Hello, I’m not sure where else to ask this, but I will try here. Any direction is appreciated!
I currently live in Yokosuka Japan as a sofa dependent (non military). I was just employed to a job that provides sofa sponsorship, however, I was taken on as a spouse preference and they did not give me my own sponsorship and say they are unable to. It seems my spouse and I are in disagreement about staying here in Japan and it is my wish to stay, so I was trying to forge my own path here. I can’t seem to find anything online, or anyone that can tell me how or if this is possible? To basically switch from dependent to independent sponsorship. Does anyone know anything about this? Anything would help tremendously. Thank you.
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This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
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**Sofa sponsorship**
Hello, I’m not sure where else to ask this, but I will try here. Any direction is appreciated!
I currently live in Yokosuka Japan as a sofa dependent (non military). I was just employed to a job that provides sofa sponsorship, however, I was taken on as a spouse preference and they did not give me my own sponsorship and say they are unable to. It seems my spouse and I are in disagreement about staying here in Japan and it is my wish to stay, so I was trying to forge my own path here. I can’t seem to find anything online, or anyone that can tell me how or if this is possible? To basically switch from dependent to independent sponsorship. Does anyone know anything about this? Anything would help tremendously. Thank you.
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Are you willing to stay in Japan even if it means leaving your spouse? What issues are you having that you are debating divorce for staying in Japan?
For your current SOFA visa, did you come to Japan under your spouse? There may be some issues if they leave and you were brought over under them.
It it a GS job or a Contractor position that you’re considering? I’m AD, so all of my knowledge of the GS world is secondhand (especially WRT SOFA), but I would think that being a GS and being paid by the DoD would entitle you to SOFA status, even if your sponsor left Japan. Contractors maybe not; that’s a different can of worms.
The HR office at whatever command that’s hiring you should have some info WRT if you’d be a SOFA resident without your sponsor in-country. The good news is that already being local is a huge plus; that’s why they’ve been trying to leverage the local spouses as a source of labor. The bad news is that I keep hearing horror stories WRT how long it takes to hire a GS, so getting hired may not be as quick as you think, and if they’re selecting you for the job, I’d as HR for a ground-truth estimation for the lead time until your first working day.