Congratulations, -> Fukuoka Foreign Language College <- has approved your application!

UPDATE— We had tremendous problems with this school and we DO NOT recommend them.
Read the article above before considering going to FFLC.

Click the link above to read my current review of the school.

Today we received another win towards heading to Japan in April 2017. We’ll continue to update you on how the process with Go! Go! Nihon goes but for now here’s what they have to say. (This post here is a bit about what I personally submitted to Go! Go! and to the school in Fukuoka – it’s basically the reasoning of WHY I want to enter Japan and learn Japanese).

-Nihonscope

Better Ways to Learn Japanese Fluently

Approved for school in Fukuoka JapanHello Nathan!

Congratulations, Fukuoka Foreign Language College (FFLC) has approved your (and your wife’s – please see email sent to your wife’s email ) application for the session starting in April and will be submitting it to Japanese immigration for visa approval at the deadline. The visa result is scheduled to be released around the last two weeks of February 2017.

This is how the process works;

1. Application submission to school. – COMPLETE!
2. Application approval by school and submitted to Japanese immigration for approval. – COMPLETE!
3. Japanese immigration approval about 1 month prior to the start of your session (this is standard procedure and not within our control).
4. Japanese immigration issues a certificate of eligibility (COE) at this time.
5. You are required to pay the first 6 months of tuition in order to have the original COE copy mailed to you.
6. Take the original COE copy to your nearest Japanese embassy prior to your arrival in Japan.

— ARRIVAL TO JAPAN —

Your first day of school at FFLC is scheduled to the 12th of April 2017, but this has yet to be finalized at this time. We strongly recommend that you do not arrive to Japan earlier than 2-4 days before your study start. This is because there is a lot that you have to do during the final month before departure in regards to your student visa. If you are unable to complete the below procedure before departure you will have to reschedule your flight.

Once your COE is issued in the end of February 2017 you have to complete the following procedure before you can travel to Japan:

– Pay the school via international bank transfer (takes 2-5 business days)

– Receive original COE copy from Japan (takes 4-6 business days)

– Submit original COE and visa application to the Japanese embassy in your home country (takes 2-5 business days)

– Collect your finished student visa at the Japanese embassy

All this must be done before your flight. Therefore, it is important not to book an early flight. Please be advised that you will be stopped by the Japanese Immigration at the airport if you fail to receive your finished student visa before departure and try to enter Japan after your COE has been issued. Please note that;

-The payment of the tuition fee to the school can not be made until your COE is issued in the end of February 2017.
– We will send you the complete payment details once your COE is issued.
-The original COE will not be sent to you until you pay the 6 months tuition fee by international bank transfer.
-Once the original COE is delivered to you you are able to hand in your student visa application to your nearest Japanese Embassy.

An arrival time between 08:00 and 16:00 is recommended, otherwise you may have to spend the night at a hotel / hostel before you can move into your accommodation. If you arrive on a public holiday, there is a small chance that the housing agency is closed. If you want to be sure to be able to move in the same day, it is best to come on a weekday. Since you will be entering Japan on a student visa you are not required to have a return ticket.

You can contact Nihon Scope for cheap airline tickets to Japan. It is up to you to decide what day you want to arrive to Japan but please make sure to follow our advice!

— HEALTH INSURANCE —

As a student in Japan you must join the Japanese National Health Insurance which costs about 2000 – 4000 yen per month when you have a student visa. NHI accounts for 70% of any expenses related to your health. The other 30% will be your responsibility.

Once you have arrived in Japan, it is important that you register as residents of the nearest city or ward office as soon as possible and then you get your National Health Insurance Card. The school can provide you with more information about this after your arrival to Japan.

Want to study in Japan to learn Japanese— OUR NEXT CONTACT —

Please check our wiki FAQ for more information about life in Japan.

We will be sending you an e-mail in January with the following information:

Accommodation Request
We will send you an accommodation search form where you fill in the details of your arrival to Japan and preferences regarding accommodation. It might be a good idea to start by taking a look at our accommodation examples right now to see what choices you might have:

CONTACT NIHON SCOPE IF YOU NEED HELP WITH ACCOMMODATIONS

We will also give some tips and advice on what to consider and prepare before departure

  • I’ve had a lot of students privately contact me over the last 4 months absolutely disgusted by the treatment and overall feel of FFLC. Please make sure you make your voice heard and leave a review on their FB page, you’re voice helps other possible dreamers to avoid having them dashed across the rocks.

    Also know you can go to immigration and get help if you’re being emotional abused by the staff… which I seem to not be the only one whose had that trouble. Speak up you don’t have to be afraid of this school, there are options!

    • Hi Brandon, FFLC is all about the money… and honestly short answer is I don’t recommend them at all. I will be doing a detailed review once I transfer to Genki Jacs here in Oct. I can assure you it’ll be a doozie to read. In the mean time, I’d suggest looking into Genki Jacs instead if you’re coming to Fukuoka to learn Japanese.

      • Oh that’s too bad! As you might have noticed, where I work is a school agency similar to Go Go Nihon (except we also introduce work) and so I’m always on the lookout for new schools. I’ll definitely be reading through your review. We also work with GenkiJACS and it’s probably our most popular school so I hope you enjoy it! There’s a great school in Okinawa (ICLC) as well if you want to get closer to those snakes. Thanks for taking the time to reply!

