Spouse visa only 1 year? Is this normal?

Hi everyone,

I recently received my first spouse visa with a 1 year validity, which is ok but not amazing as I was hoping we'd qualify for a 3 year one, especially as we had to wait a one month for their verdict. Perhaps some of the more experienced people here could provide some insight as to how to go about obtaining a visa with a longer validity next time renewal comes around.

Here's a bit of background to help put everything into perspective.

Me and my wife got married in Japan last June after dating for about 2 years. She's 30 and I'm 36. Both of us work full-time, I'm on a yearly renewable contract while she's a permanent employee. We've been living together for about 7 months now.

This is my 5th consequctive year living in Japan, I've previously held two 3 year working visas before converting the second one to the spouse visa I recently received. We both pay our taxes, our national pensions and insurances. There was only one thing that Immmigration requested from us - a letter stating the reason why didn't we register our marriage in my home country, the reason being that overseas marriages are automatically recognized and registering an overseas marriage in my home country is only optional, hence we did not do so.

So bringing it all back to my inital question, is there an obvious reason why I was only granted 1 year? Or is this normal? What can we do to get a better outcome next time round?

Obviously I've got PR in mind, do I need to have the 3 year validity spouse visa to apply for it? Or say, if I renew next year and still end up with a 1 year validity, can I still apply for PR if all my renewal attempts are granted only a 1 year validity? (1+1+1)

Cheers!

Normal

I believe this is normal considering that youfve been married for less than a year and this is your first application for this status...

You need to have the 3-year one to be eligible to apply for PR. But I see no reason why not next time.

nowadays it seems normal to get 3 times one year and than you will get your 3 year spouse.
It is also possible that the system will change to 5 times 1 year and than 3 years.

Again this is up to immigration and there is nothing you can do.

Thank you all for your swift replies!

Yeah I suppose when you put it that way, we've not been married that long. (Even though we submitted the ¥ˆ÷“Í in Feb and only started living together in June.)

As I'm not a Highly Skilled Individual, it looks like I'll just have to buckle down and keep applying.

(P.S. think if we registered our marriage back in my home country it'd help next time round?)

No one can give you exact answer, even the immigration itself can't guarantee it.
Many factors come into play, be it your historges, your country of origin, heck even the mood of officer oversees your application can affect your outcomes.

Having registering your marriage at your country now, after you got your spouse status wont do much good.

For next renewal1extension you need to keep doing what you been doing now, show how stable is your marriage and financial. A big plus if children come to play as that show long term commitment to marriage and living in Japan.

But then again, no one can guarantee 3years.

Why people always think they can control the outcome.
It is the immigration who is deciding based on many factors, and the above mentioned even the mood of the immigration can be a factor. Just accept you get one year and show that you trustful and have a stable life.

There is nothing else you can do. It does not matter how you proceed. Just accept the situation because you are not the only one.

Some get 1 year and after that 3 years.
Some get 3 years right away.

why you always have to get annoyed?

it's completely normal and reasonable that someone without the experience wants to know if it's possible to somehow increase the chances of a better outcome next time.

maybe you've been here and there already, but not everybody. chill out buddy.

lol yes indeed I have done it and passed it.
It is not about what you say it is, it is just the truth.

So many people think they can change the outcome but it is the same as any other places in the world regarding customer. Secondly there is a search function and you will find many repeating posts.

It is just being honest and if you think you cannot handle because you cannot make your own name than this is not my issue.

The three year resident status is only the one thing in Japan which is depends on your luck prayers and the mod of the officials really it doesn't matter anything I have a very closed friends who have a child and Japanese wife for being married 4 years and a very real marriage because the Japanese lady arrived his home country to marry and bring him to Japan but still he got always one year have nice job living together never out of Japan paying tax all is OK but don't know why and one of other Friend who got married to divorced permanent women and got 3 years straight on second update just Apple and pray hard

it is true that once there's a result, it's pretty much impossible to change it. but there are certainly ways in which one can increase the chances of a better result next time, which is what is being asked here. and no, not every country has the same criteria. some places have much more relaxed rules. the world if big and varied.

second. if the moderators believed that this question is truly unnecessary, why would they publish it? old threads are dead. when a new inquiry is made, there's the chance for new people, with new knowledge or point of views to respond. if you don't have a new contribution, then you simply don't need to reply. it's so easy.

and third. do i need to make a formal name here to have a good discussion with anybody? like your name is actually a real name... ridiculous comment. anyway, you go ahead and continue with your rants, angry boy.

