Hi everyone, I had a post a few weeks ago about a job opportunity in Matsudo and everyone was very helpful, thank you for that. Things have moved since then and our immigration lawyer is planning on submitting our CoE application forms this week (HSP visa for me + dependent visa for my wife).
As the time gets closer, we have started planning what our first weeks/months might look like in Japan and I’d like to run the plan by this subreddit and see if there are any flaws in it, or anything big we may be missing.
**Before arrival:**
– We’ve booked a full 1DK apartment in Matsudo via booking.com for a full month (maximum allowed for this property that we could find around this time). This has free cancellation until very close to the date, so if the CoEs don’t get issued on time per the lawyer’s estimation we can cancel it free of charge and try to find something else. It’s pretty well located and cheaper than other stuff on booking.com for a whole month so we took it.
– When going to the embassy to turn the CoEs into Visas, run this whole plan by the people there to see if they have any good advice.
– Pack stuff, sell stuff, give stuff away. Try to find a sea freight option for 2/3 boxes max, give up if it’s too much of a hassle and just store stuff locally for now, bring it later or ask family to ship.
**After arrival:**
– Get Hanko for me and my wife to make paperwork easier.
– Register our 1-month apartment as our address (for both of us) at the city office ASAP if possible (might be difficult if the apartment is categorized as a “hotel”) .
– If the above is not possible, at least register the apartment as a temporary residence while looking locally for something that might allow us to register as an address (we have 1 month to do this at the start, more if we book hotels/apartments for another while).
– Get phone numbers/phone contracts for both of us. Looked it up and Iijmio looks good – seems to require Juuminhyou? Hence the order.
– When we have the address on our Zairyuu, Juuminhyou and phone numbers, open bank account(s). Some banks I’ve seen recommended are Japan Post, Shinsei, SMBC. I’ve also seen people recommending asking the company hiring me because some of them only deal with certain banks? I can ask HR about this.
– **QUESTION on the above** – I’ve seen that joint bank accounts aren’t a thing in Japan. Currently me and my wife have 2 different accounts anyways, will she be able to open her own account, even as a dependent? We have a significant amount of savings that we’d like to transfer (*likely via Wise*) and from what I’ve read it may be easier if the names match between sending (overseas) and receiving (Japanese) account. We mostly use her account as a savings account, but we have money on both we’d like to transfer to Japan. Push comes to shove we can always just transfer it all here locally to a single account before we move it all to a single Japanese bank account, but if possible I’d like my wife to have her own bank account instead of just an extra card in my name. Any experience with this?
– Once all of the above is in place, visit local real estate agents and find a long-term lease (hopefully leveraging Seishain contract and good Japanese level to open up options, but understanding that being foreigners might make it harder). Reason why this is so low on this is it seems a lot of places need you to have a bank account. Maybe we can reach out to the agents earlier while we do the other stuff?
Meanwhile, the apartment we’ll be staying in has a kitchen and fridge so we’ll be able to cook (or live off delicious conbini and local restaurant food), so I’m not too worried about that side of things. I’ve checked the commute route from the apartment to work (the plan would be to be in Japan for about 2 weeks before I start working to sort paperwork out and get some time to explore) and in general I’m pretty optimistic about my plan, which is why I’d like some realism peppered in from anyone with experience!
I have no idea how long it’ll take to do the first few steps (from arrival to having bank accounts open), but I’d love to have it all done within the 2 weeks (except the moving to the long term lease, but I wonder if we could at least have something identified by the end of week 2? Even if it took longer to finalize and move in.)
A lot of the advice I’ve seen is aimed at students or single workers, so I’m wondering if anyone in a similar position (couple moving in at the same time, one of them as dependent) knows of any potential pitfalls unique to the situation. Of course any advice is welcome, especially where our circumstances may not matter. Thank you very much in advance!
4 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
—
**Please help challenge our moving plan (couple moving to Chiba prefecture from overseas)**
Hi everyone, I had a post a few weeks ago about a job opportunity in Matsudo and everyone was very helpful, thank you for that. Things have moved since then and our immigration lawyer is planning on submitting our CoE application forms this week (HSP visa for me + dependent visa for my wife).
As the time gets closer, we have started planning what our first weeks/months might look like in Japan and I’d like to run the plan by this subreddit and see if there are any flaws in it, or anything big we may be missing.
**Before arrival:**
– We’ve booked a full 1DK apartment in Matsudo via booking.com for a full month (maximum allowed for this property that we could find around this time). This has free cancellation until very close to the date, so if the CoEs don’t get issued on time per the lawyer’s estimation we can cancel it free of charge and try to find something else. It’s pretty well located and cheaper than other stuff on booking.com for a whole month so we took it.
– When going to the embassy to turn the CoEs into Visas, run this whole plan by the people there to see if they have any good advice.
