Recently retired, age 42 and would love to travel with family (wife and two boys 7 and 4) to Japan for 2-3 yrs. Main goal is to enroll in Japanese language school full time but wife and I are having a hard time figuring out the visa issue. Most schools wont let you bring your family even if both parents are enrolled. There is no need to work and we have plenty of funds. Would love know our options or contacts of services we could call that could help us out.
2 comments
It might or might not be possible.
Considering you need to actually attend your classes full time, you may not be able to do a whole lot of travelling. You and your wife could get a Student visa but your kids would not be able to.
You would need to try getting the Dependant visa for your kids but this might prove difficult as they usually look at your income and since you will be a student, you likely won’t actually have any income. Even if you got a nice cushion, they usually seem to look at income and job title more than savings.
You can apply for the dependant visa on your own, the schools won’t help you with this because it’s not their responsibility but you might still encounter difficulties with Immigration themselves and if the Dependant Visa doesn’t go through, you’ll have to give up and go back home unless you’re fine continuing your studies in Japan without your kids.
Please also keep in mind that these steps will have to be taken AFTER you arrive in Japan so you will likely be separated from your kids for a few months while you try to get them a dependent visa.
I’m going to be as positive as I can with this response, but please take into consideration your children’s education and social development when making your decision. A permanent move would be a little more understandable, but these two to three years could be very disruptive. Wish you the best