Hey everyone, sorry if this is a bit of a long post.
A little about me:
\- Mid-30s, single
\- Born in Japan, raised in US. Japanese citizen, US green card.
\- Fluent in Japanese, though a bit rusty.
\- Visit Japan almost once a year, my family are all in Japan.
I’ve been seriously considering moving to Japan, particularly living in Tokyo.
I often see posts on here about others coming to Japan on a visa, but my situation is a bit different as you can see. Its almost like I am going back to Japan, but after 30+ years in the US.
While I have visited Japan often and can navigate solo, I understand that living there is a bit different from visiting. My primary reason is that I find the quality of life in Tokyo to be much higher than where I am from (california), from perspectives such as infrastucture and safety, not to mention I’ve always felt more in tune with Japanese culture, having observed my very Japanese parents growing up in the US.
I think I’ve come to an age where I feel that I value these things more than the only thing keeping me here in the US, which is honestly just my job and earning potential.
As also noted previously, the rest of family are also all back in Japan, and I do worry a bit about my aging parents, which is another factor.
With my reasons stated, making a move to Japan is easy in my situation as I have citizenship, but my situation has a different complicating factor: any extended leave outside of the US would require kissing my green card good bye.
Reversible decisions are always easier to make, and I am wondering if there are ways for me to sort of do a trial living in Japan for a year or two, while keeping my green card. There is such a thing as a US re-entry permit for up to two years, but I truly wonder how I can employ myself in Japan with the pretense in my mind that I may be going back to the US. Its certainly not a pretense I can tell an employer.
Another option is some how convincing my current workplace to put me remote, but it would be much more difficult to convince them to allow me back into the US, given the salary adjustments that would take place (significantly down to go to Japan, then significantly up to come back to US).
Thus, I wonder: has anyone been in this situation and figured out some way to accomplish a sort of 1 to 2 year trial living in my situation? I also want to hear from others who decidedly gave up their green card in my situation. It is a lot to sacrifice in my opinion, but it may be a sacrifice I just need to make….
EDIT: I am using a throwaway on purpose…not a bot.
3 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
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**Seriously considering a move, slightly unique situation**
Hey everyone, sorry if this is a bit of a long post.
A little about me:
– Mid-30s, single
– Born in Japan, raised in US. Japanese citizen, US green card
– Fluent in Japanese, though a bit rusty. Visit Japan almost once a year, my family are all in Japan.
I’ve been seriously considering moving to Japan, particularly living in Tokyo.
I often see posts on here about others coming to Japan on a visa, but my situation is a bit different as you can see. Its almost like I am going back to Japan, but after 30+ years in the US.
While I have visited Japan often and can navigate solo, I understand that living there is a bit different from visiting. My primary reason is that I find the quality of life in Tokyo to be much higher than where I am from (california), from perspectives such as infrastucture and safety, not to mention I’ve always felt more in tune with Japanese culture, having observed my very Japanese parents growing up in the US.
I think I’ve come to an age where I feel that I value these things more than the only thing keeping me here in the US, which is honestly just my job and earning potential.
As also noted previously, the rest of family are also all back in Japan, and I do worry a bit about my aging parents, which is another factor.
With my reasons stated, making a move to Japan is easy in my situation as I have citizenship, but my situation has a different complicating factor: any extended leave outside of the US would require kissing my green card good bye.
Reversible decisions are always easier to make, and I am wondering if there are ways for me to sort of do a trial living in Japan for a year or two, while keeping my green card. There is such a thing as a US re-entry permit for up to two years, but I truly wonder how I can employ myself in Japan with the pretense in my mind that I may be going back to the US. Its certainly not a pretense I can tell an employer.
Another option is some how convincing my current workplace to put me remote, but it would be much more difficult to convince them to allow me back into the US, given the salary adjustments that would take place (significantly down to go to Japan, then significantly up to come back to US).
Thus, I wonder: has anyone been in this situation and figured out some way to accomplish a sort of 1 to 2 year trial living in my situation? I also want to hear from others who decidedly gave up their green card in my situation. It is a lot to sacrifice in my opinion, but it may be a sacrifice I just need to make….
*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.*
This is not a “moving to Japan” question. This is a question about keeping your green card while being out of the country for two years. According to the US Embassy website, you risk losing your status of rsidence if you remain outside of the US for more than one year ,but you can apply for up to two.
As another user commented, this is somewhat of a unique question. While it’s not directly related to moving to Japan, we can leave it here and see if anyone with an experience similar to yours comes along.
Honestly, though, the best answer is probably to call the US Immigration Services and describe your question to them. They’re really the only ones who can authoritatively answer you.