University went silent after CoE application

hello, i was accepted into two universities in japan as research student for masters and i sent the documents for CoE in the first choice university last october, however in case something went wrong, i did not decline offer to the second university, instead i made an excuse to delay application for CoE in the next april, both universities entrance is supposed to be next october

so it has been almost 3 months since i sent the documents for CoE to the first university and they even told me that they would inform me if there was anything wrong (apparently there wasn't), and now after 3 months i try to contact them with email to see what happened and nobody is answering, neither my supervisor (the one responsible for my research theme) nor the faculty office and i do not know what is going on, i spent a lot of time with my supervisor for planning the research theme and it is strange that nobody is answering , also my email is working fine so it has nothing to do with filtering and stuff

if they do not answer at all i still have the 2nd choice university to apply for CoE in april, but if they do not tell me what is going on they might have the CoE somewhere there and i wont be able to apply again because something might be messed up, it is just bizarre that everything can be ruined simply by someone not responding to an email, what would you do in such a time as this

Can you please tell is it public or private university? Mostly, public universities do not respond much on emails, rather they tell you to read carefully instructions that are mentioned on university guidelines. It is better to contact directly through the phone or ask some friends to call them and ask what�fs going on with your visa application procedure. Because in many cases they submit all the documents to the immigration and just waiting their approval; until that moment they mostly do not respond. I recommend as above to contact directly through the phone. You should know whether they applied for your CoE or not. You cannot apply second time to review your application to the immigration, while another one is in process. It can cause problems.

Hope will be useful.

Kind Regards,
John

In addition to the comments by the above poster, note that the review by the immigration authorities can take more than a few months. (And the university cannot do anything about the lengthy time it takes.)

Also note that currently there are many students-to-be who already have the CoE or even the visa to enter Japan but not allowed to enter Japan currently because of the entry restrictions due to COVID. The university might not be able to say anything definitive due to the current situation (not knowing when the new students will be allowed to enter Japan - if, for example, students who have been accepted for April start are unable to enter Japan, that would have an implication for October start too). They might be waiting to see what the government does in the short term to get a clearer picture. Best wishes.

Just a different idea, when did you contact them? There has been a long string of public holidays in Japan, so most offices are closed until 4/J an, then again on 6 and 10 Jan there are more local holidays coming up. So maybe the contact persons are simply still on holidays?

hello, thank you for the answers, sorry for being too private in the information, my first choice university was Toyama University and my second choice was Fukui University (both for the same research theme), i am not sure if they are private or public, these universities have the names of the regions they are but i never had communication problem with the second one (Fukui)

i had contacted them about a week after christmas but it was still holidays so they might not have been there although, they always used to answer the email within a week

anyway the person responsible for my CoE application (from Toyama) has answered now and he told me that he did not even start the CoE application "I have not applied the COE application yet. I am very sorry and I will do application procedure as soon as possible." which is really messed up, since they were pretty clear that they would start back in october when i sent them the documents, if i did not send email who knows if they even did the application at all

Corona virus made this world topsy turvy
You cant enter japan before october 2022
as a student.So you will get COE result in april/may 2022

Well, two things,
- actually the university replied quite fast. Considering that there were local holidays/ office closure from around 28/Dec to 4/Jan, and again 6/Jan
- your stay in Japan let your initial post isn�ft supposed to even start until October 2022, so there isn�fta huge urgency to apply for the COE. the COE in normal times is valid for 3 months after it has been issued and it takes about 1-3 months to get it. So from the university perspective it makes no sense to apply for it now. The COE would expire before you even want to go. My guess I�fd that the university has some internal process that tells them to start x months before planned arrival with the process. A while guess would be to start maybe 3, max 4 months before.

Now currently due to Covid COEs do not expire. Because the borders are closed. And no one knows when they will open. They were open for 3 weeks back in November (only for new residents and business travelers, and OPEN is a big word. More like �gnot tightly shut, but still very hard to get in). As soon as omicron struck, the border was shut again.
So currently COEs emitted between Jan 2020 and I think oct 2021 are valid until Apr/2022. And COEs emitted from Nov 2021 are valid for 6 months. If none of the circumstances in the application changes. (I have somwhere the exact dates, but you get the picture)

Realistically already approved COEs will continue to be extended until the border is reliably open. Ie I am sure that the old ones will not expire in April if the border is still more or less closed.

