spouse visa question - 6 months of marriage?

Good morning.

Anyone following my recent posts will see that I am very much loving my stay in Japan and am already thinking of options on how to stay with my girlfriend after March 2017 when my working holiday visa finishes.

We have been living together (and working) since March 2016 and we are very happy. Also just to note that we met as travellers in 2014 and I've been to Japan multiple times and speak Japanese, but this is the first time I've been on a real visa and started working teaching English.

One of our plans to stay together is for her to apply for a working holiday visa to come to England with me, but this is another story. If we decide to get married, Ive heard that you are required to be married for over 6 months before you can apply for the visa - does anyone know if this is true?

Our marriage would be 100% legit in terms of pictures and messages we have from years prior however I'm concerned as to how quick it would all be, its very obvious that we are marrying for the visa, but would the basis that our marriage is legit cancel this out?

Any thoughts or advice is much appreciated, more so from people who have been in similar circumstances...AKA being crazy in love with a girl from Japan so you need to apply for pieces of paper and stamps that says you can be together....

thanks!
Have a good day

in Japan, legally-processed marriage is only accepted. there is no other "marriage".

"Ive heard that you are required to be married for over 6 months before you can apply for the visa - does anyone know if this is true?"
it is not true.

"its very obvious that we are marrying for the visa"
my advise is that you find your job and getting a working visa by your ability. it is one of the conclusive evidences that you don't need the MARRIAGE for getting a spouse visa.
your spouse is a Japanese. she can search and get many information from webs and immigration office. why don't you ask her ? (all paperwork should be done in Japanese, not in English.) she is a key person for visa application.

Thank you for your reply. I should have added that I am unable to get a working visa as I do not have a degree. I am currently here on a working holiday visa (I'm British) and the original plan was to come for only a year, but now we are trying to find ways to stay together.

thank you

You can apply for spouse visa as soon as you are legally married in Japan. There is no waiting period for spouse visa application that I know oo of.
I applied for mine within one week after married.

FYI, I was unemployed then, so does my wife. We had her father as guarantor for the visa.
All necessary documents plus pictures and email corresponds were submitted as proof of genuine marriage.

Also I'm from Southdeast Asia, thus may complicate the visa application but did not encounter any problem whatsover. Received my visa without any complication and now I'm a PR after 5years.

So you being from UK and with working visa as English Teacher sound much better than my application. So should be no problem as long as yot have all the necessary documents done correctly.
But then again, things may differ from case to case but should not be worry too much.

It always makes me feel very uneasy when I read people here saying they had to submit their personal photographs and correspondence. That's certainly something I could never do.

For my application I never submitted any emails or correspondence. I feel like that is for more long-distance relationships, where maybe one person doesn't live in Japan. I did give them 2-3 photos from different years, but they weren't personal or anything, just ones I grabbed from Facebook. I applied for my spouse visa a few weeks after we registered the marriage, just as my working visa was expiring. We were planning to get married regardless, but because I decided to quit my alt job we actually really did get married at that time for the visa, and my application went through just fine. Best you can do is apply and see!

Hi, I would like to share with you story hopefully it can somehow help you.
I am from a Middle Eastern country. I met my wife only six months before the marriage. After six months, she came back to my country again and we decided to get married.
I entered Japan as a tourist and changed my visa status to marriage. My wife's family were afraid so they asked a lawyer to help them filling the documents.
I heard somewhere, mostly likely it's the lawyer who told me that. To convince the immigration office that the marriage is not fake, it is necessary to meet your future spouse face to face at least twice before the marriage.
Yes, for my case, the lawyer asked my wife to make something like a file containing, pictures for me and my wife together in my country and in Japan, pictures for my wife and my family in my homeland, pictures for her family with me eating, talking...Of course, other marriage documents translated to Japanese...

In your case, considering that you coming from England and have living in Japan for a long time and can speak in Japanese. I don't think that you will have a lot of problems. However, I would like to inform you that the immigration office don't trust anyone. They simply believe in documents. So, provide pictures and conversation with your girl. Don't under estimate paper. Add information or anything that can tell them that you have been with your girlfriend for a long time. Pictures with her family or you and her travelling in other countries such S Korea(Since it's the closest and the cheapest) can help as well ..Just an idea.

Don't worry a lot, just go ahead and do it. Don't forget to share with the result later on here.

Take care.

You should meet your future wife at least 2 times before marriage?

Surely this is a typo? If you are marrying someone, you really should be long past the first date stage.

I can see why you thought it's a typo. Well, actually I was talking seriously.
Recently, a lot of people meet each other once or never meet in real world. But, they know each for so long over the internet (social network).
Even if you may know your future wife/husband for years over the internet, if there is no proof that you have met each other at least twice in real world, the marriage may be denied. The immigration will have a reason to think that it's a fake marriage.
I agree with you, people have to meet each other, live with each other,and know each other well before getting into marriage.