Spouse Visa
- Introduction
- What is Spouse Visa
- What is a Certificate of Eligibility
- Necessary documents
- How long it takes?
- Re-Entry permits
- Certificate of Alien Registration
- Should I use immigration lawyer?
1. Introduction
There are seven categories of visas in Japan. These are Diplomatic Visa, Official Visa, Working Visa, Temporary Visitor's Visa, Transit Visa, General Visa and Specified Visa.
Spouse Visa, or more correctly "Spouse or Child of Japanese National" belongs to the Specified Visa category. In this article I will take a look on how to obtain one. Important: please read our disclaimer before continuing.
2. What is Spouse Visa?
Spouse Visa entitles you to full priviledges of working in Japan, and to obtain national health insurance. Spouse Visa allows you to do almost everything what native Japanese can do, except voting in elections. As long as you can give legitimate proof that you are officially married to Japanese national, this type of visa can allow you to stay infinitely in Japan.
3. What is a Certificate of Eligibility
One of the application papers you need to fill and sign is Application for Certificate of Eligibility in Japan. It is a document that proves that the applicant fulfills various conditions of the Immigration Control Act. Certificate of Eligibility is issued by the regional immigration authority.
What this means is that you must simply fill and sign the Application for Certificate of Eligibility and bring it within the application and other documents to the immigration office.
4. Necessary Documents
To apply for Spouse Visa, you need at least following documents. Note that you might need additional documents. Consult your city's immigration office.
- Certificate of Eligibility
- Valid Passport
- Application for Change of Status of Residence
- Photograph of the applicant (standard passport photo)
- Official copy of the Japanese spouse's family register (Koseki tohon 戸籍) This must be a recent one and must show the registered marriage. Note that it might take some time to obtain this document, possibly several weeks.
- Letter of Guarantee (English & Japanese )
- Marriage Certificate
- Documents showing financial ability of the people concerned, these may include proof of payment of tax, etc.
The Letter of Guarantee must be signed by permanent resident in Japan. Usually your spouse can sign this. It is also necessary to prove your financial ability. It is understandable that foreigner might not have a job just after marriage or coming to Japan. It is acceptable if your spouse shows proof that he or she has enough income to support your living. There must be also documents that proof that the person is really working in the company or institution they claim to and tax payment certificates. In addition to these, other documents might be needed. Recommendation letters written by native Japanese people or companies, provided with their official hanko wouldn't hurt either. Make sure however that the person or company is legitimate.
In addition, the couple is often requested to bring documents that proof that the marriage is real and not made up for the sake of getting visa. For example, applicant might be requested to show personal letters and photographs of the couple together. I
Especially this would be important if the couple lives in different addresses. It is often recommended in various blogs and internet sources that if the couple lives in different addresses, they should both appear while the spouse visa application is left.
In addition, a short essay is often requested which should describe how the couple met and what led them into getting married. It is important to be as honest as you can when writing these documents.
Upon leaving the documents, you need to write your address and phone number into a special postcard. Make sure to write your address clearly, because this postcard will be later mailed to you. I can confirm that this is at least practise here in city of Yokohama, but it might be different in other immigration offices.
5. How long it takes?
So what if you came to Japan as temporary visitor and have a month left of 90 days tourist visa? Don't worry. If you bring the necessary documents and show that you are eligble to apply for spouse visa, you will get special "IN APPLICATION" stamp in your passport which prevents your tourist visa from expiring.
It's hard to say how long the procedure will take. Some have waited weeks, some have waited months.
However, eventually you will get the postcard which you wrote your address to, calling you to come to visit personally in the immigration office. If everything went fine, you will be asked to sign Certificate for Payment of Fee and bring 3000 yen revenue stamp, and stamp it into upper right corner of the document. The revenue stamp is available in conveniences stores and post offices.
Usually the spouse visa is one year visa, and need to be extended after a year. Often, the visa is extended only a year in time. Sometimes it might be possible to obtain three years extension. After person has stayed in Japan a certain period of time it is possible to apply for permanent residency, and eventually even a Japanese citizenship.
6. Re-entry permits
Now, every time you leave Japan and plan to re-entry to the country, you need to apply for Re-entry permit. See the Application of Re-Entry Permit .
You can apply for Re-entry permit in the immigration office. Usually re-entry permits are issued directly, so you will get yours in the same day. You must state the reason of your travel in the application form. You need 3000 yen revenue stamp for Single Re-entry permit. It is important not to forget this before you leave the country.
If you plan to visit other countries often, it will save you money to invest into multiple re-entry permit, which costs 6000 yen. (the cost might vary in different cities).
The benefit of re-entry procedure is that usually the lines in the airport are very short - and you can just walk through the waiting crowds to the re-entry counter.
7. Certificate of Alien Registration (Alien card & gaijin card)
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Every foreigner must register to their municipal office of their area of residence within 90 days of their arrival to Japan. If person stays in Japan under 90 days temporary visitor visa, this is not required, but apparently can be done.
This process is called "gaikokujin torokusho". Through registering, you will be able to obtain Certificate of Alien Registration, or "gaijin card". Every foreigner staying in Japan must have up to date Certificate of Alien Registration with him all times. Police and other authorities have right to ask to check yours any time. It is also needed for various activities, such as getting library card, driver's licence or insurance in Japan.
If you have obtained new extension of your visa, or changed your address or your status has changed otherwise, you must inform the city's authorities. The city's authorities will send you a letter requesting your presence before the one year's registration expires. The authorities will stamp additional information to the back of the card.
Under 16 years old applicants don't have to personally apply for alien registration.
8. Should I use immigration lawyer?
Unless you have some special circumstances, I would say that using immigration lawyer for a spouse visa application is unnecessary. You would probably have to bring and sign your own documents anyway. Immigration lawyers in Japan are known to be expensive. The procedure is anyhow relatively easy and you can download most of the applications as PDF and print and sign them.
