Foreign cash bank accounts / Visa issue

[MrSpock]

Hi all,

Thanks to all those who helped with my last post.

I've done a search but couldn't find anything on this subject (although it seems weird that this hasn't been covered before).

Does anyone know of any Japanese banks which will let you have an account in foreign funds, specifically Canadian dollars?

The situation is, I'm trying to get my long time J-girlfriend to come over to Canada with a student visa but she doesn't have the required savings in her bank account (apparently they want the equivalent of $10000 Canadian for a 1 year visa). So next time I go there I will be bringing the 5 grand or so to put in her bank account. That's not the problem, the question is is there any way to avoid having to change that money twice? Looking at the exchange rates, I'd be losing 15% of 5000 bucks which....is a heck of a lot of money to throw away.

By the way, I thought of having her open an account for her here before she arrives, but Canadian banks won't allow anyone to open a bank account unless they are there in person, nor will they allow me to open a joint account with her name.

Anyone know any way around this?

[Iraira]

Hi all,

Thanks to all those who helped with my last post.

I've done a search but couldn't find anything on this subject (although it seems weird that this hasn't been covered before).

Does anyone know of any Japanese banks which will let you have an account in foreign funds, specifically Canadian dollars?

The situation is, I'm trying to get my long time J-girlfriend to come over to Canada with a student visa but she doesn't have the required savings in her bank account (apparently they want the equivalent of $10000 Canadian for a 1 year visa). So next time I go there I will be bringing the 5 grand or so to put in her bank account. That's not the problem, the question is is there any way to avoid having to change that money twice? Looking at the exchange rates, I'd be losing 15% of 5000 bucks which....is a heck of a lot of money to throw away.

By the way, I thought of having her open an account for her here before she arrives, but Canadian banks won't allow anyone to open a bank account unless they are there in person, nor will they allow me to open a joint account with her name.

Anyone know any way around this?

If you send me the $5000, I'll put it into my Nigerian "You are the Descendant of the Pharohs" account, and after you pay an additional $5000 in taxes, I will send you a check for $1,000,000.

On a truer side of the coin: there are some banks which do not charge much for exhanging currencies. I had an account at a Japanese bank in LA, and they did the exchanges at the rate for only $15 or so (as I remember....fried neurons may cause your mileage to differ). Not sure whether Canadian banks are cool about this or that, but you might want to look for a J-bank branch in Canada.

[Greji]

Does anyone know of any Japanese banks which will let you have an account in foreign funds, specifically Canadian dollars?

When one of my kids (I don't remember which one) went to school in the states, I opened an account in Citibank with two cash cards, she took one (to draw money out) and wifie and I kept one (to put money in). I don't know what they would do for dollars from Kanukistan, but yen or US dollars are okay.

I don't particularly like Citibank, but in this instance, they are quite handy!

[FG Lurker]

Yes, she can open a bank account at Citibank Japan or Shinsei Bank (probably others too) and maintain a balance in a number of different currencies, including Canadian Dollars.

However, as far as I know none of the banks will allow you to make a deposit in C$ cash. I know for sure that Citibank won't, even for US$.

If you trust her to not walk away with your cash the best thing to do is to have her open an account at Shinsei or Citibank and then just wire the C$ to her. As long as you specifically request that it is sent in C$ and not converted to JPY it will arrive in the Citibank or Shinsei account unconverted and the balance will show as being in C$.

When she is finished with the money she can wire it back to you, again in C$ without converting it.

The wire will cost between $20 and $50 on your side and about the same from the J-bank to send back.

There are a few other things you should consider too, one of which being that if she uses your cash to get a visa to come to Canada then she is technically violating the terms of the visa. You want to keep this very quiet as if it ever becomes known by immigration in Canada she could find it difficult or even impossible to get another visa into Canada, even if you get married. Obviously it is unlikely that immigration should ever find out but stranger things have happened.

The other thing that pops to mind for me is that if she doesn't have the $10k for the visa, how is she going to afford to pay for the school? None of my business of course but something to consider IMO.

[FG Lurker]

When one of my kids (I don't remember which one) went to school in the states, I opened an account in Citibank with two cash cards, she took one (to draw money out) and wifie and I kept one (to put money in). I don't know what they would do for dollars from Kanukistan, but yen or US dollars are okay.

I don't particularly like Citibank, but in this instance, they are quite handy!

Unfortunately any international transactions get converted to yen automatically. For Citibank Japan from Canada (and maybe from other countries too, not sure) this is even worse as they first convert to US$ and then to JPY.

You'd think the international banking system would be a bit more capable than this but apparently not. This information is recent as I checked with both Shinsei and Citibank in December last year to see if I could convert cash to Can$ before going to Canada and then withdraw funds on that balance while home for Christmas. Both told me that everything would be done from the JPY balance savings account and Citibank mentioned that it would first be converted to US$ before getting changed into yen.

[FG Lurker]

Regarding opening the account I would probably have her do it at Shinsei as they have a very good online system and she can even open the account by mail if she is not living near a Shinsei branch:

http://www.shinseibank.com/english/powerflex/oa.html

[MrSpock]

Holy smokes Lurker, thanks a lot!!!

I'll start checking that out immediately

[Greji]

Unfortunately any international transactions get converted to yen automatically.

Lurk, although it has been a while since I did this, I don't recall any conversion transactions. I opened the account it US dollars, daughter dear spent like a drunken sailor in dollars while in the US and when she returned to Japan, I closed the account.

Quite possibly, there were conversion charges, or costs, but maybe I didn't notice them, because of dipshit's high life style while she was there!

[FG Lurker]

Lurk, although it has been a while since I did this, I don't recall any conversion transactions. I opened the account it US dollars, daughter dear spent like a drunken sailor in dollars while in the US and when she returned to Japan, I closed the account.

Quite possibly, there were conversion charges, or costs, but maybe I didn't notice them, because of dipshit's high life style while she was there!

It may be possible to get an international Citibank card for the US to withdraw funds in US$ from a Citibank Japan account. Citibank told me that I couldn't do this with C$ though and that it would be converted through US$ and back to yen...

In the end I just ran up a large bill on my Royal Bank of Canada VISA and will pay it off by bank wire this month when the bill comes in... I won $2k on the lottery when back too!