Change of status after marriage in Japan

Hello,

To begin, I’d like to share info about my case.

Facts: I’m not Japanese, I might be qualified for PR at time of my wedding, planning to get married to a US Citizen

My question is, can my future husband apply for change of status in Japan after we get married without going back to the US? Tickets are so expensive to go back and worth waiting for the COE so I’m just curious if anyone had the same experience. Please shed some light!!

Thank you and Yoroshiku!!

The final decision is up to the immigration office.
You can make an application for change of status, make your case and hope that they accept your application.
Many people have successfully proceed with the change of status, but some had to go through the COE-visa route.
So, apply and hope for the best.

might be qualified for PR at time of my wedding
Yes, it would help if your get your PR and apply for change of status to Spouse.
If not, then it will be just change of status to dependent, which may likely be rejected.
What visa/status is your soon-to-be husband ?

Thank you for the answer!

He is coming as a tourist at first. Do you think that is a red flag to the immigration?

Hi dear,

I am European but I got a Spouse visa in Japan as a tourist last December ☺️

Here is my original post, someone who did the same around the same period also shared their story:
https://www.japan-guide.com/forum/quereadisplay.html?0+178969

Since 2019/the pandemic, there was quite some changes and it seems like the immigration is more strict about switching to a tourist/visa waiver to a spouse visa but it’s definitely not impossible: the stronger is your application and the less risks you will have to be rejected.

In my case, we decided to hire an immigration lawyer in order to increase our chance and I can honestly only recommend to hire one if you can afford it.

For the immigration, it would be nice for your partner to write a letter explaining why he would like to apply to the visa without the COE and without coming back to the US, saying something like he doesn’t want to be far from you even for months or something. Writing it in Japanese would be better if possible (the lawyer will do it for you if you hire one).

Don’t hesitate if you have any questions, I would be glad to share more informations coming from my experience.

Wishing the best 🍀

Hello! I’m not sure if you got your answer yet but I wanted to share my experience in case it helped!

I’m an American that recently got married to a Vietnamese Permanent Resident. I came to Japan on a tourist visa to get married. We got married at our City Hall in Kyoto.

Once we married, we gathered all the paperwork needed to switch my status of residence from temporary resident to spouse of permanent resident. I did not apply for a COE. Before going up to the immigration, we called and asked was it possible to do after explaining our situation. They told us to just come apply. Once there, we again explained our situation to the immigration officer and we also added a letter in Japanese explaining our situation of me coming to get married and why I didn’t apply for my status of residence from the US. We had pictures of our relationship before and after marriage and text messages from the same timeframe as well.

The very nice lady at the Kyoto Immigration office accepted our paperwork and told us it’d be about two weeks. That was a shock to me because the earliest I heard it being approved was 40 days from someone else on this website.

I checked the mailbox today and it was approved in eight days! I will be picking up my zairyu card on Monday!

I’d like to give thanks to everyone on this website covering this topic for their tips! It helped a lot. Don’t assume you will be automatically accepted, be humble, and ASK can you change your status of residence. Explain your situation and be very grateful. I’m not sure if the letter explaining our situation helped or not but it doesn’t hurt to have!


Best of luck to you! If you have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them!

is it possible to get married in japan if the whose holding a long term resident doesn't have a stable work? Can I still be married immediately?