CoE and student visa

6 comments

1. This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.

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   **CoE and student visa**

   Hey everyone,

   I was curious if anyone has any experience with applying for a Certificate of Eligibility and student visa. I submitted my paperwork for a CoE but I’m not sure how long the university in Japan would take in approving the CoE prior to applying for a student visa. The semester starts in October. Should I be worried?

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2. I submitted my application and documents to the uni in about March and I got the CoE back in about June/July. I’ve applied for my visa and I’m collecting it this week. I’d speak to the uni and ask for an update and possibly make your visa appointment already. For me in the uk, there’s a 3 week wait for an appointment at the embassy in London.

3. My school says it takes more than 2 months.

4. Basically the University has to submit a CoE application to immigration, and it’s immigration that does the approval. That can take 2-3 months. If you submitted the necessary documents early and your university in turn made the CoE application well in advance then you should be okay. Once immigration approves your CoE, it should be sent either to you or to your university and then to you, usually by email these days.

   If you submitted the documents very recently then it’s a different matter… it could end up being very close.

   The visa itself is a quick process of a few days depending on the country, and as someone else noted, some embassies require booking appointments well in advance for application.

5. I submitted my documents in may and received the COE earlier this week. From what I’ve heard you should count on at least two months of waiting time before you receive it, which is also dependent on how many applications they receive at the migrations office

6. Would anyone know if I need to get my student visa first prior to actually getting a plane ticket?