Hi everyone. Just for some context, my girlfriend and I are in the process of moving to Japan for 5 months as we study abroad. We both attend an American University as we are both U.S citizens and enrolled in their abroad program for this upcoming fall semester. Here’s the situation:
Basically, we both applied for COE 2 and a half months ago and 5 days ago I received mine and just turned in all related documents to my local Japan Consulate to get a Student Visa. She unfortunately is yet to receive said COE and the university in Japan just went on summer break as of yesterday, so they will not be able to issue her the COE until the 17th of August. Here’s the kicker, we LEAVE for Japan on the 23rd. So realistically she will probably not get her visa in time for the flight. The thing is, she IS technically a Japanese citizen as her mom is Japanese and my girlfriend has a valid Japanese passport. My question is, is there any way that she can still make the flight on the 23rd using her Japanese passport that will not cause any issues? I am just worried that she will need a valid student visa since the school technically recognizes her as a U.S citizen. My other question is, would there be any way for her to either finish the visa process IN Japan with said documents, or somehow get expedited service from the consulate to get the visa before the 23rd?
Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!
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**Help! Studying Abroad in Japan but student visa may not issue in time for flight.**
Hi everyone. Just for some context, my girlfriend and I are in the process of moving to Japan for 5 months as we study abroad. We both attend an American University as we are both U.S citizens and enrolled in their abroad program for this upcoming fall semester. Here’s the situation:
Basically, we both applied for COE 2 and a half months ago and 5 days ago I received mine and just turned in all related documents to my local Japan Consulate to get a Student Visa. She unfortunately is yet to receive said COE and the university in Japan just went on summer break as of yesterday, so they will not be able to issue her the COE until the 17th of August. Here’s the kicker, we LEAVE for Japan on the 23rd. So realistically she will probably not get her visa in time for the flight. The thing is, she IS technically a Japanese citizen as her mom is Japanese and my girlfriend has a valid Japanese passport. My question is, is there any way that she can still make the flight on the 23rd using her Japanese passport that will not cause any issues? I am just worried that she will need a valid student visa since the school technically recognizes her as a U.S citizen. My other question is, would there be any way for her to either finish the visa process IN Japan with said documents, or somehow get expedited service from the consulate to get the visa before the 23rd?
Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!
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>The thing is, she IS technically a Japanese citizen as her mom is Japanese and my girlfriend has a valid Japanese passport.
Then it would be illegal to issue her a visa for Japan at all and her CoE application would likely be rejected. Because visas are only for non-citizens looking to enter the country.
Is she allowed to participate in this exchange at all as a citizen of Japan? A lot of schools have funny rules about that sort of thing.
I am a university student going to Meiji on exchange soon, I know this is a super stressful position, but do you think it might just be a bit later in the mail?
One of my classmates also going to Meiji didn’t get their COE until two days after mine arrived. They both were sent to our university for reference.
Uhh if she has a Japanese passport she doesn’t need a visa. That might be the reason her COE hasn’t been approved yet. Immigration might be super confused by her application for a visa while having a Japanese passport.
Now technically speaking, at 21 or so(iirc), dual citizens need to choose which citizenships they want to keep. Japan doesn’t allow both. So if she’s older than that… She’s in a bit of trouble with immigration most likely. If she’s younger then it’s not a problem yet and she could’ve just gone to the exchange uni without needing any visa I think. I’m honestly really surprised the universities just went along without realising this important detail…
At this point though I think it’s best to consult with your Japanese embassy asap.