We're Granted a 10-Yr Multiple Entry Japan Visa at First Try! 🎉

 After hubby won his roundtrip flight to Japan last February 9, 2025 at the Pokemon Run Philippines, we started researching and preparing our documents for the Japan Visa application.

Right after the run, I immediately pushed him to renew his PRC License at the Rosales, Pangasinan branch since it was just beside the PSA office where we were getting our marriage and birth certificates as some of the requirements.

After that, we kind of drift off since we prioritized processing the transfer of the title of our house.

Because of the announcement that the Japan visa application will be solely submitted to VFS Global starting April 2025, and due to the influx of applicants, we decided to observe first.

And they're mentioning that it's hard to book a slot from the VFS Global's website anyway.

When I saw a lot of available standard slots for July though, I prcoeeded with booking an appointment with VFS Global - Parqal (Paranaque branch) on May 14 even though I feel like we weren't ready yet.

It wasn't a smooth booking since there are a lot of nuances and bugs on the website.

I keep getting logged out as well.

But eventually, I made the booking. I paid using my credit card because VFS only accepts either Mastercard or Visa as payment. GCash Amex kept on failing.

I was a able to book an appointment for Multiple-entry visa application as cultural and intellectual figures and paid a total of Php 1,040 for the booking. 

Pareho lang namang Php 520 kahit alin sa single-entry at multiple-entry ang piliin, so I pushed for the ME na lang. Para may choices si JE kung SE o ME ang ibibigay sa amin. 😆

It wasn't until a few weeks before our appointment though that we rushed completing the other requirements. 😅

I even bought a home printer just for this because I don't feel like going to & fro the print shop which is a 10-minute drive to town.

Bili na rin kayo, super sulit pala ng HP Printer. 👌

Naubos na namin yung 50 pcs of bond paper, but the starter inks that came with it ay may laman pa rin.

And I only printed the docs through my phone.

Okay, I'll probably enumerate first the documents we prepared with side comments then I'll go through the application process.

Documents prepared:

1. VFS Appointment letter - very, very important. This is like a ticket that lets you in to the building. This SHOULD be PRINTED. Soft copy is NOT allowed. So even though hindi nila ito kukunin, ito ang pinakaunang ichicheck bago makapasok.

2. Visa application form - downloaded from the Japan Embassy website. We already pasted our 4.5mm x 3.5mm photos before we came to the VFS office, but before doing so, we already wrote our names and birth dates at the back of our photos.

Also, my passport is still in my maiden name, so that is what I wrote in my application form as well as in the VFS appointment letter.

Since my PRC License is already in my married name, I also added my married name on the "Other names" field of the application form.

My name written on the Certificate of Service that was provided by my client was a little different (it didn't have my second name and my surname was hyphenated). I was so anxious that it might be a problem and since nakaluwas na kami ng Manila (a day before our appointment) and nakaprint na lahat ng docs, hinand-written ko na lang ito para idagdag sa "Other names" field ng application form.

Thankfully, given the very positive result, accepted naman ang mixed ng printed and hand-written answers sa form. ☺️

Also, may nabasa akong comment sa isang FB group na bawal daw magsuot ng puti sa photo, kaya napraning pa ako dahil nakaputi si hubby sa pic niya. Thankfully this wasn't an issue at all.

3. Request for a Multiple Entry form - we ticked #3, a cultural or intelectual figures. The reason we wrote was:

Hubby only changed the first part to "To allow me and my wife...". Well, actually I was the one who prepared this for him so yeah. 😆

4. Bank certificate with ADB of Php 1xx,xxx for each of us.

We both use BPI and I've read somewhere that BPI provides bank cert on a YTD (Year to date) basis, so para maisakto naming 6 months ang magpakitang ADB, kumuha kami ng bank cert exactly on July 1.

So our ADB and bank balance on the certificate was until June 30.

BPI charged us Php 300 each for the bank cert. We didn't pay cash. We only signed a debit memo and it got automatically deducted from our accounts.

5. Certificate of Service - we are freelancers, hence, we don't have a COE. Instead, we requested our clients to prepare a COS for us that states our fees, the work that we do for them, period of service, and their contact information.

6. Letter of explanation for no ITR - just a straightforward explanation and isang page lang.

7. Itinerary - I prepared a 5-day itinerary for us for this application, but since up to 90 days ang allowed for us, babaguhin ko ung magiging totoong itinerary namin. 😆

For ideas, this is the itinerary that we submitted:

I downloaded the itinerary form from the Japan Embassy website and I got the idea of adding our names on it from my friend. Makes sense para kung sakaling magkahiwalay yung papers namin, malalaman pa rin ng JE na magkasama kami. Hehe

8.  Colored Photocopy of Passport Bio Page

9. Photocopy of our PRC License - front and back na phinotocopy ko para sigurado.

10. Passport

11. Birth certificate

12. Marriage certificate - tig-isa kami ni hubby. Tinanong ng VFS staff kung gusto raw naming kunin na lang yung isa since magkasama naman daw kami sa application kaya okay na raw ang isang copy. But we didn't see any other purpose na paggagamitan so hindi na namin binawi.

