90 Day Tourist Visa, 8 month stay ...

[mgk]

I am wanting to come to Japan to live with my girlfriend who is teaching English there. I have money saved up so I don't really want to work, I just want to leach off her (sharing her flat etc) and just hang out. Unfortunately the recriprocal arrangement with Australia is only 90 days, and my conversation with the people here basically leads me to believe that the only way I can go for 8-9 months is either I get sponsored and get a job or we get married (I am 36 so I can't do the 'working holiday' thing).

Has anyone ever tried the 'stay 90 days have a week in Taiwan' thing or am I basically screwed? Or is there something else I can try?

[GomiGirl]

Get a job at a big Eikaiwa, get sponsored then quit after a few weeks.

[Taro Toporific]

Has anyone ever tried the 'stay 90 days have a week in Taiwan' thing or am I basically screwed? Or is there something else I can try?

One renewal of a 90-day Tourist Visa is matter of fact (provided you don't have kanji face tattoos and blue hair). FG member AlbertSiegel just left Japan after 7(?) months of renewed Tourist Visas and no problems until his fourth renewal.
On the other hand, bluehair boy "Home Despot" of the TokyoDamageReport.com did the a week in Taiwan' thing for almost 2.5 years before Immigration blacklisted and deported him.
Read the thread: Home Despot deported

[maraboutslim]

In the good ol' days, I met people who had been doing the 90-day tourist visa thing for four, five, six years. I tried it and hit a minor, yet stressful, snag my first go around: I flew round trip from Tokyo to Seoul and when I went to get back on the plane to Tokyo, the airline (ANA or JAL, don't remember) refused to let me go because they say I needed one of the following: a visa for Japan, or...a plane ticket showing I had plans/means to leave Japan after my 90 days were up. I had neither of course since I had arrived in japan on a one-way ticket a year prior. I assume the Japanese airlines had been told by the Japanese government to refrain from bringing in passengers that didn't have visas or return tickets.

I refused to buy a ticket at the airport because that's the most expensive place one can buy a ticket. I just waited them out and kept bugging them. My plane left without me. I continued to wait and wonder how the hell I was going to get back to Tokyo. Eventually an airport employee took pity on me, stamped my plane ticket with some special stamp and told me to try any other airline and see if they'd take me. I walked straight to an American airline and they didn't say a thing about visas or tickets or anything and I was on my way back to Tokyo ten hours later than originallly planned.

Of course when I arrived at Narita, they just stamped my passport like normal. Not a single question. The moral of the story is... have proof you have a ticket to leave Japan eventually. (Me? I did eventually leave: five years after that, ha!)

[vitellus]

how long did you stay in South Korea for?

[Taro Toporific]

how long did you stay in South Korea for?

To change to a new visa at the Japanese embassy in Seoul takes two full days, minimum. Plan on staying at least three days---a week to be safe. Seoul has cheap flophouses for foreigners similiar to Japanese "gaijin houses" but cheaper (and crappier).

What's the going price per night in Seoul for an alien shit-hole lodging now?

[vitellus]

you need to get a new visa in Seoul? i thought you just a got a new 90 day landing permission when you arrived back in Japan.

Man, a week in Seoul. I hope there is a lot to do.

[sillygirl]

Just a thought...

My first visit to Japan was on a 3 month visitor visa. But I got it extended twice without having to leave the country. First extension was for a further 3 months, the 2nd was for 4 weeks. Then I had to go. (Went back to UK and came back to get visitor visa #3). Worked on them, too.

Extended it at the good ole immigration funhouse...

[Taro Toporific]

you need to get a new visa in Seoul? i thought you just a got a new 90 day landing permission when you arrived back in Japan.

Man, a week in Seoul. I hope there is a lot to do.

You need 2 or 3 days to change to a new visa class ... I have no idea how long you need to make it look good if you want to stay to get a new 90 day landing permission. If you look wealthy and non-scumbag just one or two days outside Japan ought to fine. However, if you look like Scooby-Doo-Doo, you never know what Japanese immigration will do.

Remember: you should be able to renew your 90 day tourist visa inside Japan at least once or twice before you have to leave Japan and come back in under a new 90 day tourist visa. To renew your 90 day tourist visa while remaining inside Japan, you have to create a believable and detailed tourist itinerary such as visiting all 67 temples of Shikoku on foot as a pilgrim. Do your homework---research and write out a detailed itinerary, because J-immigration will "test" you.