And one more thing I not understand the 3 year issue yes it's important to Apply for permanent but hoping for it first time second time is unnecessary because if you get 3 year at your first attempt you can not apply for permanent you will be still waiting three year full and even if you get it on second also you will wait to passed the two years more then u will be able to apply for permanent so it's good just to happy for the 1+1+1 after this if you can not get you should be worry but the first three years don't be sad for three years just wait and passing the three years if you get it on your 4 attempt then just go next month and apply for permanent I am too on spouse resident status but I am relaxed no need to worry for three years I have first to passed three years doesn't matter if my period is only one year

Many marriage in Japan is fake, or end up in divorce and based on this the Japanese immigration wants to make sure people will not utilize the visa to get in to Japan.

In my case I got 3+5 years. After 3 years a have applied for permanent visa together with my 5 years visa.

Nowadays the trend is 1+1+1 + additional, so after you get the additional extension you can just apply for permanent visa.

Thank you once again for the helpful information. Yeah I figured that fake marriages would the reason why they're so careful about spouse visas.

So if I get 1+1+1+1 or 1+1+1, what would happen if I tried to apply for PR then? DO you know if the immigration office immediately reject my application? I ask because guidelines I've read say that "Spouses of Japanese nationals and Permanent Residents having been married for more than 3 years and lived more than one year consecutively in Japan"

Also...they only take into account from the date you get the visa? Not the date you submit the ¥ˆ÷“́Hi.e. the actual date you legally register your marriage?

(Sorry, going into details here lol)

Yes normal. I hope you will get exact answer from me. I had been here on engineer visa(1+3+3) and then spouse visa(3+1+1+3). I have PR now. Now a days immigration is giving 1+1+1+1+1+3. Because lots of bad people did fake marriages in the past. That`s why good people like you suffer. My visa also reduced from 3 to 1 for 2 times. I was so much frustrated and I could not find the long term job in Japan that time. I asked immigration officer that why you are giving a PR to over stayer(including Jail history) in just 1+3+PR on spouse visa and I am contributing to your country for long time and I dont have any bad record. Why such system? That is fact. I did not get any answer because there was no answer. I am sorry I dont have intention to talk bad about anything. It was best if I could have continue on engineer visa (1+3+3+3) and get PR.

Yes you must have 3 years visa to apply for PR. When I applied PR on 1 year spouse visa, I got negative result. You can apply on 1 year visa too but the result will be 99.99 negative. I already suffered with the situation like you. But you will get 3 years spouse visa soon. I saw patterns of spouse visa with my friends depending on the case like 1+3, 1+1+1+3, 1+1+1+1+3, 1+1+1+1+1+3. If you live 3 years continuously on spouse visa and living together, then marriage is considered to be real and not fake. Then after looking the status of your relationship, they will offer 3 years visa. I was told by immigration lady officer, She explained me very kindly.

Above is well explained.
Immigration is getting strict due the fact of many fake marriages.
All you can do is just ride the ride and make the best and proof you are real.

i think i have the same situation, we have been married for about 4years and have 2 kids and got 1+1+1+1+?
i donft know whatfs next, i donft know if it is have a connection on our last because shefs still using her japanese last name and not mine..what do you think?

mourblake,
Your wife using her last name has nothing to do with it. I (Japanese wife) have kept my family name all the way through and my spouse has obtained PR status. In Japanese - non-Japanese couples, name change is simply not required, so some Japanese spouse simply don't change their name.