Other documents we submitted as supporting documents:

11. List of addresses - I listed it down on MS Word. Cainta, Rizal pa kasi yung nasa information ko, but we're residing in Pangasinan now. So I listed both of these addresses.

12. Photocopy of Land Title - after we processed this in March, it took LRA 3 months to finally transfer the title to our names. We were able to get it in June. Tig-isa kami ni hubby ng copy, as a supporting doc of our current address. It came in handy para we're hitting two birds in one stone. For the purpose of evidence of our current address and also an evidence of our ties to the Philippines. 😁

Tinanong pa sa VFS kung bakit may titulo, and I just answered as a supporting doc ng address namin.

13. Remittances - To support our COS. Hubby downloaded his from his BPI account, while I downloaded mine from Wise (as this is where my client pays me). I just filtered the transaction to only show my client's remittances. This can only be done through the Wise website. Filtering Wise statements isn't available in the mobile app yet.

14. Colored photo of hubby winning in Pokemon Run as well as our photos during the run. - I collated all these photos in one MS Word page and printed 2 copies, tig-isa kami.

15. His PAL certificate to support his claim that he won the roundtrip flight. - his copy only.

Now here's the timeline of our visa application from our appointment in VFS Global - Parqal to passport delivery.

May 14: Booked an appointment from the VFS Global website. Make sure it's for Japan visa since they're offering services for other visas.

July 17: Travelled to Manila and checked in at Hop Inn - Aseana.

July 18: VFS Global-Parqal appointment at 7:45AM. We arrived earlier than our appointment and we were given a token# from the front desk at 7:25AM. Just one number for both of us.

While waiting for our number to be called, someone at the VFS reviewed our docs. There are podiums between the counter and the seating area, and that's where they reviewed the docs.

I intended to avail their printing services should I need to re-print my application form since it's a mixed of printed and hand-written answers, but he said it's alright.

He left and returned with a marker and highlighted our ADB amounts.

He also used pen to tick each of our answers in the application form.

Our number was called and we were able to submit our docs at 8:05AM.

I was kind of intimidated by the way the staff at the counter talks, hence, even if I know that their SMS service is not worth it, we took it. 😮‍💨 Para kasing yung tono niya is kapag di kami nag-avail eh di na namin matatrack ung application namin. That's just how I felt though. 🫣 Pero matatrack naman pala sa website nila. 

They kind of experienced a system glitch kaya it took us longer than usual. 

We were just waiting for the payment since we availed the SMS and courier service, and we were able to do so at 8:40AM and was given the receipt. She sticked the tracking number at the back of the receipt, and nag-apologize siya sa paghihintay namin ng matagal. Sinusundan ko kasi siya ng tingin the entire time na naghihintay kami. 😆

We paid Php 1,040 for the additional services (Php 370 each for the courier and Php 150 each for the SMS service).

But please save yourselves from the SMS service. We both only received one text message from them which was when they dispatched our passports to the courier. 

And makakareceive din naman pala ng updates via email and the status is trackable in their website, so there was really no need for that expensive and no-so-worth it na service.

Later the afternoon, we got notified via email that our application has been dispatched to the Embassy of Japan.

July 25: I checked in their website at 2PM, and our passports were in transit from The Embassy of Japan to the Visa Application Centre.

By 4pm, it's ready for collection. But we availed their courier service so that we don't need to travel to Manila again for collection.

July 28: Received a SMS message that it's being dispatched via courier.

July 30: Delivered by LBC.

It kind of took them longer than usual as well because of the typhoon and JE had a holiday in July 22.

But nonetheless, we're sooooo happy we got a Multiple-entry visa for 10 years! 

Hindi na kami magmamadaling magtravel ngayon because we can go any date we want. 🤩

I think him winning the roundtrip ticket was a blessing in disguise because we really wanted to go to Japan but we have been putting it off since I don't know when. 

Maybe because of the visa application process, tinatamad kaming gawin. Pero dahil hinahabol namin yung expiry ng travel certificate niya, we finally did it. 😆

~~~~

P.S.

Joining Facebook groups such as Japan for Dummies (PH) and Approved Japan Tourist Visa Experiences (for Filipinos) by Solid Visas helped a lot in our preparation, and will still be helpful in planning our actual trip to Japan. 👌