[vitellus]

I am from Belgium - can I also renew my 90 day visa within Japan? everybody I have spoken to told me this was not possible. However I'm always willing to pop over to the immigration offices in shinagawa (I think) to try and get an extension, if there is a chance that it might work. If I'm not mistaken UK citizens are allowed 6 months (but they must apply for an extension). I have a german friend who spent 5 months in Jpan last year (German nationals are also allowed 6 months) and all he had to do to get an extension is to prove he had enough money for the rest of his trip.

http://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/visit/visa/02.html#b

[vitellus]

I knew it. Nobody has a reply to this one : PPP

[fatslug]

Just a quick question. Im curious as why you people keep returning to Japan ????

Why dont u guys find a job and get a 1yr or 3 yr visa rather than stuffing around.

[vitellus]

actually that's the plan - I am looking for for a job. I just need more time to find one.


and I don't want to do the NOVA thing.

[vitellus]

what happens if you leave Japan and then return before the original 90 day visa expires? will they cancel the original visa and issue a new 90 day visa starting on the re entry date or will you just continue on the old visa?

[GomiGirl]

As soon as you leave the country the old visa is cancelled so that when you enter again it is on a new 90 day visa.

[vitellus]

hooray. Thanks for that answer. Now the bonus question - If I can get an instructor's visa at an eikaiwa school and if I change to a non-teaching job later on within the same year, do I need to change the visa type and if yes how difficult is this to do? if no, do you need to do it then when you want to renew the visa after the first year? is it possible to ask the eikaiwa that hires you to request a more general humanities/engineer/researcher visa instead?

wow, sorry that sort of became kind of long somehow (°_°)?

I guess there is no black and white answer to these questions as they are not really textbook situations but rather case by case. However if anybody knows of such a case on what the outcome was, I would be glad to hear about it!

[GomiGirl]

Most eikawa teachers get a "Specialist in Humanities" visa which is very very broad.. I had that visa for working in a software company too. So it is fairly flexible. But the type of visa is not really an issue for the job - as long as you have one.

You only need to change visa type and sponsor when the visa is being renewed. Technically you should when you change jobs but nobody ever does.

[vitellus]

thanks you for your reply. Yes I have heard about the specialist in humanities visa. When applying for the certificate of elegibility, did you fill in the forms yourself and send it to the immigration department or did the eikawa do this?

[GomiGirl]

I don't work in Eikawa so I don't know what they generally do. But I normally fill out my own forms and just got the company to fill out their parts. They are really easy to do and they will tell you if you have forgotton anything.

But you will need an employment contract (in Japanese) as well as all of your degrees etc translated into Japanese (just attach the japanese translation to the copy of the original.)

[FG Lurker]

(just attach the japanese translation to the copy of the original.)

I'm pretty sure you need to provide your original degree along with the translation. There were a lot of people photoshoping degrees so they cracked down on this about 10 years ago...

[GomiGirl]

I'm pretty sure you need to provide your original degree along with the translation. There were a lot of people photoshoping degrees so they cracked down on this about 10 years ago...

I took my original to prove that I had it but left them with a copy. You can have copies notorised by a lawyer and that is as good as the original.

[FG Lurker]

I took my original to prove that I had it but left them with a copy. You can have copies notorised by a lawyer and that is as good as the original.

Yup, definitely.

You used to be able to use non-notarized copies though, so people just ps'd them to change the name. I knew lots of people who got visas that way when I was first here in 1993... Actually, that was about when immigration started cracking down on it and people started buying high-quality fakes in Thailand. I imagine that even a good fake won't get by these days though.

[nullpointer]

I'm pretty sure you need to provide your original degree along with the translation. There were a lot of people photoshoping degrees so they cracked down on this about 10 years ago...

Don't know how they are doing it now but when I applied (in 2001) I had to give a photocopy (plain, not notarised) of the degree. No translation required.

[Delinjapan]

well it certainly sounds like a case by case thing

I only have a notarised non translated copy of my diploma...I wonder what will happen (if ever I do get a job...).

[nullpointer]

well it certainly sounds like a case by case thing

I only have a notarised non translated copy of my diploma...I wonder what will happen (if ever I do get a job...).

My understanding is that your employer matters a lot. e.g. if you are a financial analyst or a software engineer and If you have an offer of employment from say, Goldman Sachs or Lehman Brothers or Sony then they wouldn't give a rat's ass about your certificates. They may ask for them, but only because protocol demands it. If you are good enough for a heavyweight company then you are good enough for J-immigration. Don't know how it works for English schools though.

[GomiGirl]

Yep you need to have the right credentials for the right sort of job. They wouldn't allow somebody with no experience in IT to get a visa with a software company.