Student visa - money in the bank

[Rasher]

Quick question.

When applying for a student visa, you are required to provide "Documents certifying that the person concerned can defray all the expenses incurred during the stay in Japan". I was in contact with my school here and they said I would need proof that I have Y2m in my account. 2 million??? Seriously??? Can anyone shed some light on this?

As a bit of a background, I'm currently in Japan on a WHV and intend to switch to a student visa early in 2013 while continuing to work at my current job. I'm doing 25hrs per week as it stands so have proof of income that should be sufficient to support me for the duration of my course (2 years). Would this count as a means to defray all costs or are they looking for backup money should everything go to pot and I find myself unemployed and living on the streets?

Y2m seems a little excessive!

[rooster_2006]

Quick question.

When applying for a student visa, you are required to provide "Documents certifying that the person concerned can defray all the expenses incurred during the stay in Japan". I was in contact with my school here and they said I would need proof that I have Y2m in my account. 2 million??? Seriously??? Can anyone shed some light on this?

As a bit of a background, I'm currently in Japan on a WHV and intend to switch to a student visa early in 2013 while continuing to work at my current job. I'm doing 25hrs per week as it stands so have proof of income that should be sufficient to support me for the duration of my course (2 years). Would this count as a means to defray all costs or are they looking for backup money should everything go to pot and I find myself unemployed and living on the streets?

Y2m seems a little excessive!

...and it gets worse.

The number I've heard repeatedly is 3 million yen. AFTER paying tuition.

However, I can't believe that all students studying in Japan actually have that much money in the bank. Seriously, how is a family from Jilin, China, where wages average a few hundred bucks a month, going to put away 4,000,000 yen (3 mil. + tuition) so Tingting can go and study abroad in Japan? Either they're using cheap tricks (fraud, or maybe a quick, temporary loan, for example, to make the bank balance expand temporarily), or the actual minimum is lower than the "official" figure.

[Glenski]

Are you complaining about the amount, or about the fact that you have to prove you can pay for the schooling up front?

According to the visa regulations, supporting documents to your student visa application include:
"Documents certifying that the person concerned can defray all the expenses incurred during the stay in Japan. In cases where the expenses incurred during the stay in Japan are defrayed by another person, who intends to defray all the expenses, and documents showing the process why he or she intends to defray all the expenses for the person concerned required."
http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/english/te.../Table3-1.html

You might be working now on WHV, and you could still work PT on a student visa with special permission, but schools often don't allow it for the first 3 months or so, and who is to say you will actually keep the job when coupled to your long, hard, grueling studies? I would imagine that is why they want to know how much you have. But, if you still want to know, ask the school. It's a straightforward question they should be able to answer.

[themoonrules]

Showing that you can defray payment can be done in a couple of ways. You can attach copies of your bank statements showing steady payment fro work and your current balance in combination with your parents income information (tax returns etc) and bank statements.

Every school I have seen has a set different amount that the school wants to see, I've seen it as low as 1 million yen and as high as 2.5million yen. If you are submitting paperwork with your relatives accounts, additional documentation is required stating that they will cover the costs for you if you can't. A letter of guarantee or something with similar wording is sent to Immigration and attached with all the additional financial documentation (essentially, they become your guarantor). What immigration wants to see is if it's possible for you to support yourself or if you cannot support yourself totally, the ability of a relative (eg your parents) to support you in financial situations.

BTW in these cases they wanted to see if the money was steady income (3 months worth of bank statements etc), I guess this was to prevent someone from borrowing a bunch of cash real fast from people, putting it into their accounts just for the paperwork. If you got personal loan from a bank somehow in your home country, copies of the loan documentation had to be sent in.

In addition, a lot depends on the passport you have. Students from say the US, Canada or the UK etc generally don't have as much problems, but I know for students coming in from say China or the Philippines, they had to show a lot more extra documentation (especially the Chinese students) then I had to and immigration authorities put more scrutiny into those applications. This was because they were having problems with students coming in from China and the Philippines only so they can get a visa to enter Japan, but not actually going to school much and working in Japan.

==

Also as mentioned by the other poster, you can't work on a student status of residency alone. You have to get additional permission from immigration first before you can start working with a student status.

So if your goal is to switch to a student status so you can continue working, this may not be possible, as there will be a gap in time from when you switch, you can't work, and the school probably won't help you get permission for additional work until after your first semester (eg 3 months after you start as a student). What job are you working now? Why can't you switch over to a "regular" working status? No bachelor's degree?
Becoming a student is only a bandaid if you want to stay longer in Japan, the problem is, you are spending more money on tuition and books and will eat at your money since you can only work part-time in the evenings (and that's only AFTER you get permission to work part-time, after you start as a student), while studying as a full time student during the day time.

[Rasher]

I'm not complaining at all, I was just wondering if this was the norm.
Having said that I really wasn't aware that it could take up to 3 months before you could work so it makes sense.

You're right that I don't have a bachelor's degree so I'm looking at alternative ways to stay on after my whv expires. I'm paying for private Japanese lessons at the minute that work out roughly the same as tuition fees will but I want a more intensive course so a proper Japanese school seems like the best option for me at this stage.