So I got married to a Japanese national outside of Japan, and we are looking to apply for the Japanese spouse visa. How does that work? She already moved back to Japan and I’m in Canada. She just registered me in her family registry (koseki tohon) as well as marriage form (kon’in todokesho). But unsure what the rest of the steps are. Googling only showing processes for already in country.
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Same boat as you dawg…
You have to (or rather you should) apply for a COE
With your spouse already in Japan it makes it a bit easier.
They need to contact immigration in Japan to apply for your certificate of eligibility. Once they get it, they mail it to you and you take it your nearest Japanese consulate to apply for the visa.
Here is the contact information for Japanese immigration:
https://www.isa.go.jp/en/consultation/center/index.html
And here is the Japanese consulate page basically saying what I said:
https://www.ca.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_en/spouse_child_visa.html
If only there was some kind of Japan-specific office which processes visas I could just call and ask…
She should gather all of the paperwork needed for the COE. Then write cover letters to explain any part of the COE application that is not Japanese standard(i.e. proof of you guys have a shared address).
Since she is physically in Japan, it should be an easy process and she pretty much just has to make a trip to city hall and then a trip to a convenient store if she does not have a printer. Then she will drop if off at the nearest immigration center. They will contact her by post if anything is missing from the application. It will take 1-3 months for the COE to process.
Immigration will mail post the COE to her. She will post it to you. You will take it to the embassy along with all of the paperwork required for a visa application. They will take your passport and tell you to come back to pick it up in a week. If you live far away from an embassy, they will allow you to post them the application.
Call the Japanese embassy in Canada. You are half way there with the family registry and marriage license. Someone (your partner if they are a resident locally) has to sponsor you. You need to fill out an application, and the sponsor has to write a letter. You have to submit another form explaining what if any are your travel plans while in the Country. They want to make sure you aren’t there for tourism, as the country technically isn’t open for that. Visiting family is fine. You also have to show bank statements showing that you ( or your partner) has enough money to be there.
These were the steps I took to get a temporary visitor visa, going for 90 days. If you are emigrating there long term maybe it is different.
Lol why are we getting down votes?…
I’m Canadian with a Japanese national spouse both living in Canada now and we’re just about finished with the whole spouse visa application process. It should be ready for me to pick at the embassy this coming Monday. I would suggest the best thing to do at the start is to call the Japanese embassy or consolate and ask them about what you need to do. When you call they will tell you what you need and the phone number to get an appointment for the visa.
Here’s an outline of what we went through. In December last year, my wife went to Japan to update her Koseki Tohon and to register our wedding in her home town. The office took a few weeks to complete and then she came back to Canada with it.
Back in Canada, because this is all in Japanese, she completed my COE, including translating all my information to Japanese, (birth certificates, family names, etc), adding supporting documents to show that we are a real couple, (photos, chat records, etc.), proving income and savings. There’s a lot to add, so this can take a while to complete.
We mailed it to Japan and a relative took it to the local government office to be processed. This took about a month, then we had it mailed back to us in Canada. For mailing we used a courier, like DHL, which cost about $90 and took 7 to 10 days each way.
Getting the actual spouse visa is relatively easy. It’s free and takes one week. But the catch is, you need an appointment to go in person to get the visa and there’s about a 3-4 week waiting list (for me in Toronto, at least). You also have to get through to someone at the office which can take a few trys since there’s no messaging service. At the visa appointment you have to bring: the COE, your passport (which they take), a photocopy of your spouse’s passport, the completed visa application with an official passport photo, and your spouse’s koseki tohon.
We are planning to live in Japan for good from June 1, 2022, but on the visa application I wrote that the intended length was one year, instead of writing “unknown”. Then I’ll apply for an extention, if necessary, then PR when I’m there.
One more thing I found out, the visa office does not need the original COE. I was told a photocopy would be sufficient. This could speed up your process because if the COE is still in Japan you could have a digital copy emailed and you could present the photocopy at the visa appointment.
Hope this helps. Good luck!