Visa Application

I've been busy the past few days, finally getting myself organised with some of the more important parts of this trip. I've now purchased travel insurance, paid the dorm fee (which thanks to the shitty Australian Dollar at moment cost me nearly $4000 instead of $3600 like I originally thought it would), and exchanged AUD for JPY. Hopefully I've exchanged enough money to keep me going for the first couple of months that I'm in Japan, or a least until I've sorted out if I'll be opening a Japanese bank account or not.

Note to self: buy a dorky money belt so no one steals your money while you sleep on the plane.

My CoE (Certificate of Eligibility) finally arrived from Rikkyo yesterday, so today I made a trip in to the city to apply for my visa. That was certainly an 'interesting' trip. Before I get in to the details of that though, for anyone else applying for a Japanese visa in Brisbane here's a few things to keep in mind. 

• Double check the opening hours. At the moment the consulate doesn't process visa applications between 12:30 and 2pm. 
• Double check on the website what is required. Rikkyo told me to bring 3 things; the letter of admission (from Rikkyo), passport, and the CoE. This was NOT what I needed and I got extremely lucky that I didn't have to make a second trip in to the city to apply. I'll tell you more about that in a bit.

This story will probably make me sound naive (and I probably am), but I feel I need to relay the events involved with applying for a visa at the consulate in Brisbane so that other naive folk (I say that in a loving way) know what to expect. I assume the process will be somewhat similar in other states/countries too.

When I stepped out of the lift, there were no signs to clarify if I was on the right level, in fact the whole level was abandoned and kind of dark, EXCEPT for a security guard standing in front of a doorway (for anyone who has played Pokemon, think of those annoying Team Rocket grunts who blocked doorways in those otherwise abandoned buildings. I was Ash). Needless to say I thought I'd got off on the wrong floor and this guy was looking as serious as a person can possibly look. I thought there must have been a crime scene on the other side of that door and I was so ready to run back in the lift and get the hell out of there.

Obviously seeing my look of confusion (and probably panic because I thought I wasn't supposed to be there) he asked if I was looking for the consulate. I said yes, and he told me to stay where I was and asked for ID. He then filled out some form, gave me back my ID, and asked for my phone and any cameras I might have. I gave him my phone and then he checked my bag and used one of those wavy wand stick things to make sure I didn't have anything dangerous on me. I then had to walk through one of those security barrier things like you walk through at the airport before I could go in. I mean, realistically, I understand the precautions. Like I said I was stupidly naive when I imagined the consulate as some office like any other. And when he took my phone the only thing I could think of was 'what the hell am I going to do while I wait now?'. Goodbye Facebook.

Luckily once I got through the doors I didn't really have to wait. There was about a 3 minute wait, but since I hadn't filled in the visa application forms before showing up like I was supposed to (you can get them on the website) I spent my 3 minute wait filling them in. I really recommend filling them in beforehand if you can, there were some questions on there about things such as the address where you will be staying, and I didn't have the address on me and of course I didn't have my phone to find out. Luckily for me the lady who checked the application just wrote 'to be organised by the university' in that section. You will also need a passport size photo. This was something that Rikkyo hadn't said that I would need, and I was lucky that I had put one in my passport case for safekeeping awhile back. Also, you won't need the letter of admission which Rikkyo said I would need, they only want the CoE, passport photo, and your passport. And the application form of course. The best advice I can really give here is to check the website for requirements before going to the consulate, DO NOT rely on Rikkyo to get it right.

So that's my story. Don't expect everyone in the consulate to be all smiles. I don't think I got a smile the whole time I was there. I was trying to be upbeat and friendly and felt like a total ditz in comparison. Everyone is very no-nonsense and I felt like I was doing something wrong the whole time I was there. Even when I was following directions. I'm not particularly looking forward to going back next week to pick up my visa (it takes about 3 working days to process by the way). But hey, once I pick it up I'm pretty much sorted for this trip! Other than working out what to pack...

Anthea xx