Hello all,
I have been in Japan for over 3 years now on a 5-year, specialist in Humanities visa (not instructor) and am planning to get married within the next year to a Japanese national.
I am wondering if there would be any benefit in switching to a spouse visa rather than just continuing on my work visa, especially in the interest of getting PR.
1. I am not planning on leaving or changing my job anytime soon.
2. I have only had 70 points towards getting PR for the past 1 year, so I know I require at least 2 more years before I can apply. (I understand I can apply after being married for 3 years).
Is there anything else I should take into consideration?
Thank you!
4 comments
For PR it makes no difference whether you are on 5 year work or 3 year spouse.
The only difference is spouse there is no work restriction whatsoever though the tradeoff is if you divorce, you will need to apply for a change.
You are already on a 5 year visa, and if you continue at your current place of employment, you will most likely get another 5 year visa.
Once you are married for 3 years, you are eligible for PR. **This is not dependent on your residence status.** However, in order to be eligible for PR, you need to have at least a 3 year visa – switching to a spouse visa does not guarantee you will get a 3 or 5 year spouse visa.
So, stick with your current work visa, renew it when the time comes, and just apply for PR once you have been married for 3 years.
A spouse visa has more benefits over your current visa status but you don’t seem to be in a position in which you would need any of those benefits. Aside from what u/PM_ME_ALL_UR_KARMA explained about PR, it might also be beneficial to keep your current visa as it would be one less headache to deal with if the marriage doesn’t work out (but I wish you the best)
Do you expect a huge overseas gift or overseas inheritance any time between now and the time you spend 10 years (of the past aggregated 15 years) as a tax resident in Japan?
If yes, getting a spouse visa (or even PR) could be a bad idea.
If no, then no harm in terms of taxation getting a spouse visa.
One thing to consider though is there is a high chance you’d get a 1 year spouse visa for first spouse visa and some people even get stuck in multiple 1 year spouse visas. And you cannot apply for PR unless you’re holding a 3/5 year visa.