Hi there, so I’m looking to get some feedback on my wife and my plan to move to Japan next year. She is a Japanese national so the plan is for a spousal visa. We currently live in California in the SF Bay Area and I am a US Citizen. I have read through everything relevant in the wiki and as many similar situation threads in the past few months to get some ideas, but I just wanted some feedback on our exact plan and if we need to change anything.
**Info On Us**
* We’re in our early to mid 30’s
* I am a SysAdmin/Network Specialist working Tier 2/3 for local government with 16+ years of experience but no degree. I plan to get certifications before I go over just to show potential employers I have them. I have had 4 different employers through my life, but been with the current job for nearly a decade now.
* She has a Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN) license in Japan, but hopes to switch to English translator and work part time.
* I have been studying Japanese on and off for years, but really picked up it up since last summer and meet every week with a Japanese teacher 1 on 1. I’m nearly able to (assuming practice tests are any indicator) pass the N3 JLPT test and plan to take N2 next summer in Japan. Winter will be a backup if I fail in Summer.
* I am day-to-day conversational in Japanese now. We were there last month and I spent a significant amount of time with friends who don’t speak English without my wife and did just fine. I text friends fairly often too and can communicate without much friction.
* We fell in love with Kobe and hope to call there our home. Do I need to be concerned about job prospects in Kansai compared to Kanto? We do have an area in Tokyo that we have picked out that we also like in case it’s better to be in Kanto.
* We will be able to bring over enough money for a significant down payment on a home (we have lots of pets so a SFH will be needed before long) but the more I look at salaries the more confused I get. Is shooting for a 7M-8M yen salary reasonable?
* We have friends and family in all major areas of Japan so we’re not worried about relationships and having a social life no matter where we are there.
* We realized we enjoy city life way more and we’re stuck in suburbs in CA with no way to move within CA due to the inflexibility of my current job and owning our house. Also personal reasons are pushing us to desire to be in Japanese culture too.
**Timeline:**
* Next spring we will sell our house (assuming the market doesn’t crash here) and send over furniture and house stuff by ship.
* Once everything is shipped, the wife will move back in with her Father in Tokyo.
* She files for the visa once residency is re-established while I move in with a friend here in CA and stay at my job until the visa is fully processed, sending money over to her Japanese bank account in the meantime (already have it connected in Wise). **EDIT**: This also prevents the awkward situation of having her dad by the guarantor for me on the COE and allows me to send over a lot more money and keep building my pension.
* Around month 5 of being there, she would rent her own place (a spot that we can break the rental agreement in a year or less most likely).
* Assuming it takes about 6 months for the visa to be ready, that should put us in around October/November 2024. Once received I would move over.
* Start applying for jobs in Japan and get life established.
Hopefully that’s enough background on us to give a picture of what we’re hoping to accomplish. I’m not sweating the details of what I’ll personally need to do to register as a foreigner once we move since my wife will take care of those details and be able to direct me. What else should I take in to consideration to this huge change in our life? Thank you for all reading over this and your help!
1 comment
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
—
**Feedback on our plan to move to Japan next year**
Hi there, so I’m looking to get some feedback on my wife and my plan to move to Japan next year. She is a Japanese national so the plan is for a spousal visa. We currently live in California in the SF Bay Area and I am a US Citizen. I have read through everything relevant in the wiki and as many similar situation threads in the past few months to get some ideas, but I just wanted some feedback on our exact plan and if we need to change anything.
**Info On Us**
* We’re in our early to mid 30’s
* I am a SysAdmin/Network Specialist working Tier 2/3 for local government with 16+ years of experience but no degree. I plan to get certifications before I go over just to show potential employers I have them. I have had 4 different employers through my life, but been with the current job for nearly a decade now.
* She has a Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN) license in Japan, but hopes to switch to English translator and work part time.
* I have been studying Japanese on and off for years, but really picked up it up since last summer and meet every week with a Japanese teacher 1 on 1. I’m nearly able to (assuming practice tests are any indicator) pass the N3 JLPT test and plan to take N2 next summer in Japan. Winter will be a backup if I fail in Summer.
* I am day-to-day conversational in Japanese now. We were there last month and I spent a significant amount of time with friends who don’t speak English without my wife and did just fine. I text friends fairly often too and can communicate without much friction.
* We fell in love with Kobe and hope to call there our home. Do I need to be concerned about job prospects in Kansai compared to Kanto? We do have an area in Tokyo that we have picked out that we also like in case it’s better to be in Kanto.
* We will be able to bring over enough money for a significant down payment on a home (we have lots of pets so a SFH will be needed before long) but the more I look at salaries the more confused I get. Is shooting for a 7M-8M yen salary reasonable?
* We have friends and family in all major areas of Japan so we’re not worried about relationships and having a social life no matter where we are there.
* We realized we enjoy city life way more and we’re stuck in suburbs in CA with no way to move within CA due to the inflexibility of my current job and owning our house. Also personal reasons are pushing us to desire to be in Japanese culture too.
**Timeline:**
* Next spring we will sell our house (assuming the market doesn’t crash here) and send over furniture and house stuff by ship
* Once everything is shipped, the wife will move back in with her Father in Tokyo
* She files for the visa once residency is re-established while I move in with a friend here in CA and stay at my job until the visa is fully processed, sending money over to her Japanese bank account in the meantime (already have it connected in Wise)
* Around month 5 of being there, she would rent her own place (a spot that we can break the rental agreement in a year or less most likely)
* Assuming it takes about 6 months for the visa to be ready, that should put us in around October/November 2024. Once received I would move over
* Start applying for jobs in Japan and get life established
Hopefully that’s enough background on us to give a picture of what we’re hoping to accomplish. I’m not sweating the details of what I’ll personally need to do to register as a foreigner once we move since my wife will take care of those details and be able to direct me. What else should I take in to consideration to this huge change in our life? Thank you for all reading over this and your help!
*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.*