Hi all, Currently waiting on my COE approval for 1 year of studying starting April 2024 and have a few questions. For context I am a US Citizen.
To clarify, I did my research and searched this sub for answers and the answers seem to be a little mixed as well as the info I got from my school and my local consulate. Any info from people who have been in a similar situation or solid info from someone familiar would be SO greatly appreciated 🙏🏻🙏🏻
1) If I want to visit my Grandma in Japan and also do a vacation for 2-3 weeks prior to the start of my school, how does this work with entry on the student visa?
Can I start my student visa 3 weeks before class begins?
Will this mean that I end up in a situation where my student visa is expiring before the end of my 1 year of classes is up?
Reddit answer from previous research: yes, 2-4 weeks is fairly common
School answer: yes but they only recommend a week before because I have to submit address documents to the civic center within 10 days of arrival and they normally help with this process.
local consulate answer:
absolutely not. I asked them if my student visa allows for any type of early entry because it doesnt make sense that if I am arriving the day my school starts then i’m already 12 hours late for class and 17 hours jetlagged. They didnt provide any great info, I feel like they misunderstood what I was asking. Given that many ppl report this being okay I feel like this cannot be right
depending on whether or not this is possible I also researched the possibility of entering on a short term visa, doing my family visit/vacation and then taking a flight to idk Seoul or something then enter again to start my Student Visa.
I am not opposed to this if its a viable option but once again the answers on this seem to be iffy.
Reddit: its possible but the immigration ppl are gonna be quite hesistant as this is not a normal thing
My local consulate: no and this will invalidate your COE and you wont be able to do your student visa at all.
tldr: I want to visit family/vacation for 2-3 weeks prior to my student visa start but want to make sure I am not going to be denied entry, invalidate my student visa, or end up with 3 weeks of class to go and 0 visa days left. pls help