Switching from tourist visa to spouse visa?

Hello everyone,
I have been searching for information about switching from a tourist visa / waiver (temporary visitor) to a spouse visa without a COE while already in Japan, but I don’t find much information about how it is at the moment (end of 2023). Did anyone try to do the process recently?

I saw people saying it’s still possible while others are saying that it’s not anymore. I will also contact immigration or just go and try without the COE (and complete it there if it’s necessary) but honestly it would be really complicated for me to go back to my country at the moment.

I just got married to a Japanese national, we’ve been together for quite some time and I was on a visa just before which reached to its end. We originally wanted to get married and switch at that moment but out of various circumstances it wasn’t possible, I had to leave a month for personal reasons as well before coming back in order to get married. at a date meaningful for us at least so on that point it wasn’t too bad.
My country forces nationals to be present when getting married even abroad anyway so doing everything while I was abroad wasn’t an option, and like I previously said it would be hard on various level to once again go back to my country sadly.

If anyone has any informations about switching from tourist to spouse visa in 2023 please let me know, it would be greatly helpful.

I would also be interested if anyone has information about getting the COE and visa processed while being in Japan, like is it possible? or by going to Korea (not resident) a few days for receiving the COE or visa, as I know it is sometimes possible.

Thank you very much 🙇‍♀️

Hello Belly,

I’m going through this same situation.

I’ve been married to my Japanese spouse for 4 years, together 7. We lived in Japan, moved to Europe, married, resided in my home country for 4 years and came back to Japan last month.

We applied for my spouse visa in Japan and after they accepting my application they told me I’d have to receive my COE in my home country from a Japanese embassy. After hearing this I panicked as it’s also very difficult for me to go “home”.

My spouse found the tourist to spouse visa route without COE. I also read some info in English and saw that it was possible if you have a valid reason. My spouse called up immigration in advance and explained our circumstances and the lady on the phone was very understanding and said immigration would accept my change of status application but can’t guarantee it will be approved. We gathered the documents for the spouse visa that we provided before, along with a letter in English and Japanese explaining why we're doing it this way.

my visa application was submitted in September and now I've been asked for some additional documents.

My advice;

get your spouse to call immigration in advance. Immigration doesn't seem to like people just trying to change their status from tourist visa to a residence visa just willy nilly.

also write a letter from yourself explaining why youre doing it this way. (i used google translate and my spouse checked the Japanese)

be very calm and humble when speaking to immigration staff, they want to help you but of course they have strict rules to follow. Show your appreciation :)

Dear mycatslovewagyu,

Thank you so much for your helpful answer, it really meant a lot and was quite helpful!
I am, however, deeply sorry for my late reply as it seems I convinced myself that I had answered when I had not.

Did you receive any good news since then?
With the hope that your result was positive, may I ask how long did you wait for your visa to be approved?

On my side, we ended up doing pretty much as you advised, and we also did the process via an immigration lawyer with the hope to improve our chances, but we are still waiting for the result.

Wishing you the best,
I love your username by the way!

Hi Belly,

I’m glad my answer could help you.

I have my detailed answer here:

https://www.japan-guide.com/forum/quereadisplay.html?0+179314

But long story short I got my visa approved in just under 3 months 😊

Keeping my fingers crossed and hope you get the same results without having to go back “home”. Do keep us updated. It’s nice to hear the outcomes.

And thank you, they are crazy for wagyu flavoured churus lol 😂

Hi mycatslovewagyu,

Thank you so much for your update,
I’m so happy for you!! Congrats!! 🥳

Fun story, I actually received the result yesterday and it was positive as well!
I guess it took about 40 days since the day of application, quite shorter than expected.

Hopefully this thread with both of our stories will be helpful to someone else, good luck if anyone sees that!

Thank you once again and wishing the best to you and your loved one! ☺️

Hi Belly,

That’s wonderful news for you too! Congratulations 🥳

I’m curious since you got yours faster. Did your spouse already have work and paid taxes already? Did you apply in Tokyo?

In my case we came from abroad and started fresh and my spouse only had a work contract. I’m wondering if that’s why it took slightly longer.

Hopefully our experiences will give hope to the other spouses of Japanese nationals out there!

Congrats to both ..

Just to add.. possibility is higher if you are from 'well to do countries', or visa waiver(3months stay) or already married.

Also, another "trick"/way is to apply for COE ASAP while in Japan, and hope that it get approved/issued before your temporary visitor (best those with 3 months), Then you CAN try to get it changed to Spouse at immigration office (without going back to country for visa at embassy) ...

@..

It could well be a possibility but only immigration knows.

As for the COE. I did that at first as soon as I arrived in Japan and the immigration officer said it was highly likely it wouldn’t come in time and I’d have to go “home” hence why we then applied without a COE. It seems immigration are happy to do change of statuses for spouses of Japanese nationals prior to being asked first but not those hoping to change from a Tourist visa to a Work visa.

Hi to both,
I reply months later as I completely forgot about this forum lol but now I created an account.
I hope you’re doing well 😊

I personally applied in Tokyo with the help of an immigration lawyer like I said which definitely added to the quick process and outcome as we also requested of it was possible to get my visa before a specific date as my husband was going to go to my country for the first time and meet my family (our timing was tough).

My husband always lived in Japan and the fact that we only speak Japanese together (and that I learned since very young) and that he has a good job probably helped as well.

We also showed a ton of photos and messages as a proof and my husband’s letter describing our story was full of events with great precision, and he added that we wanted children. Our lawyer was truly a good help, and I couldn’t recommend more to get one just in case for anyone worrying as it will certainly add more points to your case.

Since I saw so many people getting rejected while we and others have been fine, I can totally confirm that many things are taken into consideration for the result, including our nationalities like @.. said.

It’s truly like counting points, the more you can check and the more you have chance to get the visa:
- Having a short age gap
- The length of relationship (or being already married for years) and your story (being able to show it’s real love and a real relationship)
- Speaking Japanese / good Japanese level
- Knowing each others families.
- Having children or wanting children.
- If your Japanese partner has a good job/good incomes (or probably if the applicant has good incomes)
- Coming from a country with a good image in Japan
- If having lived in Japan before, paying taxes etc properly
+ lawyer as a bonus point.
+ doing the full process and writing a letter in Japanese, having a story to tell to why you got interested in Japan and Japanese etc also probably helps too.

At least that’s how I see it based on my experience, various discussion and based on what my lawyer explained to me 🤔

Obviously it’s probably still possible to get a spouse visa without checking all those points since it seems to also depends on the person at the immigration.
Maybe Japan will also end up being more flexible just as it was before the pandemic, we will see.

In any case, good luck to anyone reading this! 🍀

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!

Hello,

We are also currently waiting for the immigrations decision, we applied last month, and they said it will probably take a month, they haven't sent any mail to provide additional documents either.

My husband's temporary visa ended already and we are worried,would it be okay to call immigration to ask for an update? Like how should we ask the question?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Mj

Hello,
I received the COE while I was in Japan with a tourist VISA and the immigration allowed me to do the request of changing of residence status from tourist to work visa here. Already more than one month has passed but still I haven't received anything. Someone in the same situation?

Mj,

As far as I know, once you apply for a change of resident status and that application is accepted, the currently valid resident status should get extended for 2 months (from the date of application). So your husband is fine the way things are. But if you are worried, you can call to ask - I believe they have English-speaking staff there (or there might be an English language support number to call). Best wishes.

currently valid resident status should get extended for 2 months (from the date of application).
nope, that should be automatic 2 months extension from status expire date, NOT application date.

Whoops, sorry, my bad.