Job Discussion Forums

[ilikerice]

just curious if anyone has verified if taking and printing your own passport photos is accceptable in japan. I read on a US gov page that it's ok. I plan to start inquring to the japanese officials and my school, but figured maybe someone already tried this and ran into problems? this would save me 50$ and I already have photo paper. thanks for any comments

[melirae]

For my work visa, the consulate I visited that processed my paper work said that digital photos WERE NOT acceptable, meaning I couldn't take my own and print them out. They had to have professionally done photos. If you are in Japan and looking to get the photos done (for things such as your alien registration card), you can get a page of like 6-8 photos for around 700 yen.

[Nismo]

Those little photo booths in stations in Japan are acceptable. You can get passport photos for $5 USD. It's not going to dent your funds in anyway - worst case scenario if you can't afford $5 - don't eat for a day. But if you couldn't afford a $5 photo I wouldn't know how you could afford a suit for an interview. I'm going off on a tangent here.

Conclusion: It would be in your best interest to get the real deal instead of going with a homemade image.

[ilikerice]

ya thx for feedback. sorry I can't confirm if the places I checked with take digital photos, I doubt someone could tell, but to me, I just wanted it to be easy and I didn't want a risk of any hold-up, like the other posts say, so thx. just fyi,... I did not intend this post to be about my budget for suits and photos and other things, just not having to pay for something if possible.

this photo shop that I went to took one passport photo and then made image copies. this was a lot cheaper than when I called and asked for just 10 photos. thx to the clerk who thought of that, something about scanning and recutting. seems natural tho, if u need just a bunch of the same photos. it ended up being 15$ instad of 55$. this photo shop had multiple photo services.

thanks again for posting and reading.

[melirae]

Passport photos (in the US anyway) are really expensive so your best bet is to have the minimum for your visa done at home and then hit the photo booths here for all other passport photo needs because you can get like 8 pics in Japan for the price of 1 or 2 at home.

(this was more for people who may search for a thread on photos since ilikerice seems to be taken care of)