Hello. I am from the United States and am going to study in Japan on a student visa. The school messed up and did not allow enough time for the Certificate of Eligibility to be ready on time (not just me this happened to all the international students). The school is suggesting to come anyways as a tourist and then somehow switch to a student visa. My biggest issue is that I choose to opt out of staying in the dorms and was going to arrive a couple days early and rent an apartment. Any landlord is requiring a Visa to even look at the apartments.
I can’t change my plane tickets and am unable to afford to buy a new “last minute ticket” for a later date. I can and have planned to stay in an hotel the first week, but I can’t afford to have a hotel for multiple weeks. I am also worried about leaving the country again for an extended period and missing classes.
This is the first Visa I have ever gotten and am unsure of the rules surrounding Visas. What are my options in changing from a tourist to a student Visa? What other things should I know about?
10 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
—
**Student Visa not ready in time. What should I do?**
Hello. I am from the United States and am going to study in Japan on a student visa. The school messed up and did not allow enough time for the Certificate of Eligibility to be ready on time (not just me this happened to all the international students). The school is suggesting to come anyways as a tourist and then somehow switch to a student visa. My biggest issue is that I choose to opt out of staying in the dorms and was going to arrive a couple days early and rent an apartment. Any landlord is requiring a Visa to even look at the apartments.
I can’t change my plane tickets and am unable to afford to buy a new “last minute ticket” for a later date. I can and have planned to stay in an hotel the first week, but I can’t afford to have a hotel for multiple weeks. I am also worried about leaving the country again for an extended period and missing classes.
This is the first Visa I have ever gotten and am unsure of the rules surrounding Visas. What are my options in changing from a tourist to a student Visa? What other things should I know about?
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/movingtojapan) if you have any questions or concerns.*
>The school is suggesting to come anyways as a tourist and then somehow switch to a student visa.
Immigration doesn’t allow folks to change status from “tourist” to “student”. So this plan is doomed from the start.
>I can’t change my plane tickets
Are you sure? Have you called the airline and asked?
Sorry to say that but…if they are messing up this bad in the beginning,with such an important thing,imagine when you need their support after you arrive.Have you paid them yet?
I don’t know if you’re going to a specific university, but especially if it’s a japanese language school and you intend to change your visa to work one in the future, a school that helps you definitely makes a difference.
I’m a uni professor in Japan and this happens fairly regularly (students not having a visa in time for various reasons)— typically when this happens, our students start the semester online and then come over as soon as they can. It’s a pain in the ass and very stressful, and I honestly wouldn’t recommend it… but that’s what they do.
Either way, it sounds like in your case you already have a plane ticket, so perhaps deferring your admission for a semester could be an option if you talk to your university. That wouldn’t solve the problem entirely, but would at least buy some time to afford the fee to change plane tickets.
why would you book the flight before obtaining the COE?
You could stay at a hostel for a lot cheaper than a hotel. Which city will you be studying in?
Cheap air bnb or capsule hotel stay is not impossible, but it seems like you are low in funds. There are 3 month visa and maybe you could switch within that time frame? I’m not fully sure how it works, but contact the actual Japanese Uni.
I saw some comments about “top 50 uni below” I am a grad student here at one of the top 3 Unis in Japan, and will tell you my education here is much weaker than my local community college was in the states, so please don’t have high expectations. I feel like it’s more a time for students to just study what they want and have fun.
Try not to blow it out of proportion in your head. I can’t imagine how much it must suck to go through this prep to have this experience and I am sorry. But for what it’s worth, there will be more opportunity, maybe even a better one waiting for you.
Simply you NEED to cancel it. It’s totally weird that a school can’t even prepare such simple documents. There’s something wrong with the school itself. In my experience, CoE can be issued only in 3-7 days even for personal application. A school which can’t do it? It’s a scam. Don’t use it.
The only thing you can do at this point is to wait for your COE to be issued and apply for your student visa afterwards. In the meantime you can try to request for online classes until this is settled, I assume you won’t be the only student making this request.
I know that sucks but you can’t enter Japan as a tourist and then apply for a student visa afterwards. They are very strict about that. You can only apply for your student visa in your home country, or a country that you have legal residence.
OP, what uni are you going to? I’m almost in the same boat… still waiting for my residence cert and I’m meant to leave in 1 month