After you have received your Certificate of Eligibility (CoE) from the Japanese university. It is usually late July/ early August for Fall start programs and late February for Spring start programs.
Prepare all of your documents NOW so that you are ready to apply immediately after receiving CoE. Visa process time varies by consulate from 5 to 7 business days. However, there are certain cases that require referral to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan. These cases may take 1-2 months.
What Documentation Do I Need?
NOTE: Requirements vary by consulate, make sure to check with the embassy/ consulate that serves your state.
Here is an example list of required documents from the Consular Office of Japan in Denver:
Type of Visa: Long-Term Visa
- Valid Passport
- If not a U.S. passport, also provide a copy of
- U.S. Permanent Residence Card (Green Card)
- U.S. Immigration documents showing the status of stay such as I-94 (In order to receive a long-term Japanese visa here in the U.S., you must have a long-term U.S. visa.)
- Visa Application Form
- One Passport-Size Photograph
- The photo should be taken within the last 6 months with 2" x 2" dimensions and front face view.
- Certificate of Eligibility (Zairyu shikaku nintei shomeisho)
- Visa Fee
- Visa fee varies by country. There is no fee for U.S. citizens. For further information, please call the Visa Section at (303) 534-1151. Please pay by cash or Money Order payable to the Consulate-General of Japan. Personal checks, corporate checks and credit cards are not accepted.
Visa Application Form FAQ
When completing the visa application form, there are a few sections that generally do not apply to student visa applicants who have a Certificate of Eligibility. For each of the sections below, please contact the embassy or consulate where you will submit your application to ask for specific instructions.
In general, since you are applying for a student visa and you have a CoE, you should be able to fill in the application items as follows:
- Names and addresses of hotels or persons with whom applicant intends to stay:
- Write down the university's name, address, and phone number.
- Guarantor or reference in Japan (Please provide details of the guarantor or the person to be visited in Japan):
- This is not applicable for students. You should be able to leave it blank.
- Inviter in Japan (Please write 'same as above' if the inviting person and the guarantor are the same):
- Write down the university's name, address, and phone number. Fill in "Accepting University" for the relationship and leave all other fields blank.
Important: The instructions above are based on the responses that have worked for almost all students in the past. Not every embassy or consulate is consistent in the way that it processes this application form. It is your responsibility to contact the embassy or consulate directly and ensure the same instructions are valid for your application.
How Do I Apply?
NOTE: Requirements vary by consulate, make sure to check with the consulate that serves your state.
Here is an example from the
Consular Office of Japan in Denver:
Visa services are available Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm and 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm except on Consulate holidays. Applications may be submitted in person or by mail from within our four-state jurisdiction of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
You can use the Consular Office of Japan in Denver if you are in town when you apply for the visa.
Landing Permit and Residence Card
Once you arrive in Japan with your Student Visa and pass through immigration, you will be given a
Student Residence Status. This is your permission to stay in Japan as a student. At this point, your Student Visa is no longer important - regardless of whether it is a single- or multiple-entry visa. The Residence Status is all that matters.
At the airport, you will receive a Landing Permission Seal in your passport that shows how long you may stay in Japan. If you arrive at one of the airports listed below, then you will also receive your Residence Card at the airport. If you arrive at any other airport, you will receive your Residence Card later, after you complete your residence registration paperwork (you will get more information from your abroad university at the orientation).
Important: Once you have your Residence Card, then your visa expiration date and landing seal expiration date are no longer important, so you can ignore those.
Airports that Issue Residence Cards:
- Narita International Airport
- Tokyo International Airport (Haneda)
- Kansai International Airport (in Osaka)
- Chubu Centrair International Airport (in Nagoya)
Work Permit
If you wish, you will be able to obtain a Work Permit on your arrival at the airport. Your abroad university may include the application form in the acceptance packet or you can get one in the Japan airport.
The work permit is valid while you are enrolled at the abroad university, which means that working in Japan before or after your enrollment is illegal. Immigration laws limit the maximum number of working hours for international students to 28 hours per week. Additionally, there are some types of employment that are prohibited for students under any circumstances.
Japanese National Health Insurance (NHI)
In accordance with immigration law, all study abroad students are required to purchase the Japanese National Health Insurance (NHI) without any exceptions. Because that covers 70% of all medical expenses only and does NOT cover the period of students' traveling from/to home country, rescue expenses, and repatriation, it is neither life insurance nor overseas travel insurance. You will have to pay 30% of the expenses if/when you receive medical care at a hospital or clinic anywhere in Japan.
Re-entry Permit
If you temporarily depart from Japan, be sure to present your residence card with an “Embarkation/Disembarkation Card for Reentrant” (called ‘ED Card’), making sure to mark the box indicating ‘
Departure with Special Re-entry Permission’ on the ED Card to an immigration inspector at the international airport. You should notify the immigration inspector of your intent to depart using the special re-entry permit system. Upon submission of the ED Card, an approval stamp will be placed in your passport.
You can get an ED Card at the tables located by the immigration (passport control counter) after going through the security check. Detailed information about the new re-entry permit system is available at the
Immigration Bureau of Japan webpage.
Leaving the Abroad University and Length of Stay in Japan
You must leave Japan or apply to change to another Residence Status within 14 days of your last day of classes, or you will be considered an illegal immigrant, even if you have time left until the Date of Expiration on your Residence Card.
You may not stay in Japan for job-hunting, tourism, or other purposes on a Student Residence Status. If you will be staying in Japan to start a job or internship, or for any other reason, you must contact your sponsoring organization for instructions as to how to change your Residence Status.
If you change your Residence Status to "Short-Term Stay" to remain in Japan as a tourist, please understand that National Health Insurance will become invalid immediately after that change, so you will become responsible for paying 100% of any medical bills after that time. Make sure that the validity dates of your self-purchased traveler's insurance cover your entire stay, including any tourism periods.
You may be asked to return/ present your resident card when you leave the country.
The University of Denver thanks our partner universities for the relevant information provided for this document. This information was reviewed in December 2021.