I’m planning to move to Japan soon and I want to buy a ticket.
This is my first time going somewhere not on a tourist visa, and I was wondering let’s say I go on a student visa and my school starts on the 5th of July, can I come a week earlier on a regular visa? (28th June) or maybe the student visa covers a week or two before school starts?
Does Japan still require you to make a special request for a tourist visa?
Sorry it’s just all new to me so I bearly know things
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So a couple of things here;
1) Yes, you can choose to not use your student visa to enter Japan and instead enter as a tourist. You are not able to change to a student status from a tourist status inside Japan however, so if you do this you would need to leave Japan and re-enter with your student visa. You would need to do this before your visa and CoE expire however. It’s a bit outside of normal, so you may need to spend a fair amount of energy explaining to the immigration officer that while you have a student visa you don’t want to use it yet. Expect many ‘ehs’ and sucking of teeth.
2) Yes, you can enter Japan using your student visa a little bit early. Two weeks before the start of school is pretty normal. A month before the start of school is not unheard of, but is more iffy. The start date for your life in Japan though is that date of entry, which could have an impact on things like what you owe for health insurance, pension payments, and when you’ll need to apply for an extension of your status. It won’t be much of an impact though, so don’t let those concerns govern your decision making.
My advice, if you’re talking about showing up two weeks early so you can have a bit of a holiday is just go for it. Use the student visa, come, have a great time.