Hi all,
I’m doing an exchange program at the University of Waseda in Tokyo and had a question about study visa requirements.
It’s said that in order to maintain your visa, you must enroll in at least 10 hours of class per week. I wanted to know how strict this requirement is because for me, in order to meet that requirement, I have to enroll in one additional course, but that additional course will not fulfill my degree at my home university so it’s not worth it unless I have to.
Does anyone have any stories of students being deported for breaking this? How enforced is this rule?
6 comments
Just do it and see it as an opportunity to learn something new that just sounds interesting.
“It’s said”? Do you mean according to Waseda’s requirements? Looking at the requirements page, you need to be enrolled in 10 hours of classes for some of the programs. If you aren’t, you aren’t fulfilling the conditions of the program, so they can kick you out of the program, and then you won’t get any credits transferred to your home university. You should talk to Waseda about this.
You do have to take that extra course in order to fulfill the program requirements. I had to take extra courses as well when I was an exchange student in Japan. I had 8 courses to be precise. Ended up finishing my BA with extra credits. To be honest, uni was way too easy in Japan. You literally just have to be there to get an A+. Just pick a course you have somewhat of an interest in and have fun!
I knew a half Japanese guy who moved to Tokyo to live with his Japanese dad but he didn’t have Japanese citizenship. He came on a student visa and was enrolled in a language school while he was working on getting a visa that’d allow him to be here longer without as many restrictions, but he ended up missing a couple classes thinking it wasn’t that serious. His average attendance dropped below 10 hours and he suddenly got a notice of deportation. Next thing I knew he was on a plane back to Peru. I never talked to him after that, but I’d imagine the deportation also harmed his chances of getting other visa applications approved.
If you can speak Japanese, I’d recommend taking a class. If you don’t want to study, they have hilarious ones that could easily be a club. I know one in TAISI where you just go to different parts of Tokyo every week and make a Tokyo board game at the end, another in PSE where you go somewhere for a week and write a few news articles, and another where you just listen to movie directors share their stories, and so much more. I’d share my recommendations but I’m not sure if they have them this year.
I was a student at Waseda. The 10 hour requirement is so that at the end of your study you can get a certificate of completion for your study abroad. If you don’t care about that then I guess that’s fine, but it seems a waste.