How to Get a Japan Tourist Visa (via a courier)
3 years ago, I never would have dreamed that I would plan on going to Japan as early as now. The thought of getting a Visa put me off because I am still a student, and I have no source of income, and I don’t have a lot of money in my bank account.
During those times I was so fed up with law school, I would look at the requirements to get a Visa from the Japanese embassy and just gave up on it and decided that I would go to Japan once I become a lawyer already.
However, my aunt who now lives in Japan, went home last January. She encouraged us to go to Japan and told us that it’s now easier getting a Visa because they’re trying to boost their tourism. As long as you have the requirements, you’ll most likely be granted a Visa.
From that conversation, we secured passports, and the requirements for the Visa.
We applied for a Japan Tourist Visa with guarantor. As we are still students and we don’t have any income tax return (ITR) which was needed to be submitted, we just asked our father to be our guarantor.
STEP 1: SECURE ALL REQUIREMENTS
REQUIREMENTS FOR APPLICATION OF A TOURIST VISA WITH GUARANTOR
Your passport must still have at least 2 blank pages. Don’t forget to sign it and remove whatever passport cover you bought. Just submit your passport.
The application form can be downloaded here. There is a sample which the embassy already provided which can be downloaded here.
If you have a printer at home, fill it out already and just print it all so that it will look clean and nice. Please print in A4-sized paper. It is important to note that everything should be printed/resized to A4. If you don’t have a printer, you can just ask for an application form from the accredited agency and fill it out there. (List of accredited agencies will be provided in this post as well.)
Remember to put N/A on every blank which is not applicable to you. You should not leave any blank spaces. If you filled it out manually and you made a mistake, do not use any correction fluid/tape. Just strike it out. As much as possible, avoid making mistakes so that your application form would look professional.
Don’t forget to put the date of application on the second page. Also, there’s this part in the first page which asks for ID no. issued to you by your government. I didn’t understand this so I just put N/A. I’ve read some blogs which stated that you can put any I.D. number provided in your Government-issued I.D. (like the number in your Driver’s License).
In the application form as well, they will already ask you your intended length of stay, where you intend to stay, etc. Even though the application form asks for these details, it is not required for you to book your tickets already or to book for a hotel already. Just pick an airline you intend to use, and look for a hotel you intend to stay at. We, however, made a booking through Booking.com because you can cancel it for free up to three days before your reservation. It is also a nice site and app to see the available hotels in a certain area and compare the prices. We made a dummy booking there and also submitted a printed booking confirmation.
Some miscellaneous details about using Booking:
-Look for those which offer free cancellation. There are some properties/hotels which do not allow for a free cancellation. However, if you made the same mistake as I did, just make sure to immediately cancel that booking you made within 24 hours of making the booking, otherwise you will be charged a cancellation fee.
-If you don’t have a credit card, you can just download Paymaya. It’s free and hassle-free. To activate the account though, you need to load it up. You can use this so that you can book hotels. They won’t charge you anything. There are just some hotels that check if the card has sufficient balance and they will cancel your booking if found that it does not have the amount needed to make that booking. However, most hotels don’t do this and you actually pay directly to the property.
-I like Booking better than Agoda because of its user-friendly interface both on their website and their Android application. You can also use Agoda if you like. Just look for those which don’t need pre-payment and offers free cancellation so that you can make a dummy booking.
Have your photo taken at a studio. The photo should be taken within 6 months from date of application. The size is 4.5 cm x 4.5 cm (2 in. x 2 in.) and it should have a white background. Most, if not all, photo studios already know this requirement for application of Japan Visa so you can just tell them that you need it for your Visa application.
Before pasting it in the application form, please write your name and birth date at the back of the picture.
Do not staple the picture. Paste the picture on the application form.
Go here for the Japan embassy’s photo guidelines.
The PSA-authenticated birth certificate must be issued within one year. Please don’t try to submit an outdated birth certificate as they know when it was issued from the bar code on the lower left side of the birth certificate.
-If the birth certificate from PSA is unreadable or has incomplete information, also submit the birth certificate issued by the Local Civil Registrar.
-If the birth certificate is “late registration,” also submit a baptismal certificate and school record (Form 137) from high school or elementary and school yearbook (if possible).
-If there is no record in PSA, please submit a “Certificate of Non-Record” from PSA together with a birth certificate from the Local Civil Registrar.
Please refer on my How To Get A Passport post as to how to get a birth certificate.
5. MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE (if applicant is married)
The PSA-authenticated marriage certificate must be issued within one year.
If there is no record in PSA, please submit a “Certificate of Non-Record” from PSA together with a birth certificate from the Local Civil Registrar.
6. DAILY SCHEDULE IN JAPAN (TAIZAI YOTEIHYO)
You can download the form here. It provides a blank page on the first page and a sample schedule on the second page.
