u/TheCrimsonDoll

As tittle says.

We, a duo team, are going to a competition and the organizers told us that its 99% sure that the traveling tickets they will get to us will have a stop in US.

So, here's the issue and the stones in the way, we were asked to get first the US visas so they could get the traveling tickets, and for us to get the Japanese Visas, we need the traveling tickets.

The US visa should be the Transit one, less than 24 hours.

We did the papers, i got my interview early, they didn't asked me for a single paper and only asked me the following:

* What do i do for a living. (answered without issue in my case)

* Why i need to enter the US (transit there) (Told them it's just because the traveling tickets we are going to get are most likely have a stop in the US)

* What's my final destination and why i am going there (Answered i am going to compete to Japan).

* If i ever went out of my country (I had)

Here is where i had to tell the interviewer that i have the invitation letter (And the guarantee certificate of the organizers there) and showed it, he didn't ask for it, but i give it to him anyway.

* Got asked when i am planning to leave my country and when to come back (answered).

Got the green light.

My partner had the interview today, same backup papers,same letter of invitation.

Got rejected.

As she explained to me, she got the exact same questions, she answered well, what she does for a living, why she need to go to the US, the final destination and why.

The only apparent difference: She didn't travel to other country at all.

Here's where the interviewer started stalling her and after a few minutes he just went and told her "I need your Japanese Visa before giving you the US visa", got denied.

Didn't matter if we got the invitation, guarantee, and any backup paper for the transit visa, it didn't even matter if my name was in the invitation letter and i should be in their system as approved since "i am a different case" (When i'm basically exactly the same).

The @#~€ isn't cheap, we just wanna go and compete.

Yes, we already contacted the organizers telling them this unfortunate stone in the way, but we are going against time (they just answered while writing this "We will check options").

What options do we have? (Aside the obvious one of looking for a different travel plan)

If we end up needing to do all this @#~€¬#@ again, what to do different? There's any way to speed this up or make it cheaper or extent of having the stupid ass meeting?

And yes, i repeat, to get the Japanese Visa we need the tickets, to get the tickets 100% sure, we needed the US Visa, without the US Visa we can't get the tickets, without the tickets we can't get the Japanese Visa since, in contrast to the transit visa which doesn't require a specific date of arrive and departure, the japanese one requires it (the traveling tickets with dates), if we don't get that Visa then the guy who interviewer her wont' approve her again.

What's next?

Thanks in advance.

So basically, a few days ago this Japanese musician posted about wanting more overseas fans enjoying Japanese music and so on (Quite long post to quote everything).

While the sentiment was well thought, it sparked a lengthy discussion about many aspects.

But the specific aspect of the discussion caught my eye was that MANY people said that "It's very hard or even impossible to get tickets to live shows more often than not as a foreigner, you need a japanese cellphone number, adress, etc".

Is this true and how true is it?

While i'm very curious about this subject, i have the luck to be traveling to Japan in August for a few days and i wanted to attend to any concert (Altho one in particular has all my attention), and now i'm fairly scared as well of not being able to even get them.