Tsuushoumei Confusion

What I gather is that the tsuushoumei is a registered legal alias foreigners can use in Japan.

1. How do you get one? Those who did, did you have any problems?
2. Are they on the juki card or the juuminhyo?
3. Once registered, can tsuushoumei be used for anything except imigration? (Bank, work, housing etc)

I googled info, but any other information based on personal experience is greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.

First, it'd be good to check with your city hall for more info, since they'll usually provide information like what kind of documents they'll take as proof of use of the alias. Also, I've found that staff sometimes have slightly different ideas or procedures, so if you get someone who isn't very helpful, it might be good to come back at a different time and talk with someone else. That all said, I've done it twice.

1. The first time, my work had made a hanko of my name in katakana for me. I was able to use that for non-official stuff like signing up for internet, point cards, and arranging my bills. After a few months, I began getting mail with my name written in katakana, and I took some of that mail plus the hanko with me. I needed to register the hanko officially with city hall, so I applied for the alias and then they allowed me to register the hanko.

When I got married, I had to go through it all again. This time it was actually a lot easier, I think because I got a newbie at city hall who didn't realize you needed to prove the alias. I used a spare hanko of my husband's with our name in kanji and brought it in, and he registered it and did the alias paperwork without me needing to bring in proof in the form of mail or anything. So that was lucky!

2. Both names are written on the juuminhyo and juuki card. Only the kanji/katakana are on my insurance card, the romaji isn't on there at all. I'm waiting to renew my driver's license, so that only has the romaji on it right now, but if I needed to bother with it I could go and get the kanji added as an addendum to the back. My residence card currently is romaji only as well; I'm not sure if you can add an alias to it or not, but I haven't bothered since my renewal for that is coming up soon as well.

3. Theoretically yes, although in reality it can sometimes depend on the rules of each place. Some tend to be stricter than others, and it also may depend on which form of ID you use. But for most things you'll be able to switch to kana.

Hope that helps, good luck! Both my changes were relatively easy, but for a friend of mine she said it was a nightmare for her, so hopefully it's easy for you!