I and my wife have read quite a few posts here from the past, either recent or old ones, yet there still are quite a lot of mystery left for me there, so I was hoping if somebody who's been in the situation can shine some light for us.
Background: I was in an impression that once the marriage was legally done in countries of both sides, it's possible to come to Japan as a tourist and become resident as a spouse of Japanese national without having to have to leave Japan. However, we were informed by "judicial scrivener" (司法書士) that this is not the case, even in the case where the exception to the principle applies to us (that Change of Status of Residence does not apply to short-term stayers). More explanation follows.
My understanding according to what I gathered so far, for a foreigner to acquire the status of residence as a spouse of Japanese national during short term stay (aka tourist visa) is;
- Get married legally in Japan and in the country of origin for applicants, and prepare documents to prove legal marriage status from both ends.
- Apply and certfied for COE (Certificate of Eligibility, for spouse visa – 在留資格認定証明書交付申請). This application does not allow for extension of stay permit.
- Apply for the Change of the Status of Residence (在留資格変更許可申請). This application allows for extension of stay permit (特例期間 up to 2 months), however in principle, it is not possible to change the "status of residence" directly from short-term stay, unless some special reasons are provided
According to this page, #2 takes 1-3 months and #3 takes 0.5-1 month, so in theory, given that one is understood to be in special occasion to allow for #3, the only important thing is to get to apply for #3 before the short-term stay expires.
However, according to judicial scrivenger, as of now (June '24) for Tokyo, immigration is so busy that it's more than likely that it takes more than 3 months to obtain the result – I assume for #2, so it's very unlikely to be able to extend stay as a spouse of Japanese national without submitting COE before coming to Japan.
Does this sound right to you all? Do any of you remember which exact application you guys used to proceed after #1?
Before this, I was in an impression that #2 can be skipped and that I can go straight into #3 from what I read on this page, but then immigration told me that #2 is necessary to proceed any further either way. This makes sense though I just can't find anywhere that explicitly states this. I guess this should just be obvious fact? They made it clear that applicability of #3 is conditional, so it didn't seem to me as though they're intentionally avoid mentioning other possble ways to do so.
And then "Application for permission to obtain status of residence (在留資格取得許可申請)" confuses me on top of all this, but I'm somehow convinced that this is reserved for very special occasion where the subject had never entered Japan as a foreigner.
edit: English and details
by alexklaus80