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Apply for CoE with "marriage cert" in JP only 2017/5/13 20:56
Dear All,

Due to restriction of numbers of character in the title, what I meant by "marriage cert" is actually the 結婚受理証明書.

My Japanese boyfriend and I are going to register our marriage in a Japanese city hall soon and we will get the 結婚受理証明書 as one of the documents for my CoE application to stay in Japan later on this year ( I live in HK and he lives in Japan. This is a long-distance relationship ). And I read from the homepage of Immigration Department of Japan that a marriage certificate issued by the home country of the foreigner spouse is required too.

However, I am from Hong Kong (HK) and HK government automatically recognizes marriage registered in another country as long as it is registered legally accordingly to that country’s current law so it is written in HK government website that I “need not” to register again in HK. But it is not written whether they "can" register our marriage in HK afterwards on our request / at least issue any documents to prove they recognized our marriage registered in Japan, or not. I can’t contact any government officers to ask as they are too busy to reply phone calls / email and when I finish work their office is closed already. I just read from a few HK forums that this is "illegal" in HK and impossible because this would mean I register for a second time and everyone in HK can only register once ( either done in HK or overseas ) even if the spouse is the same person.

And I have read that if we are married under Japanese law and I am from a country that doesn’t issue any certification for marriages conducted under foreign law, I could write a Japanese letter to explain it and sign on it to replace the said marriage certificate. But even so, still another problem is I can’t make sure whether Hong Kong is one of those countries as I cannot contact HK government so far.

Then can I simply write a Japanese letter saying that we cannot get any marriage certificate issued by Hong Kong government? Or would you please advise how should I write the letter / what I should do to solve this problem?

Anybody who has similar experience or has heard a similar case as mine is more than welcome to give me some advice. Your kind replies will be greatly appreciated! Thank you so much.
by Utopia25  

Re: Apply for CoE with... 2017/5/14 11:03
If your plan is to get married according to the Japanese law, then the resulting 婚姻受理証明書 (or his 戸籍 with marriage to you written into it, if you wait a few days) should be the only document you need in order to prove the marriage to immigration of Japan.

I thought you needed the non-Japanese marriage certificate was needed only if you got married outside Japan?
by AK rate this post as useful

Apply for CoE with "marriage cert" in JP only 2017/5/15 09:45
I thought you only need Japanese marriage certificate, too.
I cannot find the page it says you need your home country's certificate?
I applied COE many years ago, so cannot remember in detail and rules change over the years, but I think we needed only Japanese certificate.
If not sure, you (or your boyfriend) can call or send email to Immigration Bureau if Japan. Email address is on their website.
by N (guest) rate this post as useful

"marriage cert" JP only 2017/5/15 13:23
I also provide only my Japanese marriage cert only since I registered and got married in Japan. Few months later then registered/notify my marriage in my birth country. The reason so that I can registered/record my child birth.

So only provide Japanese marriage cert if you registered and get married in Japan only /first. You may have misread/misunderstood it somewhere.
by ... (guest) rate this post as useful

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