The photo above is our sample itinerary. It is not our final itinerary. You don’t really need to be that specific in your itinerary. You just need to at least know where you want to go. I have read before that sometimes they check your itinerary to see if you can afford the trip. Like, if you’re going from Tokyo to Osaka to Kyoto, it will definitely cost a lot and it will be their basis to determine if you can afford it. I am not 100% sure of this information but it is a good idea to take note of this as well.
IF APPLICANT WILL SHOULDER PART OR ALL OF HIS TRAVEL EXPENSES
The bank certificate should be issued at least 3 months before your date of application. Anything older than this (4 months ago) will not be accepted by the embassy.
8. APPLICANT’S INCOME TAX RETURN
You should submit a clear photocopy of your latest income tax return. It should be in A4-sized paper. You don’t need to submit the original one anymore.
As I’ve stated in the first paragraphs of this post, we are still students and we cannot submit an ITR. Our bank accounts are joint accounts with our dad. So if you’re like us, here are the requirements:
IF GUARANTOR WHO LIVES IN THE PHILIPPINES WILL SHOULDER PART OR ALL OF THE APPLICANT’S TRAVEL EXPENSES
The guarantee letter can be downloaded here. Here is a sample of the guarantee letter:
Under the “Seal” part, you can just have your guarantor sign it. Also print this in A4-sized paper.
10. PROOF OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN APPLICANT AND GUARANTOR
We submitted a copy of his birth certificate and some copies of land titles wherein we are co-owners of the lands.
11. BANK CERTIFICATE AND INCOME TAX RETURN (PHOTOCOPY) OF GUARANTOR
Submit the original bank certificate of guarantor and a clear photocopy of the income tax return of guarantor.
As I’ll be going with my 2 sisters, it is important to note that the bank account of our dad can cover all our expenses during the said trip. As other blogs already mentioned, there is no definite amount indicated anywhere to secure the sure approval of the Visa. Some say that for a 5-day trip, you need to have at least Php 50,000 in your bank account. I am not really sure of this but the bank certificates we submitted didn’t really have that much money.
-As I’ve already stated, the size of the documents for application should be A4 and any document not in this size should be adjusted.
-Do not staple or paste the pages
-You can also submit supporting documents such as proof of economic or social ties with the Philippines, urgent reasons for visit.
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS WE SUBMITTED
We submitted a letter of explanation as to why we cannot provide an ITR although as we have a guarantor and we submitted his ITR it is not needed anymore, just so we can further show that we don’t have any intention of overstaying there.
We also submitted copies of land titles just so further show economic ties to the Philippines. Also, we submitted a print-out of the confirmation of the booking we made at Booking.com.
STEP 2: SUBMIT APPLICATION TO AN ACCREDITED TRAVEL AGENCY
The Japan embassy does not allow walk-ins except for extraordinary circumstances. Please check out the Japan embassy website for more information. As they don’t allow walk-ins, they have provided for a list of all their accredited travel agencies.
I will now share my experience with my chosen travel agency which is Universal Holidays Inc.
I chose this agency because of all the agencies I sent an e-mail to, they were the fastest to reply and the most reliable and helpful. Even though the application fee is more expensive than others, you’ll get your money’s worth. (They sometimes put a discount on the application fee at a certain period, just make sure to watch out for that.)
We are from Pampanga and we cannot go to the agency to submit our application forms and come back for our passports once the Japan embassy returns it to the agency so we opted to deliver everything through a courier.
Click here to see how to apply via courier.
a. We scanned all our documents and submitted it through their e-mail. Afterwards we called there to confirm if they already received it.
b. Once they receive it, they will e-mail you back.
c. They will check if the requirements are complete. Once they checked that it is complete, they will send a quotation form which you need to fill out and sign. The quotation form indicated the total amount you need to pay.
d. You can pay through BPI or BDO if I’m not mistaken. I paid through BPI because it’s more convenient for me.
e. After paying, you need to e-mail them a scanned copy of the signed quotation form and the receipt. In the receipt from the bank, you need to write your name there.
f. You will then be instructed to send the documents at their office. I used Air21 because LBC was full at that time. I put the documents inside a sturdy envelop.
g. They will e-mail or send you updates once they receive your application. They will just arrange the documents once they receive it and usually they will already forward your application to the embassy the next working day. You will receive updates about this through text and/or e-mail which you provided in the quotation form sent.
h. Once they receive the passports back from the embassy, they will once again update you. They will also update you when they already shipped your passports back with the tracking number. They used 2GO when they shipped our passports back. They will not tell you if you’ve been granted a Visa so you just have to wait for your passport to arrive.
We were granted a single-entry Visa.
The Japan embassy received our applications on May 5. They approved it the same day. As the next days were Saturday and Sunday, the passports were given back to the agency on May 8. The agency shipped the passports back on May 8 and on the morning of May 9 we already received our passports with a granted Japan Visa,
I was so happy at that time! Finally, the first step to making my dreams come true!
For more information, or if you have more questions, you can comment here using Disqus, go to my Ask, or visit my Instagram (@traveltheworldwithme07) and leave a message there. I will try my best to answer questions.
Click here or here for my sources regarding this post.
