Spouse of Japanese Change of Residence

Change of Residence to Spouse of Japanese National

Me and my girlfriend plan to marry in April/May 2020. We will by that point have been in a relationship for two years. In this thread, I will state what I deem to be worthy components towards me obtaining a change of residence to be able to stay in Japan with my wife-to-be. I will also bring up what I think could be negative factors towards obtaining it.
Also, please keep in mind that I would be on a temporary tourist visa upon arrival. I do not have a university degree so a working-visa is out of the question. I am a 22 year old UK citizen currently living in London. My girlfriend is a 22 year old Japanese citizen currently living in Kyoto.

Positives:

1. Since the start of our relationship, we've called almost everyday on average between 2 - 6 hours a day. All together, we've probably only had about 20 days when we didn't call. But we would still have text each other anyway.
I believe if I can obtain my call history with her (all calls were made on Facebook Messenger, and so I'm struggling to find my call history) then it would be very nice to add to my change of residency application to show our marriage is genuine.

2. I have been to Japan twice, both times I've spent the duration of my trips with her. She lives with her mother and grandmother, and I have stayed at her house for 2 weeks before. I am acquinted with her family who have no issues with me.
I believe stating this would be beneficial and further drive home that our relationship is genuine.

3. I'm not sure if this is actually a positive in terms of gaining residency, perhaps it swings both ways. However, my girlfriend already has a child from her ex-boyfriend who lives in another country. He does not know of the child and she has no intention of telling him. I have met the child (who is currently 2 years old) and we have a great bond. I want to be there to help care for the child, I see her as my own child despite the biology between us.
I have read that switching from temporary tourist visa to the Spouse of a Japanese residence takes on more special, unnavoidable condtions. Could the child come under those special conditions if I make it clear that I want to help raise the child with my wife-to-be by gaining spouse residence, obtaining a full-time job and contributing financially?
That sounds like a great group of details to give to immigration when applying for my change of residence, however, does it swing both ways? Are there any laws in Japan that would require the biological father is aware of the situation or any other trip ups I'm not seeing?

4. Her grandmother (who owns the house where she stays, she is the Landlord) would be letting me stay at her place with the mother and my girlfriend upon entry to Japan all the way until me and my girlfriend are ready to move out together. I do think this would be greatly beneficial as it shows our finicial situation shouldn't fall into anything dire. I would have time to find a full-time job while my girlfriend works part-time. I do intend on working full-time as soon as possible and saving up some money so we can eventually move out.

5. We have pictures of the two trips we have spent together in Japan. I can put them in a word document, date them and enclose them with my application.

6. I'll call this a mini-positive, more like a personal-positive. It's probably not even worth putting into the application. However, I study Japanese (I haven't tried for any JLPT yet) and I can speak, read and write in small pockets. I want to demonstrate that I intend on assimilating to the country.
Do you think that's worth putting into the application or probably superfluous?

That's all the positives I can think of right now. If there are any other positives you think I might have but didn't think of, please bring them to light. Also, please let me know what you think, do the positives sound strong enough or do you think there should be more?

And now, negatives:

1. My girlfriend has never been to London and met my family. They are aware of her and my family have even been on a video call with her before and she has sent them gifts before, but that's about it. My family are aware that I intend on moving to Japan and get married. It's hard for her to come to London because she needs to care for our baby in Japan. It's unfair for her to go through a 12+ hour flight all the way to London with the baby as she is going through her terrible two's right now and she is very difficult to handle. That is my only strong arguement for as to why she's never been here.
We did plan for her to come here in February with our daughter, but plans changed. Her mother became rather sick and so our attention turned to that.

2. I already said this one earlier, but are there any issues you are aware of regarding the child not being mine biologically? This question probably regards marriage, not the change of residence. Take a step back and imagine I ask that before getting married.

3. I'm going to be on a temporary tourist visa and so my time is limited to 3 months. 6 months if I apply for an extention being that I'm a British citizen. I fear there isn't enough time.

4. My girlfriend works part-time and I think doesn't earn enough to be a guarantor which is a requirement for this application. I could see about getting her mother to be a guarantor, but she also works part-time and is currently unemployed due to personal reasons. I wonder if I could express I would be living rent-free at her grandmothers house and also would have enough funds to care for myself (around £2000 - 2500) on top of my girlfriends funds whilst I'm searching for a job.


Phew! That's a lot of stuff to read! I'm sure there could be some other positives and negatives I've missed out. I'll make sure to add them if I can think of any more. Please help me as I'm trying to absorb as much information as I can about this.
I'll be grateful for any advice you can give me. I hope to get this all done in one trip, I know that it is possible! Gotta stay positive!
Thank you everybody!
Arigatou gozaimasu minasan!

Hi best of luck to you I want to explain to you sorry for my poor English. So please don't worry to much I am an Asian came to japan as a tourist and after one month I meet a women which is more than half older than me but we decided to get marry and we did it we got married and after we submit each and every required documents for change of status and I got my spouse resident status with in two months so it's a very short story of me no need to worry just come here and get married to her and get all the required documents from ur embassy and may be country and apply for change of status I am 100% sure you will get ur spouse status.

I just read everything and let me tell you the following:

My wife also had a daughter before we even met.The problem is that she already was 13 when we first met lmao , so trust me it was difficult but immigration didnt ask too much about it .

As for your situation i dont think any of us can give you a real answer, since immigration officers will be the last ones deciding your case , and there are no patterns to decide whether an application gets accepted or not ... the only one thing concerning me about your situation would be $$$$, there has to be a proven money source , whether it is you or any of her family members , but once again all i am saying is just what i THINK might not be accurate.

Thank you for your information Storm, you're right. I'm going to look into getting a family member on her side to be the guarantor as well as explaining I would be living in an easy situation at her grandmothers house.
Did immigration ever ask anything in particular about the child? For example, did they ever ask if the original father knew of the child and of your relationship with your wife? If not immigration, then did they ask when you was getting married?
Sorry for the personal questions, I'm just going to be going through the whole process in several months so I would like to be prepared for anything.
Thank you again.

no immigration never asked nothing, first at all we got married in my home country and then she went back to japan and registered the marriage herself, i dont know what questions she got asked....
She was a single mother the father literally left and never ever took her of the child , in other words he vanished therefore the child has my wife's last name , i am already registered as her father n my wifes koseki tohon.

All immigration ever asked me was bank statements and thats about it .

In your case the child doesnt have to be a problem at all , i dont think they will ever care about it (my asumption) .