let's make a video shall we today we're going to be talking a little bit about how me and Madoka,
who you may have seen in some of my other videos if you've watched any of those
how we actually managed to get our visas to go to Japan one of the things that you've probably seen
a lot of at the moment is the tour packages that Japan are opening up to everybody but for a lot
of people that's not really an idea that they can really entertain it's really restrictive and when
we first heard that news we were actually like really disappointed about that so one of the
things that happened was that the prime minister of Japan Kishida visited the UK and talked about
opening up japan like the rest of the G7 countries so we were really excited at that point we know
what the UK is like it's really quite open and stuff so the time for japan to be opening up
is just around the corner we've been together for over a year and a half coming up come up to a year
and a half we're in a serious relationship so we kind of want to take those next steps and usually
in a normal relationship you meet the parents while we've done that online it would be lovely
to do in person so we needed to find a way on how we could get to Japan yeah so first of june
Japan opened temporary visa for foreigners who visit relatives and friends or partners in Japan
That's me... so this visa is actually almost identical to a short-term visa it lasts 90 days
it's just kind of got that extra step on it which is that it has to be really specific
about why you're going this time as well one of the main problems that we had with that which is
where we were a little bit worried was that one of the requirements was that your partner or your
friend has to be living in japan me and madoka we live in singapore so what was our other option?
YOUR DAD
The good news is is that this application doesn't just apply to partners you can do it if you're
going over there for another specific reason like to weddings, funerals. For some people
that this answer is not really the answer you want because in your mind you're thinking okay well
i actually just want to go to Japan and be a tourist unfortunately in this situation
that maybe you're going to be disappointed but I would say don't give up there's a chance, (Madoka: there's
a chance) right what did we do first of all? WHAT DID WE DO FIRST OF ALL? first i emailed to
embassy in singapore to find out what document we need we need hey passport photocopy we need
your application phone visa application form yeah and we need your id card for the copy yeah
and we need invitation letter from my dad so there's an embassy form that you have to fill out
and then we also supplied an additional document which was what was it is it like a it's just a
letter because the uh letter government provided to us was really small section to like a reason why
my dad want to invite him so we need another A4 paper paper to write a essay like
it was long it was a whole page now we're absolutely not saying that you need like a whole
page i think that providing as much information as possible to the embassy is gonna help your chances
there was i think one other thing that we needed yeah to prove our relationship which is we just
that was mine and mine and yours yeah like we're living together we're lucky in
singapore that we have an id card as expats that say our address on yeah so we can prove it quite
easily that we're actually living together our case my dad is an inviter so i have to prove that
he's my dad so i asked my parents to get a family certificate yeah from japan and they just sent me
send me a scan so i just needed that. They didn't, they didn't look at two photos of you and your dad
and say yes yes we call it "kosekitohon" which is a kind of family certificate like everyone's name
on it yeah and with the birth and everything so now that Madoka has provided the kosekitohon there is
just a few more things that you need to provide a schedule of where you are staying
like each day also a purpose of travel so i wrote a letter about how we met and he's okay but he's
safe yeah it was it was kind of like our little like our little love story kind of thing yeah yeah
like why he wants to go to japan when you're maybe writing your schedule about what you're going to
be doing it doesn't have to be super fine details like down to the very second of what you're doing
meeting my family meeting my aunties i didn't put any like sightseeing. We did provide the locations where
we were going we didn't add in there oh you know we're gonna spend the morning in harajuku i don't
think you really need to put that in so with all those documents ready to go the next step
was to head to the embassy today is the day that we're going to the japanese embassy to
see if those documents that we have taken ages well, i say we Madoka, has taken ages to prepare
for the embassy and it's probably one of the first and only times you're gonna see me in a shirt
so now we're all back from the embassy there are a couple of things that we now
have to wait on before we receive the verdict of our visa and this is quite a nerve-wracking time
things that you have to know is that if you're applying for this in Singapore
it's 38 Singapore dollars the second part of that is that you have to wait for five
days working days if you put it on a Friday then you're not going to be getting it until
next Friday yeah one thing that we were told when we was in the embassy is that you need to provide
your phone number because they might call you for additional information if your application isn't
clear in some parts so once your five days are up it's time to return back to the embassy and
just cross your fingers that they approve your visa because they don't tell you beforehand if
it's rejected (Madoka: I was so nervous) yeah we are now going back to the embassy to pick up the visa today is the dayyyyyy
i don't know why i'm acting excited because we might not even get the visa but ah we're now
making our way to the embassy again and then we're gonna go get my passport back for a start because
they kept that and then the second part is that we find out whether they've accepted our visa
we've already said that if it doesn't work out and we can't get the visa then mataka is going
to go and i'm going to stay here in singapore which is okay we've done this before Madoka
went back at christmas so we are used to it but it's just kind of like going to be one of those
sad things if we can't do the thing that we've been hoping for for so long
so we finished at the embassy and we finally got
the results back and we're going to japan yeah we are super lucky we have got our visa yay
it was all approved we just kind of want to leave you with some final thoughts really about your
application and stuff like that so madoka spends a lot of time on twitter speaking to people who are
also applying for this visa as well and i think you've received a lot of questions on this on the
same kind of topics over and over again so what do you think people like need to be aware of i guess
depends on where you live each embassy requires different documents so just go to the website
of your uh your embassy and check the list and also you can email to them because they're quite
like they're quite responsive so and they're really nice so just ask questions if you have
any questions yeah you might not have any for our situation my dad was the inviter but usually
i think lots of people are like the partner yeah it's gonna be invited right from japan from japan
so a lot of the time what happens is that if you've met your partner online and maybe you've
visited each other before and now you've gone back to your home countries which does happen
because of covid it's kind of kept everyone apart i think that's normal I think. In that case you can't prove
maybe like living together or same address or yeah i think you don't need to because you're
thousands of miles away so you obviously don't live together. In that case you can screenshot your
chat with the partner or nothing naughty, nothing naughty or like a picture. me and madoka we actually
turned up to the embassy in singapore with loads of our photos that we had from our relationship
thinking that we might have to provide them and the the person behind the counter just was like
no no i really hope you did get some good information out of this video it's a little
bit different to the normal traveling style videos if you did like this video i would love it if you
subscribed to the channel even share it with someone who you know is going to japan and also
i researched a lot so if you have any questions just leave the comment yeah like i think i hope i can
help you or give you some other things that'd be amazing yeah yeah so we'll see you next one peace