I was wondering if anyone changed their WHV to a Spouse Visa within 3 months of arriving.
My husband is an EU national and I am a Japanese National. We both live abroad and have decided to move to Japan for one year. We went with a WHV for ease of application and didn’t really look too much into a Spouse Visa since we just want to see how it’s like in Japan and maybe convert his status when we know that we want to stay longer. The problem is that I wasn’t aware that his WHV would affect our chances of getting accommodation (after speaking to a bunch of real estate agents) , and we only managed to get one company that would be willing to accept us upon negotiation. I’ve been told that I should apply for a change in his status so that we have more options in terms of housing even though I have a family member to be our guarantor and we have at least 2 years worth of rent in savings. We’re also both going to be self-employed but he has a considerably higher income than I do (He would be the contractor for the apartment) so it further complicates our situation lol.
Since we’re moving so soon, we don’t have enough time to apply for a Spouse Visa from abroad and will have to do it when we arrive; however, I read through the immigration services website and it says “**If you do not engage in activities based on your original status of residence, your status of residence may be revoked.”,** which sort of freaked me out. I’m worried that if we apply too soon after his arrival it might be considered suspicious and his status might get revoked. We’ve been together since 2017 and have enough evidence of our relationship so I’m wondering if that’s enough for them to skip over how quickly he made an application for a change in residence status. Any experiences would be of help!
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2 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
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**Change of Residence Status from WHV to Spouse Visa**
I was wondering if anyone changed their WHV to a Spouse Visa within 3 months of arriving.
My husband is an EU national and I am a Japanese National. We both live abroad and have decided to move to Japan for one year. We went with a WHV for ease of application and didn’t really look too much into a Spouse Visa since we just want to see how it’s like in Japan and maybe convert his status when we know that we want to stay longer. The problem is that I wasn’t aware that his WHV would affect our chances of getting accommodation (after speaking to a bunch of real estate agents) , and we only managed to get one company that would be willing to accept us upon negotiation. I’ve been told that I should apply for a change in his status so that we have more options in terms of housing even though I have a family member to be our guarantor and we have at least 2 years worth of rent in savings. We’re also both going to be self-employed but he has a considerably higher income than I do (He would be the contractor for the apartment) so it further complicates our situation lol.
Since we’re moving so soon, we don’t have enough time to apply for a Spouse Visa from abroad and will have to do it when we arrive; however, I read through the immigration services website and it says “**If you do not engage in activities based on your original status of residence, your status of residence may be revoked.”,** which sort of freaked me out. I’m worried that if we apply too soon after his arrival it might be considered suspicious and his status might get revoked. We’ve been together since 2017 and have enough evidence of our relationship so I’m wondering if that’s enough for them to skip over how quickly he made an application for a change in residence status. Any experiences would be of help!
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Some countries have rules about WHV and switching visa while still in Japan. Some agreements state that the person must leave when their WHV visa is complete and would then have to apply for their next visa after returning to their home country. I have heard of this mostly in regards to working visas. I have never used a WHV before so I am not sure how strict they are when it comes to the rules and marriage visas.
It would be worth it to look up the WHV agreement between Japan and your husbands home country.
Edit: [more info](https://www.reddit.com/r/movingtojapan/comments/16pi19o/comment/kfyjjah/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) Seems like people from Australia, Canada, South Korea, New Zealand, and Germany can change their visa status while staying in Japan per a different reddit user.