Hello, this is Iwaya of IMS Legal Professional Corporation. The COVID-19 vaccines have rolled out in Japan starting with the senior citizens. Vaccinations for office workers and students are to start as well. I hope more people receive the shots, and that we will be able to travel overseas soon.
Last week was another busy week for client inquiries. The breakdown works out to 74 requests for Japanese visas, 24 for U.S. visas, 14 for Vietnamese visas, 5 regarding naturalization, and 17 others of various types.
As you can see, we help with Vietnamese visas as well. However, because of the COVID impact, border measures and various procedures are frequently changing, so if you are planning to travel to Vietnam, please be careful.
In this blog, I would like to focus on one of the inquiries we received last week.
The inquiry was from a Chinese student going to a Japanese language school in Japan. She wished to see her boyfriend in the U.S. who she was not able to do so for a long time because of the pandemic.
After listening to her story, we reached to the conclusion that applying for a visa was difficult under her situation.
First, she was a student at a Japanese language school and planned to return to China after graduating. Also, the expiration date of her student visa was March 2022. From this point, applying for a visa was determined to be difficult. A foreign national in Japan applying for a U.S. visa in Japan is considered to be a “Third Country Application” and the connection with Japan is very important. In other words, for the Chinese national applying for a U.S. visa in Japan, Japan is a “third country.”
When applying for a U.S. visa, all applicants are presumed they want to immigrate to the U.S. That is why you need to prepare many documents showing that you will certainly come back to Japan and have no intention to immigrate. However, for foreign nationals living in Japan, connections and inhabitancy are weak because Japan is not their home country. Also, for “Third Country Applications” the hurdles are high.
Looking at the situation stated above, our client’s connection with Japan was too weak. Applying for a U.S. visa in order to see her boyfriend was difficult.
However, if it can be judged that the foreign resident has a strong connection with Japan, such as having stayed in Japan for many years, possessing a real estate in Japan, holding a Japanese residence visa with a long period of stay, etc., there is a good chance that he/she can obtain a U.S. visa.
We, at IMS, have supported many foreign residents in Japan apply for U.S. visas. If you are a foreign national living in Japan and thinking of traveling to the U.S., don’t give up and please consult IMS.
For more information, please contact us below ↓
https://imsvisa.support/en/contact/
