not sure how to go about that, since I'm not in that particular boat, so unfortunately, I can't really offer any help or advice there.

Well, that's one more thing finished on the checklist. I got my plane tickets to Japan last week, too (the only advice I can offer there is to shop around between airlines to find the best deal, and to get that figured out before you apply for your visa, so you specifically know your date of arrival in Japan). Within the next couple of weeks, I'll probably go ahead and also buy my tickets for my flight back to the States towards the end of May, just so I have one less thing to worry about.

TL;DR: To apply for a student visa to Japan, you'll need the following (at the very least):

-Knowledge of which consulate has jurisdiction over your area
-A valid passport
-The completed visa application form
-A 2"x2" passport photo
-A Certificate of Eligibility (see above for more details)
-A Release of Liability form
-A self-addressed, stamped USPS Priority Mail envelope for your visa to be sent back in
-A USPS Priority Mail envelope for it all to be sent to the consulate in.

Good luck, fellow travelers, and I'll be back soon with more news and advice--probably either about buying yen online or registering for pocket wifi.

When Dreams Turn Real

The past week has been a roller coaster of emotions, in pretty much all good ways. Just over a week ago, I was officially accepted to Kansai Gaidai. The past several days, all of my free time has been spent looking at plane tickets, hotels (for both my layover and once I land in Tokyo), directions from airports to hotels and attractions, pocket wifi plans, and on and on and on.

Ever since the summer I was 13, I've loved looking at flights to Japan as a sort of "maybe someday" daydream exercise. I've always enjoyed looking at photos of major Japanese landmarks and imagining seeing them for real one day. When the first limited-time-only Kirby Cafe opened in Summer 2016, I spent those few months looking at photos people I follow on Twitter posted of the cafe, the food, and the trinkets they got in the gift shop. But all this was never done with the intent of actually going in the near future.

This week, all of the research I've been doing is finally for real. I've figured out the flight I plan to take to get to Tokyo, and hope to get those tickets bought next weekend. I've found a good, reasonably-priced hotel for my layover, and a cheaper-but-better hotel in Tokyo too (unsurprising, honestly). Most exciting of all, the Tokyo Skytree is visible from my hotel, and Skytree Town just so happens to be where the second limited-time-only Kirby Cafe is now, open through mid-February. As soon as January reservations open in mid-December, I've hoping to reserve a time slot there.

(The Kirby Cafe is basically the ultimate "pilgrimage" a Kirby fan can make--think being able to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter for Potterheads, or Disney World for a Disney fan. As someone who's had quite the Kirby obsession for the past five-odd years, knowing I'm probably gonna get to go to the Cafe is beyond exciting.)

However, just because it's all but certain that I'm going now, doesn't mean that my prep work is done. If anything, we're quickly approaching crunch time. Sure, I'm buying my plane tickets next week, and probably reserving hotels fairly soon after, but there's a lot left to do. Currently, I'm waiting for Kansai Gaidai to mail me my proof of enrollment that I'll need to be able to mail to the Japanese consulate in Chicago in order to obtain a student visa. I'm going to need to order some yen in cash, to use in cash-only situations (fairly common in Japan) until I can get a checking account opened overseas and direct my financial aid for next semester there. I'm also going to need to remember to reserve a pocket wifi plan between now and early January (funny story; I already accidentally reserved pocket wifi during my over-zealous research. Thankfully, they let me cancel it when I explained I'm not quite ready to pay for it, but why they let you reserve without payment to begin with, I'm not entirely positive).

Part of the reason I haven't been posting is because for the past two or so months, there just really haven't been any new developments. As I said last time, it was time to hurry up and wait (and, actually, I'm still waiting to find out how the Gilman Grant will turn out--the announcement is at the end of November). But now, things should start picking up a lot more. After all, it's only two months from tomorrow that I take off, according to my current travel plans.

I'll keep you all updated as everything keeps unfolding. For now, though, let me just say... I'm more excited than I ever have been before in my life.

My dream is finally coming true.

TL;DR: I was officially accepted to Kansai Gaidai, and from now through January, I have a bunch of stuff I've got to get done--but I've never experienced anything more exciting.