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| I only realised recently that Tatsu is voiced by Seto Kaiba |
You may refer to me as Househusband Toji. The "Immortal Toji" just doesn't have the same ring to it...
So I received my spousal visa today. I will admit that I was a little worried that my application would not be approved, but that was due to me not getting my shit together and scrambling to get all my necessary documents together.
Until now, my employers sponsored my visa (first Instructor, and then Specialist when I switched jobs), so there wasn't much I needed to do on my end other than check that my details were correct, and pay a small handling fee for my employer to submit the visa application to the Immigration office for me. Applying for a Spousal visa however, I had to do that on my own, and I was not adequately prepared.
I will go through the documents that I had to submit, though other people's experiences will likely differ from mine.
- Family register
I got this from my city hall for a small fee. This is a document that lists the members in the family (just me and my wife in this case) - Marriage certificate (Japan)
Obviously for a spousal visa, proof is needed that we are married. We got this city hall when we registered our marriage last year, and just in case we requested for two copies. - Marriage certificate (home country)*
*Technically, you have to submit the marriage certificate from your home country too. Thing is with Australia, they don't issue marriage certificates if the marriage was carried out overseas. Furthermore, while they don't register overseas marriage, they do recognize them as long as legal requirements are met (of legal age, not forced to get married etc). - Certificate of Employment
I got this from my work. It proves that I work and have income while in Japan. - Letter of Guarantee
Needs to be signed by your Japanese spouse, it's proof of affirmation that they will support you of your stay in Japan. - Photos of proof of relationship.
We had been dating for over 10 years before getting married, so I picked a couple from over the years. It's visual proof that the relationship/marriage is genuine, and not just so I could get a visa to stay in Japan.
In my scramble to submit my visa application, I did not have the signed letter of guarantee from my wife, assuming that since I was working I wouldn't need it. When I went to immigration, they explained that I did in fact need that guarantee letter, along with the Australian marriage certificate. Fortunately, they gave me an envelope, along with a list of documents that I am missing, and said that I can mail the remainder of my documents instead of having to come in person a second time. In the meantime, they held on to my application and the rest of the documents I submitted.
I had spoken to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs previously, and knew I couldn't give them an Australian marriage certificate because of the reasons explained above, so when I mailed the guarantee letter, I also included a letter (in Japanese) explaining why I couldn't give them the Australian Marriage certificate.
Despite it being the busiest time of year for foreigners to renew/change their visas, mine only took about 2-3 weeks fortunately. Though my Specialist visa expires in just over a week, the thing about renewing the visa is that they slap a letter in my passport explaining that I'm in the process of having my visa renewed/changed, with an extension of 2 months applied to the Specialist visa if the application process is not finished by the time my current visa expires.
After two or so weeks, I got a post card in the mail telling me that my visa is ready to be picked up, along with a list of required items I needed to bring. Those being
- The post card they sent me
- My passport
- My current residence card
- The letter explaining about my visa change that was attached in my passport
- Revenue stamp
You need to get this from the post office beforehand. For my visa it cost me 6000 yen (which is up from 4000 yen now). You have to pay cash for the revenue stamp. The staff were kind enough to put the stamps in a small plastic bag.
With all of that prepared, I headed to the Immigration office to submit all my required items. They had me paste the revenue stamp on the form they presented to me, and asked me to sign it before I had to wait for about 45 minutes or so. There were plenty of people at the Immigration office today, but fortunately, most were there to apply for their visas rather than picking up their new residence cards.
Eventually I got my new residence card, with my old one now having a hole punched through it to indicate that it is now no longer valid.
The thing that actually surprised me the most when I received my spousal visa is that it's valid for 3 years, which is what I requested for in my visa form. From previous experience when my employer submitted my form for a specialist visa, they requested 3 years, but I ended up with only one year initially - I got a 3 year specialist visa when I had to renew it a year later. Because it's been less than a year since we got married, I assumed I was only going to get the 1 year. Not sure the reason why - perhaps because my previous visa was also 3 years? Feel free to correct me if you know the reason.
In terms of employment going forward, I have no restrictions and can work in just about any field now. It also means that when job hunting, I no longer have to worry about whether an employer can sponsor my visa.
With everything that has been going on lately, it is nice to have a little bit of good news for a change. Also, I'm surprised I have not done a post about visas since I started living and working in Japan.