– Pack stuff, sell stuff, give stuff away. Try to find a sea freight option for 2/3 boxes max, give up if it’s too much of a hassle and just store stuff locally for now, bring it later or ask family to ship.
**After arrival:**
– Get Hanko for me and my wife to make paperwork easier.
– Register our 1-month apartment as our address (for both of us) at the city office ASAP if possible (might be difficult if the apartment is categorized as a “hotel”) .
– If the above is not possible, at least register the apartment as a temporary residence while looking locally for something that might allow us to register as an address (we have 1 month to do this at the start, more if we book hotels/apartments for another while).
– Get phone numbers/phone contracts for both of us. Looked it up and Iijmio looks good – seems to require Juuminhyou? Hence the order.
– When we have the address on our Zairyuu, Juuminhyou and phone numbers, open bank account(s). Some banks I’ve seen recommended are Japan Post, Shinsei, SMBC. I’ve also seen people recommending asking the company hiring me because some of them only deal with certain banks? I can ask HR about this.
– **QUESTION on the above** – I’ve seen that joint bank accounts aren’t a thing in Japan. Currently me and my wife have 2 different accounts anyways, will she be able to open her own account, even as a dependent? We have a significant amount of savings that we’d like to transfer (*likely via Wise*) and from what I’ve read it may be easier if the names match between sending (overseas) and receiving (Japanese) account. We mostly use her account as a savings account, but we have money on both we’d like to transfer to Japan. Push comes to shove we can always just transfer it all here locally to a single account before we move it all to a single Japanese bank account, but if possible I’d like my wife to have her own bank account instead of just an extra card in my name. Any experience with this?
– Once all of the above is in place, visit local real estate agents and find a long-term lease (hopefully leveraging Seishain contract and good Japanese level to open up options, but understanding that being foreigners might make it harder). Reason why this is so low on this is it seems a lot of places need you to have a bank account. Maybe we can reach out to the agents earlier while we do the other stuff?
Meanwhile, the apartment we’ll be staying in has a kitchen and fridge so we’ll be able to cook (or live off delicious conbini and local restaurant food), so I’m not too worried about that side of things. I’ve checked the commute route from the apartment to work (the plan would be to be in Japan for about 2 weeks before I start working to sort paperwork out and get some time to explore) and in general I’m pretty optimistic about my plan, which is why I’d like some realism peppered in from anyone with experience!
I have no idea how long it’ll take to do the first few steps (from arrival to having bank accounts open), but I’d love to have it all done within the 2 weeks (except the moving to the long term lease, but I wonder if we could at least have something identified by the end of week 2? Even if it took longer to finalize and move in.)
A lot of the advice I’ve seen is aimed at students or single workers, so I’m wondering if anyone in a similar position (couple moving in at the same time, one of them as dependent) knows of any potential pitfalls unique to the situation. Of course any advice is welcome, especially where our circumstances may not matter. Thank you very much in advance!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/movingtojapan) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sea freight for just two or three boxes is not going to be very cost effective. Shippers want to fill containers, and two boxes don’t even make a dent in a container’s capacity. You’re better off checking these on the plane or using something like Kuroneko to ship them. But I suggest putting them on the plane. We moved with two large boxes checked under our three bag per person allowance with United.
You won’t be able to register the temporary apartment as your address because you cannot receive mail there if it’s a hotel. It will be registered as temporary lodging with the municipality due to the minpaku laws; and they’ll know this.
Hankos that are approved for bank and registration use can take some time to issue. Ours took a few days with a rush order.
I don’t recommend the post office bank, especially since you’re here as HSP and not students etc. You can get accounts with SMBC Prestia immediately. Regular SMBC will allow you to open an account with a letter of employment from your employer in Japan stating you have been hired as an employee by such and such place and need a bank account to receive salary. However, you won’t be able to get a debit card or use web banking for the first six months. (This is why I recommend Prestia instead.)
Your wife won’t be able to open an account with regular SMBC until she passes the six month mark since she won’t have the employer letter. Her only option is a family card with Prestia or the Post Office, I think. I’m not 100% sure. My husband and I just had the one account until he hit the six months.
I have had no issue sending or receiving money with Wise to me or my husband’s Japanese account with a Katakana name from my U.S. account. I even sent money direct from my U.S. account to Toyota for the initial deposit on my car using Wise. No issues.
For real estate agent, I’d recommend Heyagime right next to the station.
They had enough pull to get me a good place near the station from a landlord who otherwise didn’t want no filthy gaijin (has since been befriended and dropped that policy it seems cause we now have another foreigner in the building.)
They seem to have a mixed reputation online, but if I search Leopalace for apartments in Matsudo for a 3-month contract and start from most expensive (with a “you get what you pay for” mentality), there’s a lot of reasonably-priced stuff (as in I wouldn’t mind paying those prices on the regular) that is well located and looks new and nice on the pictures.