Visa & Residence Registration

1. Appointment Date
Your appointment with Tokyo College starts either on the 1st or 16th of the month. Please decide your appointment date.

2. Certificate of Eligibility (CoE)
Tokyo College will submit an application form for your CoE to the Immigration Bureau on your behalf. Our staff will contact you in regard to this after your appointment is finalized. Please send us a copy of your passport, photo of your face using .jpg file, updated CV and let us know your phone number and postal mailing address where we can send the certificate to you.

If you would like your family to accompany you in Japan, your family needs to obtain dependents’ status of residence. An original copy of the marriage certificate for a spouse and an original copy of the birth certificate for a child will be required for the certificate of eligibility application.

Issuance of the certificate will take about one month after the application form has been submitted. The certificate is valid for three months after issuance. After we receive the certificate from the Immigration Bureau we will send it to you.

3. Applying Visa
After you receive the CoE, please apply for a professor visa at a nearby Japanese Embassy or Consulate General with the CoE and enter Japan within three months after the certificate has been issued. The visa will normally be issued within two weeks after you submit your application. Please check the valid date of your passport and plan ahead of time so that you have enough time to apply for a visa. A visa is just like a reference letter to enter Japan issued by the Japanese Embassy, but it is not a permission to work in Japan yet. When you enter Japan, an immigration officer will award you professor residence status.

4. Landing Permission & Resident Status
When you enter Japan with your visa and the CoE, an immigration officer will award you “professor residence status” (or “family residence status”) and a landing permission sticker is issued and pasted on your passport. A resident card will also be issued. By the University of Tokyo regulations, you must enter Japan and obtain this professor status at least one day before your official appointment date.

5. Resident Registration
You are required to visit a city hall to complete your resident registration as early as you can. Your resident address will be written on the back side of your resident card.

Remarks:
Please confirm that your name on various documents is same as the one on your passport. Please contact Tokyo College about the CoE, Japanese Embassy or Consulate General about your visa, and the Immigration Bureau about your resident card immediately if you find any errors. It will need to be revised and reissued immediately.

6. Change / Renewal of Residential Status

Please inform the Research Support Team without delay, for internal procedures, should you need to change or renew your residential status and obtain a new residence card.

Last updated : December 07, 2020