Hi all,
Apologies in advance if there is already a big thread somewhere already about this, or if the following is all over the place.
My grandmother was a Japanese national. She passed away before I was born and I, unfortunately, do not have many of her documents.
I’m a 27y/o American working in IT. Ideally, I would like to move to Japan on a long-term/permanent basis within the next ~5 years. I have a BA in an unrelated field.
My questions: can I get a Long Term Resident Visa as the grandchild of a Japanese national? How can I access my extended family’s koseki to prove my Japanese heritage? Does anyone have experience with this? Should I pursue other visa options?
I’m trying to reestablish contact with my extended family in Japan now. I have some names, some old old addresses, potentially an email address. Not sure how relevant or helpful this will be in regards to a visa, but I’m doing it for personal reasons also obviously.
Would greatly appreciate any and all input.
3 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
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**Long Term Resident Visa for sansei**
Hi all,
Apologies in advance if there is already a big thread somewhere already about this, or if the following is all over the place.
My grandmother was a Japanese national. She passed away before I was born and I, unfortunately, do not have many of her documents.
I’m a 27y/o American working in IT. Ideally, I would like to move to Japan on a long-term/permanent basis within the next ~5 years. I have a BA in an unrelated field.
My questions: can I get a Long Term Resident Visa as the grandchild of a Japanese national? How can I access my extended family’s koseki to prove my Japanese heritage? Does anyone have experience with this? Should I pursue other visa options?
I’m trying to reestablish contact with my extended family in Japan now. I have some names, some old old addresses, potentially an email address. Not sure how relevant or helpful this will be in regards to a visa, but I’m doing it for personal reasons also obviously.
Would greatly appreciate any and all input.
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>can I get a Long Term Resident Visa as the grandchild of a Japanese national?
Yes, this is fine.
>How can I access my extended family’s koseki to prove my Japanese heritage?
The first step is locating it. If you’re not sure where it is you’ll probably want to hire a private detective to locate it (as well as your living family members if any). The US State Department maintains a list of legitimate agencies here: https://jp.usembassy.gov/services/list-of-private-detectives/
>Should I pursue other visa options?
With a bachelor’s degree and IT industry experience you’d probably not have much difficulty getting an IT job that would sponsor you for an engineer status. Try reaching out to recruiters and start testing the waters.
>How can I access my extended family’s koseki to prove my Japanese heritage? Does anyone have experience with this?
If you do decide to go the Long Term Resident route, [here’s a series of blog posts](https://frompineapples.com/2019/01/13/visa-documents-long-term-resident-visa-ancestry-visa-japan/) you might find helpful from someone who went through the whole process and got a visa. The author reached out to the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii for assistance when getting their grandmother’s koseki. Maybe there’s a group that helps with Nikkei genealogy research where you live.