What would be the important events in life for any parent? Attending a child’s wedding must be one such event but what if they couldn’t be there on that special day? It would be a great source of regret for you and your family.
1. Conditions for entering Japan
Even if the purpose of your visit to Japan is of importance to your family, such as attending wedding ceremony, you need to obtain a visa to enter Japan in your own country beforehand.
There are other requirements too, listed below:
- Hold a valid passport issued by the government of your country
- Purpose of your visit is true and matches one of the visa types
(ex, you can’t say your purpose is sightseeing when you have no money on you) - Duration of stay requested is available within the law
- Must provide information for personal identification such as finger prints and pictures
- The applicant does not meet any of the conditions restricted from entering Japan such as:
● You are suffering from any infectious disease like a new or reemerging influenza strain.
● You have been sentenced to imprisonment in Japan or in any other countries for a year or more or, to any equivalent penalties including suspended sentences.
● You have been convicted of violation relating to the control of any psychotropic substances and have been sentenced to a penalty in Japan or in any other countries.
● You have been deported from Japan within the past 5 years ( or if you have been deported from Japan twice, in the last 10 years )
● You have departed from Japan under a departure order pursuant within the past year.
● You have engaged in prostitution or any other business directly connected with prostitution
* Listed here are the major conditions
As you can see, there are other requirements to be met in order to enter Japan, holding a visa is only one of them. Therefore, if any of these requirements aren’t met, you are likely to be refused entry in to Japan even if you hold a visa. If the requirements are met the immigration officer grants you “landing permission” (which is then stamped in your passport). This stamp explains your visa type and how long you can stay. If you are just visiting your relatives, then the stamp will say “ Temporary Visitor “.
2. Who can waive a short-term stay visa?
Currently 68 countries and regions are exempt from requiring a visa to visit Japan for a short-stay(as of April 2020). The period of stay granted at the time of the landing permission will be 15 days for Brunei, Indonesia and Thailand, 30 days for United Arab Emirates and up to 90 days will be granted for the other countries and regions. The purpose of this short-term stay visa can be tourism, commerce, conferences and visiting relatives/ acquaintances, not engaging in paid activities in Japan.
If you are not from any of these countries, then you will have to apply for a visa first in your own country.
3. How and where to apply for a short-term stay visa?
Basically, you have to apply for a visa in your own country. The documents needing to be attached to the application form will vary depending on the nationality and the purpose of visit.
Let’s take an example of this family from Nepal:
The girl from Nepal is getting married to a Japanese man and her parents want to attend their daughter’s wedding in Japan. Since people from Nepal can’t waive a visa, the parents need to apply for a visa.
What they have to prove here is that it is true that their purpose of visit Japan is to attend their daughter’s wedding.
I am going to explain the process of how to obtain a short-term stay visa using this family in Nepal as an example.
3-1 : What applicants need to prepare:
The parents in Nepal need to prove that they are the real parents of the daughter and can support themselves financially for this visit.
In order to prove these, the necessary documents are:
- The birth certificate of the daughter which should contain the date of birth and place of birth of the daughter, names of both parents and annotation by the appropriate authority indicating that it is an extract from the official records. ( If you can’t get the birth certificate, then you need to obtain a secondary document that contains the same information )
- A certificate of a deposit balance or a certificate of income issued by a public institution.
- Valid passports
- A reservation confirmation letter for the flights
- Visa application forms including portrait photos
The parents also need to check with the Japanese embassy / consulate if there are any other documents that are needed. ( Sometimes you are asked to prepare more documents such as an ID card.)
* Please use documents / certificates which have been issued within the 3 months prior to your application.
Once the parents prepare all the above documents, make a photocopy of them. ( You might need them in case there are some questions from the Japanese embassy / consulate. )
3-2 : What inviters need to prepare:
The daughter and her Japanese spouse who are getting married in Japan need to prove that there is going to be a wedding ceremony.
In order to prove this, the necessary document will be:
- A letter relating to the reason for invitation ( Shouhei Riyuu sho )with a list of visa applicants ( Sinseinin meibo )
- The schedule of stay ( Taizai yotei hyou )
- A certificate of Family Registry ( Koseki tohon ) * This is only needed when the inviter is Japanese
If the husband will pay for the travel expenses for her parents, the below documents are also necessary:
- A letter of guarantee ( Mimoto hoshou sho )* Japanese spouse is the guarantor
- A residence record of the entire family ( Jumin hyou )
- One of the following documents from Japanese spouse
● The most recent tax payment certificate ( Nouzei shoumei sho / Kazei shoumei sho )
● A certificate of deposit balance ( Yokin zandaka shoumei sho )
● A copy of tax return with the seal of reception of the tax office ( Kakutei sinkoku sho no utsushi, juryouin )
● A certificate of income ( Shotoku shoumei sho )
* Please use documents / certificates which have been issued within the 3 months prior to your application.
Once the daughter and her husband have prepared all the above documents, they should make a photocopy of them, ( You might need them in case there are some questions from Japanese embassy / consulate. ) and send them to the parents.
3-3 : Apply, and get a visa
When the parents have all the documents including those from Japan, go to Japanese embassy / consulate which deals with the area in which the parents live and apply for a visa.
* The documents you submit will not be returned to you apart from your passport.
It normally takes 1 – 2 weeks to examine these documents and if everything is OK, the parents will be called in to get a passport with a visa.
There are a lots of documents that need to be prepared, but as long as you follow the requirements, you can manage to do it by yourself!
Our services
With the above information, you should have a basic idea of what to do if you want to apply for a short-term stay visa.
However if:
- You don’t have time to prepare all of the documents.
- You want to do it on your own, but you want the prepared documents to be checked.
In these cases, Visa Navi Japan can offer you the exact support you want.
We can check the documents that you prepared, or we can prepare these documents for you as an inviter and can also advise what documents need to be prepared by the applicants abroad.
* Please note: Visa Navi Japan can not apply for a visa, the applicants need to apply for a visa in their country.
Contact us
If you want to make an inquiry about Japan tourist visa / a short-term stay visa, please fill out the form on the Contact us page and send it to us. We will get back to you in a few days.
Visa Navi Japan
Naka-ku, Hiroshima-city
Open Hours : 9:00 – 19:00 Closed : Monday
Fee
To find out about our standard fees, please have a look at our Fee page.