How much account balance is required for a spouse visa – Should you have more than one million yen?
Why income is important when applying for a spouse visa
To obtain a spouse visa, you must meet several conditions, one of which is income.
To be approved, you must have a certain income to meet the income requirement.
The reason for the income requirement is that to be granted a spouse visa, it must be proven that the foreigner can easily support themselves in Japan.
If a foreigner who has been granted a spouse visa is unable to support themselves in Japan, they may become a burden on the Japanese welfare system. Therefore, it must be verified that they have sufficient income and assets to support themselves.
Proof of account balance to facilitate the spouse visa application
As an additional document to facilitate the spouse visa application, you may submit a bank statement.
The bank statement indicates how much balance (savings) you have in your bank account.
You can ask the financial institution where you have your account to issue a balance certificate.
When applying for a spousal visa, the bank statement is not a required document, so you do not need to present it.
However, if you have some amount of savings in your account, submitting a bank statement should make it easier to meet the income requirements for your spouse visa application.
You may think that you can use a passbook to prove how much balance you have in your account, but passbooks are considered easy to copy and forge and are generally less reliable than a bank statement.
Therefore, you should provide a balance certificate instead of a copy of the passbook to prove your account balance.
How much account balance is required for a spouse visa
Normally, an account balance of one million yen or more is considered a plus for a spouse visa.
However, the account balance that is considered a plus for a spouse visa depends on the couple’s situation, so one million yen is not always sufficient.
Even if the account balance is less than one million yen, it is not always considered a negative when considering the spouse visa application.
This is because a stable income is generally more important than a savings balance when considering income requirements for a spouse visa.
Please note that a bank statement is only an optional document and that a certain income is a prerequisite for visa issuance.