I am applying for College in Japan as a scholarship student for April intake. The scholarship money is given half by the College and half by the Prefecture. All school fees and expenses are covered but living expenses aren't included.
I first applied for COE in late November then the school contacted me for an additional contract saying the immigration is asking the school what they going to do with the student's living expenses so we a contract that says the school will loan us 80k yen a month for 2 school years with no interest and we will paid them back after graduation. Then the school kinda reapply? with the additional contract in January 23. And the school was told by the immigration that it will take 1 to 1.5 months to issue.
However, we didn't receive the results till March 16 and it was Rejected. The school said the problem was that they didn't provide enough living expense money for us. I applied for a scholarship thinking I won't have to think about money cases and won't have to provide bank statements so I will be able to get COE passed easily. And all I got was rejection.
Anyway, now the school said they will go to the immigration in person tomorrow for more detail explanation and they will fix whatever the immigration asked for then see if they can reapply COE for the same intake.
Now the question is
Will I be able to reapply COE for the same intake? And if I am able to, will that Coe pass? Is there anyone who has ever been in this situation?
Any kinds of advice are welcome, please …
by RepresentativePut151
8 comments
In which prefecture is the school you would attend? 80.000 yen definitely isn’t enough to cover living expenses in most areas, in big cities like Tokyo it might not even be enough to cover rent. If you didn’t provide any proof of financial stability, like a bank statement, as part of your application, I understand why your COE was rejected, especially because you have to pay back that loan. While your scholarship handles the tuition fees, you definitely need to prove that you can sustain yourself during those two years. The MEXT Scholarship provides a stipend of about 120.000 yen a month and many students on it report that their money is tight if their only source of income is the stipend.
Your school definitely didn’t handle this well, but I also don’t understand why you thought it wasn’t necessary to provide any proof that you can cover your own living expenses since the scholarship only covers tuition. Of course, you need to present proof that you have money to pay rent, food, commute and other daily expenses. Given the long time it takes for COEs to be approved, I doubt you’ll get one in time for the April intake. Before you reapply, make sure you attach some sort of bank statement. If you reapply without any documents supporting your claim that you can cover your living expenses, it will lead to rejection again.
If you can take the same loan from your home country and show money for atleast 1-2 years in your bank account you’ll get is easily.
>The school said the problem was that they didn’t provide enough living expense money for us.
It’s more likely that immigration objects to those living expenses being provided as a loan. Immigration *really* doesn’t want students taking out loans for the purposes of studying in Japan.
>Will I be able to reapply COE for the same intake?
Unfortunately you almost certainly will NOT be allowed to reapply.
Once your application has been rejected there is a 6 month “cooling off” period before you’re allowed to apply again for the same type of visa.
It would be different if immigration had reached out and requested more information or documentation. But once it got to the point of an actual rejection it’s too late.
Even if you are allowed to reapply there’s no chance that the application will process in time for an April start. They’ll be starting the whole process over again, and we’re already more than halfway through March.
Your school should have known better… The requirement I was told when I did study abroad was to prove access to about ¥2m per year of study for living costs, so at least 160k per month. You can see this figure just by googling aswell (1.5-2m often quoted) so I’m not surprised you were rejected.
Even in the cheaper prefectures, 80k will be mostly eaten up by your rent and you’ll have barely anything left over to live on. In cities and especially Tokyo you’d have no chance.
It doesn’t matter what kind of loan you have etc. You need to show bank statements which prove that you have enough money to survive for the duration of your program. Most people show their parents’ bank account statements as proof. Whoever guided you on this did a horrible job.
Is this a regular university? I’m surprised that the scholarship for foreign students is in the form of a loan. This set up seems strange to me.
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For Waseda, I provided a scholarship contract signed by dad’s friend’s company. It was mostly formality to pass though, parent afford my living and school expensee they just didn’t have enough to show during that time so we got it accepted this way!
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