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FAQs For Visa To Japan

One-stop China Visa Application Service in Singapore

1. Prior to the Application

People of some countries (or from some regions) do not need a visa if their period of stay in Japan is 90 days or less and they are not going to be engaged in income-earning activities. Refer to the List of Countries and Regions that have Visa Exemption Arrangements with Japan.

There are four ways to apply for a visa:

  1. The visa applicant him/herself goes directly to the Japanese Embassy / Consulate General,
  2. The visa applicant writes a Letter of Proxy and get a proxy to go to the Japanese Embassy / Consulate General in his / her place,
  3. The visa applicant uses an accredited travel agent approved by the Japanese Embassy / Consulate General and
  4. The visa applicant uses the JAPAN eVISA website and apply for visa online. However, depending on the circumstances in your country or region, there are cases that the documents should only be submitted by the applicant him/herself going to the Japanese Embassy/Consulate General, or through an accredited travel agent. Check with the embassy or consulate general to which you plan to apply before making the application.

You can apply for the visa at the Japanese Embassy / Consulate General in your own country (region) or country (region) of residence (if there is more than one, apply to the Japanese Embassy / Consulate General nearest from where you live). In other words, you cannot apply for a visa at your travel destination; however, if there are unavoidable circumstances, consult with the Japanese Embassy / Consulate General where you would like to apply for the visa before making the application.

If any of the following cases apply to you, your application may not be accepted.

  1. Applications from persons holding Japanese nationality
  2. The application is made to the Japanese Embassy / Consulate General outside your country (region) of birth or country (region) of residence
  3. You currently hold a valid visa or re-entry permit
  4. Your previous visa application to visit Japan for a specific purpose was rejected and you reapply to visit Japan for the same purpose within six months from the rejection
  5. The visa application is already being processed at a different Japanese Embassy / Consulate General
  6. There are some errors or omissions in the submitted documents
  7. The period of validity or the visa attachment space of your passport is insufficient
  8. The application is made by a person who does not have the qualifications to make a proxy application
  9. An application for issuance of a Certificate of Eligibility is still pending

2. Application Examination

The standard processing period, when it does not have any problem on contents of the application, takes five working days from the next day after the date of the acceptance of application. Meanwhile, it may take longer than usual if a large number of visa applications converge at a short-time period. In addition, please note that it may take more than 5 working days (ranging from a couple of weeks to several months) in such cases where additional confirmation is required (submission of additional documents, an interview with the applicant, inquiries, etc.), or when a visa application is made for a long-term stay without a Certificate of Eligibility. Thus, visa applicants are recommended to apply early for their visa well in advance of the anticipated travel date.
Sometimes additional information will be required for the examination process, and sometimes you will be asked in the process to submit extra documents in addition to the documents indicated as the necessary documents. Each applicant has different conditions and circumstances, and sometimes we do not become aware of these until the application has been accepted, therefore there are some documents that we do not ask everyone to submit from the beginning. If you do not submit the additional documents, the examination cannot be processed any further, and you will not be able to get the visa issued.

We cannot make a decision about whether to issue or reject the visa application until the necessary examination has been completed. We process the applications fairly in the order in which we received them. Apply for the visa as soon as possible once your travel plan has been decided.

3. Issuance or Rejection of the Visa Application

The reason for the rejection is that your application did not meet the criteria of visa issuance. We do not give you the specific reason of the rejection because if we do so, the information would eventually become known to the public. Once that happened, there is a danger that some people might misappropriate such information to get around the visa examination process and try to enter Japan for illegal purposes. It would impede the proper visa examination process in the future and have negative effects on Japanese society. The Administrative Procedure Act, Article 3, Paragraph 1, Item 10 excludes “dispositions concerning departure and immigration of foreign nationals” from application of the obligation to show the examination criteria or the reasons for the rejection of the application.

Criteria of Visa Issuance:
A Japanese visa will be issued to an applicant when he/she meets all of the following requirements and if the issuance is considered to be appropriate.

  1. The applicant possesses a valid passport and is entitled to the re-entry to a country of his/her nationality or a country of his/her residence.
  2. All submitted documents are authentic, completed and satisfactory.
  3. The activities to be engaged in Japan/ the civil status or the position of the applicant/ the period of stay meet the requirements for the status of residence and the period of stay stipulated in the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act. (Cabinet Order No.319 of 1951. Hereinafter referred to as the “Immigration Control Act”)
  4. The applicant do not fall under any of the items of Article 5, Paragraph 1 of the Immigration Control Act.

We do not accept your visa application if your previous application was rejected and you will apply for the same purpose of visit within six months from the rejection. This is because if, for example, we accept the same application the day after it was rejected, the circumstances of the applicant would not change so that the result of examination would be the same. However, we sometimes accept re-applications within six months in cases where your circumstances have changed significantly after the rejection, and travel to Japan is necessary for humanitarian reasons. Consult with the Japanese Embassy or Consulate where you plan to apply for the visa before making the application.

4. Prior to Entering Japan

The period of validity of a single-entry visa (that becomes invalid as soon as once you enter Japan) is basically three months. Enter Japan within three months of the issuance of the visa. If you wish to postpone your travel for longer than three months, you will be required to make another visa application.

Contact the Japanese Embassy / Consulate General that issued the visa to inform what happened. Also, it is recommended that you submit a lost property form to the local police station. If you need a new visa, you must make an application again.

A visa is no more than one of the requirements for the application to land in Japan and it does not guarantee that you will be able to enter Japan. (There is a warning on the visa application form and your signature on the application form means you have accepted this fact.) Even if you have a valid visa, sometimes you will not be given permission to enter Japan, for example in cases where the person who makes the landing application is different from the person whose name is recorded in the visa, and also in cases where you cannot properly explain to the immigration officer the activities you plan to engage in after entering Japan.

5. Other

The personal information of the visa applicant, inviting person and guarantor will be managed appropriately in the Japanese Embassy / Consulate General based on the Act on the Protection of Personal Information. Also, local travel agencies that wish to handle visa applications have to get the approval by Japanese embassies /consulates, and the condition of such approval is that they have agreed to manage personal information appropriately based on the aforementioned act, under the same criteria as the outsourcing organization.
Under the international customary law, the decision as to whether or not to issue a visa to a foreign national is determined to be a sovereign act of each country. Japanese consuls carry out the administration related to visas based on the Act for Establishment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Article 4 Item 13, Article 7 Item 1, and Article 10 Item 2 and Item 3).
Entering Japan is not a right of a person of foreign nationality, so this is not an infringement of human rights. On the other hand, there are sometimes cases of human trafficking in which people from developing countries in an economically and socially vulnerable position are brought to developed countries for fake marriages, illegal work, etc. With this issue in mind, Japan is carrying out careful visa examinations in order to protect the human rights of foreign nationals, etc.
Visa exemptions are not necessarily bilateral. For example, there are many cases in which developing countries give visa exemptions to Japanese as a unilateral measure because accepting travelers from Japan is economically advantageous for those countries. However, on the other hand, if Japan gave visa exemptions to people from all of those countries, there could be a negative impact on the internal security and national interest of Japan. For example, it could lead to an increase in the number of illegal overstayers and illegal workers, etc. Therefore, it is necessary to consider visa exemptions carefully from a comprehensive perspective.
Visa Services

Visa Application Services to Japan

VTL Travel provide a smooth visa to Japan application process, includes a clear understand of the step-by step lodging procedure as well as a necessary set of the documents. With our years’ experience, we will make sure that all your application forms and documents are in the right order and completed in accordance with the standards of the Embassy of Japan. This will minumise the possibility of visa rejection and save your time & effort.

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