        • Hi Brandon, I really like Genki. I asked Evan if he was ever thinking of
          doing an affiliate based program and he wasn’t sure he would do
          anything anytime soon, is there anything through your connections to
          pass on some leads? If you’re only serving up high quality schools I’d
          would love to see if there anything I can do to create a lead funnel
          system to attach with what you guys are doing with my current traffic
          and followup scheduled email list. I currently am in the making of
          getting a lawsuit started with FFLC, so of course I will not be wanting
          to help them. I dislike all the drama around them, especially how I
          think Evan see’s my wife and I. I Feel bad even being an American and
          not so sensitive to causing issues as say the Japanese, so I could only
          imagine what others are thinking when they see us having to stand up for
          our rights and making sure that FFLC is being legit, because at this
          time they officially extorted us by threatening to get us deported if we
          didn’t pay them an extra 6 months so that we could transfer. Nothing in
          their contract or anything signed by us or them said this was needed or
          “law”. For me and for others that have gone to the school, we feel that
          they are mostly just interested in pulling in as many students as they
          can while at the same time forgetting about the students in the school
          who are legitimately looking for more help… They could not provide it
          for me nor some other associates from neighboring classrooms. Anyway,
          just thought I’d give you a quick run down of our current review of
          FFLC…. PS: I also left them a very professional but to the point
          review on their FB page and some of their students aka Salman Bari’s
          (marketing manager of FFLC) close student friends attacked me on the
          reviews so harshly that they actually had to remove their review
          section…. I’m hoping to not have to continue explaining myself about
          these guys here in the coming months and have this experience finished.
          But all in all I hope this little tid bit helps in some way.

  • Hey, I was just curious as to how you pay for everything? I have all my info for the application process which starts in October except for the payment info. I have talked to my family and they can help a little bit but not the full amount so I was just curious if your sponsor is your family or a bank? Thank you for the post!

    • Hi Shawn, I was able to pay for everything from my business. BUT, online marketing is not really considered a job or business that immigration totally likes as a lot of people are “marketers” but never make money. In my case I do, but I needed to get my parents to host me to get over that issue (a screen shot of their bank account). But depending on how long you’ll be going to school you’ll need X amount of money. I came to Fukuoka with my wife so I needed to show $40,000 in funds. You however depending will need around $20,000 for two years (or just $10,000 a year)… You can however say that you are willing to get an arubaito (part time job) and I think you can show a bit less. If you are looking to stay for the two years though specifically at FFLC, I’d strongly recommend waiting until April next year as you’ll be able to receive your Associates degree. If you don’t care about that, then, no worries. I don’t totally like them, but you could also contact Go Go Nihon and they’ll help you with it, although, you’ll end up having to pay a bit more. If you’re a go getting then I’d communicate with the school directly. If you’re communicating with them already, make sure you ask for Salman Bari, he is fluent in English and will be able to help you the most out of anyone in the office at FFLC… Also I’m not sure how a bank would help, you could perhaps request a school loan but it may only cover the actual school payment, not getting to Japan or living. But then again, I’m not a bank and I’m not sure how that would work. I hope this helps a bit. Here is there number: 092-631-0137

      • Oh thank you so much! I have already talked with Go go nihon and I have the applications now but I needed to make sure I had the money. I do plan on working arubaito when I’m there but I’m not sure how much you would make from that. I am mostly concerned with a rough estimate on what my parents will need to contribute !

        Thank you so much for your reply!!

        • Hi Shawn, I’ll tell you the truth about FFLC, unless you’re planning on going to University (in Japan) I’d strongly suggest not going to FFLC and instead checking out Genki Jacs instead, it’s in Hakata. My wife and I tried to go to FFLC and hold it together but it’s not meant for westerns and it’s over crowded, even the marketing guy Salman Bari said so himself and Genki just opened their 18 month program so you’d be able to do a longer stay. It’s much smaller classes, much more relaxed atmosphere and overall less strict, much cleaner… and I could go on and on. But you are correct, you’ll need around $30k to do it no matter if you go to FFLC or Genki Jacs. But I understand you have your process already started, I’d just say best of luck with FFLC, do make sure you do your research with them, because they’ll act the part to get you in the door, but then bail on you when you need help. Already this year I’ve seen dozens of people leave because of the conditions and they’re on immigration’s radar now because of it and now they’re extorting my wife and I from being able to transfer to Genki this Oct.. so we have a bad taste in our mouth because of them right now and wouldn’t be right of me not to warn you they’re quite manipulative. If you do look into Genki, talk to Mr. Evan Kirby and tell him we (Nathan Scheer) sent you his way (even just to talk about options), he’ll make time for you, very nice guy. Although, I’m obviously not a fan of FFLC, if you have any other questions I might be able to answer, I’ll tell you what I know from the process.

        • Hopefully you stayed the course for getting to Japan… Just an update, ******** is super awesome. So much more fun and relaxed then FFLC… while at the same time learning and communicating more!

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    Nihon Scope
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