We went to Green Park tube station as that's the closest, it's on the Victoria Line. We (I went with my mumsie) came out of the tube station to the south exit and left the park. I said "It's probably on the other side of the road" and my mum said that she thought so too, as it looked like it on google maps. Then I said, "It's probably that building with the giant Japanese flag outside". It's really easy to find. We didn't need google maps at all!
Inside the embassy you have to go through a metal detector and they X-Ray your bag, just like at an airport only not as high-security. They also ask for photo ID - you should have your passport anyway for the visa, but if you take anyone else with you they will need it too, and you'll probably need another form of photo ID when you go to pick it up (because they will have kept your passport!). Once that happened, I saw two of my classmates filling out their forms there too! Pretty coincidental! Sheila, who's blog you can read here, and who is going to study at Hokkaido University, was there to pick up her Visa, while Jiji, who is going to the same University as me (Ryukoku, in case you have forgotten!) was there filling out her application, just like me!
They have all the forms there, so you don't need to worry about that, but you need to know information like the address of your university, (home and Japanese), date of arrival in Japan, Airline you're using, and other things like that. You will also need to bring your passport, your certificate of Eligibility and a passport photo. You can get special visa photos printed (they are a different size), but they are more expensive, and the embassy lady did not care in the slightest when both me and Jiji handed over our normal-sized passport photos. I also hadn't cut my photo out, and the lady did that for me, too. Handy!
When you get there, you should fill out your form first, and then get a ticket from the little queue machine. I did it the other way round like an idiot, and was called way before I was ready. Oops!
It barely takes any time at all and I spent more time chatting to my classmates than I did actually worrying about the visa. It is Tuesday today, and they told me it would be ready for me to collect on Friday! Fab! You must pay £20 when you pick up your visa.
Whilst I was chatting to my friends I saw a girl in a Fearless Vampire Killers T-shirt and kind of pointed out that I was a fan too. She was busy filling in her application and didn't really say much. She is going to Honshu University, a University that UEA isn't paired with. Her dad asked me where my home uni was, but I didn't find out where hers was.
After a little chat, I left my classmates with an excited "See you in Japan!", and went for a wonderful day of clothes shopping (in preparation for Japan) with my mumsie. I'm still not very ready for my super adventure, even though I leave in a week and a day!!
So that was my experience at the Japanese Embassy. Here is a Japanese Embassy Selfie.
If you have any questions about the 'getting a visa' experience, feel free to ask me!
No comments:
Post a Comment