Applying for a Spouse Visa

[russturn]

Retiring to Japan from Australia

This is my first post and I am hoping somebody may have suggestions.
My wife is a Japanese national and I am an Australian citizen. We have been planning to move back to Japan for a number of years. We married in Japan back in the early 1990s when I had a spouse visa. In 1996 we came to Australia and have lived and worked here ever since. We are now in a position to retire.
I understand that we can obtain a Certificate of Eligibility while I am in Australia, although my wife would need to go back to Japan by herself as a part of the process. She is not keen on this. Would anybody have any idea how long the process could take? It would also put a lot of pressure on us as we would need to sell up and wait for settlement on the house. Timing it all seems a bit of a problem.
I also noticed in another post that it may be possible for both of us to travel to Japan together (me on a tourist visa) and have this converted to a spouse visa in Japan. I was wondering if anybody has done this and if they could give us information about the process.
One further question. Although we will have assets, mostly cash, we will have little income. Is this a problem when applying for a spouse visa?
Thank you in anticipation.

[Ktnk]

Your situation is very similar to the position my Japanese spouse and I were in earlier this year having lived in Europe for over 30 years: retiring, selling our house and applying for a spouse visa with only cash / assets in my home country and no salary /recent financial history in Japan. As my in-laws were too elderly / too busy we used a Japanese lawyer (gyoseishoshi) - that my brother-in-law helped us to find - to get us the COE. The lawyer’s services cost about 110,000 yen. Most of the legwork was done by my spouse - translating the marriage certificate, filling in the application form, making a spreadsheet showing all our assets, making a collage of photos of us together from the last 30 years etc. We applied for the COE in mid May and received it by email at the end of July. I got my spouse visa - unfortunately only for 1 year - in early August, completed our house sale mid August and arrived in Japan at the end of August. The whole process was very stressful - needless to say one of the most stressful periods of my life. We were extremely lucky that the house sale was very smooth for us - with hindsight I think I would probably finish work first, sell the house and move into temporary accommodation before applying for the COE / visa and moving to Japan.
I also read the thread about getting a tourist visa first and trying to do it that way. That sounds like a much less stressful option but I guess it might be dependent on the immigration office you use.

[ichii]

Going through the same thing myself now from the UK. My Japanese mother in law was submitting on behalf of my wife, but at the last minute we decided my wife would go back, register as resident, and apply herself. We will have our house value in cash amongst other holdings, but neither of us have jobs in Japan so unsure if they would reject. Interested to hear others experiences!!!

[Tkydon]

I got my spouse visa - unfortunately only for 1 year - in early August,

That is always their standard practice. As far as I know, they pretty much always grant a 1 year permission to stay the first time.
When you go to Immigration at the end of the 1 year period to extend, they will grant you a 3 year, or maybe even a 5 year permission to stay.
It is a formality.
Then, when you go to Immigration at the end of that period to extend, they will grant you another extension of permission to stay, probably the same as the previous duration.
When you receive the next extension, you should then be eligible to make your application for Permanent Residence.

I also read the thread about getting a tourist visa first and trying to do it that way. That sounds like a much less stressful option but I guess it might be dependent on the immigration office you use.

https://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/visit/vis ... ovisa.html

(Note 8) For nationals of those countries with visa exemptions permitting stays of up to 6 months under the bilateral visa exemption arrangements, those who wish to stay in Japan for more than 90 days are required to apply for an extension of the period of stay to the Ministry of Justice (Regional Immigration Bureau) before the period of permitted stay is to expire.

Citizens of Austria, Germany, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Switzerland, and United Kingdom are entitled to extend their Short-Term Stay to 180 days without leaving the country.

[Tkydon]

Going through the same thing myself now from the UK. My Japanese mother in law was submitting on behalf of my wife, but at the last minute we decided my wife would go back, register as resident, and apply herself. We will have our house value in cash amongst other holdings, but neither of us have jobs in Japan so unsure if they would reject. Interested to hear others experiences!!!

Was your marriage correctly registered in Japan, or with the Japanese Embassy, and a new Koseki created for your family with your wife as the Head of Household and you as her spouse?
As a spouse of a Japanese National, if you can show sufficient means to support yourselves, and so long as you don't have any obviously disqualifying factors, I doubt you would be rejected.

[adamu]

I got my spouse visa - unfortunately only for 1 year - in early August,

That is always their standard practice. As far as I know, they pretty much always grant a 1 year permission to stay the first time.
When you go to Immigration at the end of the 1 year period to extend, they will grant you a 3 year, or maybe even a 5 year permission to stay.
It is a formality.
Then, when you go to Immigration at the end of that period to extend, they will grant you another extension of permission to stay, probably the same as the previous duration.
When you receive the next extension, you should then be eligible to make your application for Permanent Residence.

As soon as Ktnk gets a 3 year renewal, they'll be eligible to apply for PR, including if it's the first one.

[ichii]

Going through the same thing myself now from the UK. My Japanese mother in law was submitting on behalf of my wife, but at the last minute we decided my wife would go back, register as resident, and apply herself. We will have our house value in cash amongst other holdings, but neither of us have jobs in Japan so unsure if they would reject. Interested to hear others experiences!!!

Was your marriage correctly registered in Japan, or with the Japanese Embassy, and a new Koseki created for your family with your wife as the Head of Household and you as her spouse?
As a spouse of a Japanese National, if you can show sufficient means to support yourselves, and so long as you don't have any obviously disqualifying factors, I doubt you would be rejected.

That is encouraging. My wife has read stories of rejection somewhere on the net and is making me nervous now. She thought it best she get a job offer before submitting the application.

We are sending our worldly possessions to Japan by container this week, so I would like to be reunited with them;)

[russturn]

I would like to express my appreciation to the people who responded to my post.Retire Japan is an amazing resource.
I had no idea that so many other are in a similar situation.
Not sure if I need to open a new thread or not, but I have a follow up question.
We will need to transfer our money to Japan when we move. My wife has retained a bank account in Tokyo.
I was wondering if anybody has suggestions on the best way to do this. And perhaps alert us to any pitfalls to watch out for.
We would be grateful for any advice.

[ichii]

I am in the same situation sending a large sum in a couple of weeks. I will post here if I make any progress. Transfer wise is what I usually use to send money. However, for large transfers I understand that going through the bank is more cost-effective since it is a set rate. Transfer wise exchange rate is good, but the cost will climb the larger the transfer.

My notes say above Y1,000,000 it is cheaper to use normal bank SWIFT transfer. A quote I kept is below.

“IMO you should wire the money, as UK pounds, to a bank like Shinsei or Sony (MUFG may also be okay). The funds will come in as pounds and you can then do the f/x here, which is frequently if not always a better rate.
I think the general wisdom for Wise is that it's cost-effective up to ¥500,000 or so (equivalent), but above that, and especially at ¥5M, a wire will be cheaper, and just one go, not repeated sub¥1M transfers via Wise.”
https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/w ... transfers/

[russturn]

Good luck with it.

I look forward to hearing about it.

Certainly there is a lot to think about.