Hello
I am living in Japan for more than 10 years.
1 year student visa
5 years work visa
5 years spouse visa. Still working full time.
If I get permanent visa, it is possible to divorce or I will have legal problems? In the last year there is no communcation in our relationship.
If someone has same experiene, please share with me. Thank you.
5 comments
You have 3 years married 1 year residence. Go get your PR. After you have PR the only reason they’d take it away is you lied to get it. Since you’re not lying (you’re married for 3+ years and a resident for 1+) they have no reason to take PR away if you divorce.
On the other hand with a spouse visa if you divorce you’ll have to find another status of residence you qualify under. So I’d get the paperwork together today and apply ASAP.
Please please please get the pr now. Take me as a cautionary tale. I’m completely fucked because I didn’t get it as soon as I can.
There will be no problem if you need to divorce in the future. Get it now
Yes, you can do this. I know someone who did and he had no problems keeping his PR.
Just make sure you safely get PR before you file for divorce. If you want to be sure that your application will succeed, I highly recommend employing an immigration lawyer as well.
“There is no communication in our relationship”
To apply via the spousal route you will need your spouse on board to act as a guarantor which kind of signals you’re in a functional marriage (which as per your OP you’re not in a functional marriage). So if she didn’t agree to act as your guarantor then you probably won’t be able to apply spousal route. But if she does agree then its *technically* immigration fraud because you’re supposed to be in a functional marriage to obtain a spouse visa and PR via the spousal route.
You will Also you will need to sign this: https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/content/001355579.pdf
That said, you’ve been here >10 years so you’re probably all good even in a failing marriage, and if divorce during the PR application or directly after because you technically qualify for PR based on 10 years consecutive residency.
So yea, I’d say go for it.
PR isn’t tied to work or spouses like visas are. Once you get PR you’re free to follow your dreams.