I’m having a lot of anxiety about my visa application and want to pull on people who maybe have similar experiences?
The gist of it is
I’m on a spouse visa and have been married for 4 years. My husband and I are currently going through marital issues and don’t live with each other. I found a job in Tokyo while he lives in Aichi with his family. Even if we tried to reconcile, I can’t leave Tokyo and my husband can’t leave Aichi so I applied for a change of status to a working visa. We are still married, but our relationship is really up in the air.
I applied in July. In mid August, they sent a letter to me asking for a detailed reason/timeline of our living separately. I wrote out everything and sent it back to immigration right away. Radio silence until they called me this week. I didn’t answer the phone in time and kept trying to call back but every time the lines were busy. Today I went and the guy at the counter told me “I was waiting for you. I was going to deny your application for lack of documentation.”
He then told me that I didn’t send in the paperwork to which I proved that I did. I made him a new copy of it and we went over it together.
The whole time though he just kept saying “This isn’t a good reason to live separately.” and kept mentioning spouse visa. He kept saying that I couldn’t stay on a spouse visa because we are living separately and that a spouse visa application would’ve been denied. I told him I know and that’s why I applied for a work visa.
He then told me that he’s going to make a decision based off of the reasonings I gave. Then he told me that the decision “won’t take long” and to wait for a call on Monday. This is where my anxiety is stemming from. The fact that he said the decision wouldn’t take long combined with his saying my reasons weren’t good enough for a spouse visa (again, I know we need to live together so that’s why I applied for a work visa)
Now I’m kind of freaking out thinking that my application is going to get denied. I really can’t afford to move back to the USA and have no idea what I’ll do with my pets. I’m extremely scared.
The only thing I can think of is that I didn’t realize I needed to apply for a change of status within 6 months. We stopped living together in December and I applied in July, so I was 1 month over. He mentioned this rule, but said it should be ok.
Can anyone share their experiences of being denied a visa change and if it’s possible to reapply right away? Or has anyone been 1 month over after living separately or divorcing their spouse?
3 comments
I can’t give you advice specific to your situation but they gave me a lot of shit years back when my wife moved back to her hometown for about a year to take care of her ill mothers business. Had to change her address so our daughter could go to school there. We had to provide so much documentation to prove what was happening was real (which I can accept).
I don’t think it’s over for you but I wouldn’t be surprised if they deny it just based on it being a ‘different’ situation. See if you can get your husband to call them and back you up. That DEFINITELY will help.
Let this be a lesson to y’all that a spousal ain’t the ultimate goal. At least with a working visa everything is in your (somewhat) control.
No one can really offer anything here apart from speculation. But at surface value as you’re aware, you failed the meet the criteria for spouse visa once you moved out due to a break down of marriage. Visa wise That is literally on par with divorce
You’re supposed to inform immigration straight away. They only allow you to not live with you spouse for justified reasons (indefinite work placement at the other end of the country, or Japanese spouse caring for sick relatives etc)
You didn’t notify them within 14 days and then you spent greater than 6 months on a spouse visa you didn’t qualify for.
So at surface level that’s a lot of problems and violations of your spouse visa.
However, it’s not so black and white so no idea what they will say come Monday. But that said, i guess it would help if you at least qualify for the work visa for your job. As in would immigration deem you qualified for it? I.e do you have a relevant degree and/or experience in that industry?
If yes, then I’d say you might just get lucky. And they might give it to you.
If no, then well not only did you violate your spouse visa, but you also don’t qualify for the work visa… which could explain why the immigration official is fixated more on you renewing the spouse visa in that they don’t deem you qualified for the work visa
Perhaps you can try to get hold of a 行政書士 over the weekend? I am pretty sure their expertise on Japan immigration laws are better than our speculations here.