But for your situation it still makes no sense to apply for COE, because if the border would be open Berufe October YOUR COEwouid expire before you want to go

Would have been nice if the university had explained this to you, but maybe they think you know about COE expiry.

thank you for the additional details, although the CoE is used for application for the student visa, which lasts for 2 years and can be extended at least once, so when you get the CoE you do not really depend on the time remaining of the CoE but you give it to the local embassy and you get the student visa, although in the current situation it is still more wise to spend some of the CoE's expiration time before applying for the student visa in the embassy

Amidamaru,

You have two terms mixed up: �gvisa�h and �gresident status.�h

- �gVisa�h is used for entering Japan, and you obtain the �gCoE�h first to get the �gvisa.�h There is usually a validity period on �gCoE,�h within which you are supposed to apply to get the �gvisa,�h and there is a validity period on �gvisa,�h during which you are supposed to enter Japan. (I believe either is something in the range of 3 months; but currently due to COVID, the validity period is extended.)

- Once you enter Japan, you will have �gresident status�h as student, which is valid for 2 years (and can be extended if you continue your studies.

So�c getting the CoE �gtoo early�h doesn�ft make sense. Universities must have certain time period during which they make applications for CoE for a certain starting period.

ok just one last question because i had it wrong, on the embassy website it says that CoEs issued after 30th of April are valid until October 2022, so should i tell them to not apply for the CoE until 30th of April? because there doesn't seem to be any better date for now, even if on october the borders are still closed, the validity from the embassy that you said should also be somehow extended if it is received at september

https://www.ph.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_en/11_000001_00314.html

I think you should ask them what THEIR plan is. They apply for these COEs all the time and know the process. For you it�fs the first and only time. So you are not an expert. So I don�ft think it is useful for you to tell them what to do.

CoE �gissued�h after April 30, and one �gapplied for�h before April 30 are not the same. As Likebike said, I believe it is better to let them do the planning for the timing too - they do the applications for many students.

yes he told me to get it as soon as possible which is the opposite of what you told me, but now with the info that you told me about embassy validity and visa being seperate things, if i get it as soon as possible both the coe and the validity from embassy will expire before october 2022, since 2 year visa period starts only after you are in japan,

this is the message
"You won't lose your position at the University if the COE expiration expires.
Don't worry.
It's better to get COE as soon as possible in order to enroll TOYAMA university.

If I apply for COE after April 30,you may not be able to enroll in October.
Is it OK?""

it seems like they either have no idea what they are saying or they just dont care and want to get it over with or something (i mean the admission staff), but you were right that coe issued after 30th of april is not the same as coe applied after april 30 but either way if you apply for coe near april 30th it will be issued sometime after 30th of april which will be categorized in the october expiration date, so it seems the best way is to apply around 30th of april, that way there will be both enough time for october with the coe and also even if october the borders are still closed, the embassy validity might be extended further and give enough time for later entrance

They do know what they are doing. But they are getting emails from someone wanting them to apply 11 months in advance. So they are blowing you off. Leave then alonne and let them do their job.

Amidamaru
One day i am also in your position.
I am always worry,why i cant get my COE
However my COE result came in june
So i have only 90 days for visa
Then i apply for student visa
And i get visa within one week after applying
My class start in september or Fall semester
Besid my u has spring and summer seester

When you get your visa,Then pls come in this forum,my japanese friend will tell you how will you go nearest airport to university and other
Useful information,which is absolutely necessary for new comer of japan

In the mean time,you try to increase your japanese Language,this is necessary for your part time job, talk with your japanese friend.

Eventually, did you get your CoE? If so, how many weeks did it take tto get it? I am wondered how many weeks it takes during COVID situation. Cause there shoul be less people applying for the CoE compared to the past.

For the OP here no application has yet been made (because it would be too early).
But I got my COE (HSP) recently. It took a bit over 1 month.
Now I am waiting for the border to open again.

I am also a student at the college in Japan and I must say that after covid everything stopped.

it was true in the past. but, it is not true now. students can enter Japan.