To be granted a 3-year period of stay for a spouse visa
A spouse visa is a status of residence granted to foreign nationals residing in Japan who are married to a Japanese national. There are four types of visa periods: 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years.
What is a spouse visa?
A spouse visa is a status of residence that a foreigner residing in Japan can obtain if he/she marries a Japanese national. The term “spouse visa” is a common name, and the official term is “Status of Residence: Spouse or Child of Japanese National. This status of residence includes not only foreigners married to Japanese nationals, but also foreigners specially adopted by Japanese nationals and those born as children of Japanese nationals.
However, since this section will discuss the case of a foreigner residing in Japan who marries a Japanese national, the common term “spouse visa” will be used.
To obtain a spouse visa, the foreign national must prepare an application form and the necessary documents, and submit it to the Immigration Bureau. The application will then be examined and a decision will be made as to whether or not to grant the visa.
What criteria are used to determine a spouse visa?
After the application form and required documents are submitted to the Immigration and Residence Office, the application will be examined based mainly on the information provided in the documents.
Then, if the criteria for a spouse visa are met, the status of residence is granted. For a spouse visa, the period of stay granted on the first application is generally 6 months or 1 year. This may be due to the fact that the Immigration Office may wish to re-examine the application after six months or one year with regard to the authenticity and continuity of the marriage and the stability of the couple’s income.
If the initial period of stay expires and further renewal procedures are completed and there are no problems with the authenticity of the marriage, a longer period of stay than six months or one year will be granted. The new status of residence granted is either 3 or 5 years, but the reality is that the hurdle is quite high to be granted a 5-year period of stay on the first renewal procedure. However, it is not easy to be granted a 3-year period of stay on the first renewal.
What does it take to be granted a 3-year period of stay?
Once a three-year period of stay is granted for a spouse visa, the applicant can apply for permanent residence or naturalization. Therefore, the three-year period of stay for a spouse visa is a major goal. As explained in the previous section, the hurdle for obtaining a three-year visa is not low.
To achieve this goal, the following four criteria must be met.
First, you must fulfill your notification obligations under the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act. For example, if you change your address, you must promptly report the change, but if you fail to do so, you are considered not to have fulfilled your obligations.
Second, you must fulfill your various public obligations. Public obligations include the payment of social insurance and pension premiums. Another important requirement is the fulfillment of tax obligations. The taxpayer must pay the set tax amount on time and without delinquency.
Finally, they must be able to send their elementary and junior high school children to school. In other words, the applicant must be fulfilling his/her “obligation to provide education” as stipulated in the Constitution.
In addition to the above four requirements, a “record of cohabitation” is also necessary to be granted a five-year period of stay. Co-residency means that the marriage is expected to continue and that the couple has lived together for at least three years after the marriage. This implies that the marriage is not a sham, but a real one.
Summary
The three-year period of stay is a major goal for those who obtain a spouse visa. This is because it makes it possible to obtain permanent residence or apply for naturalization. To achieve this goal, it is important to fulfill the four requirements we have explained.
