Spouse of Japanese National

Dear members,

I'm currently in the situation of waiting for my Spouse of Japanese National Certificate of Eligibility. The request was submitted about 2 months ago from now.

I have yet received any reply from the Immigration Bureau, only that it is "In Progress". My wife in person myself because phone support is non-existent.

Our case is:

- Married since June 2019
- Applied 2 months ago
- Wife has no income, still a student
- Wife has financially strong parents and both have above average incomes. (they are willing to support us both for the meantime)
- Parent (father) is guarantor and we submitted his residence tax certificate with our application
- Me, have above average foreign income (online businesses) but no income in Japan, as I never worked or studied here.
- Been traveling to Japan since 2017, over 13 times for visiting my then girlfriend, now wife.

I'm kind of worried now considering the long time they take, and I wouldn't call it a particularly busy period right now (compared to Feb-Apr). I know it takes 3 months but I read on some resources online it should be faster.

Anyone has experience with a similar case, or even a more difficult case that got approved / rejected ? How is rejection typically handled ? Can I re-apply again once a rejection notice is issued ?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

Hello there, this was my case.

I got married last year (2018) on September.
we got married in my country and then she got back to japan in November
After doing all the paperwork she submitted the COE application on December
She got contacted from immigration on January asking for my own country bank statement
I got my COE on Feb 28th.

Remember that there might be more ppl in queue , and it takes whatever time it takes.
My wife once called them to ask about it and they said it is in process lol.
You have have to wait and if all the information above is truth then i think you ll have no problem at all.

Probably they ll ask for more documentation who knows but if they do thats a good sign.

Hope i helped.

If you check all previous post in the search area you will find out that many people are waiting for a long time.

Immigration is saying it takes up to 3 months, but depending on the location and period you apply it can take longer. There are cases it takes up to 8 months. When immigration accept or deny your application they will inform you accordingly. When immigration needs additional information than they will contact you.

All you can do is wait now

If you check all previous post in the search area you will find out that many people are waiting for a long time.

Immigration is saying it takes up to 3 months, but depending on the location and period you apply it can take longer. There are cases it takes up to 8 months. When immigration accept or deny your application they will inform you accordingly. When immigration needs additional information than they will contact you.

You cannot re-apply while your application is in process.
If your application is denied than you can re-apply after 6 months, unless you can proof your situation got better.

All you can do is wait now

I'm a spouse of a Japanese national and I had a very easy case, they did not need anything from us. Yet it took 5 months to complete.
They do seem to take longer these days.
I would wait at least 3 months before chasing. If you are using an agent to apply then go through them, but you will probably continue to get the in progress message unless something is wrong.
I understand how worrying it is, I was waiting 5 months with no reply or just an in progress response. It was a painful wait. Good luck to you and try not worry, in the case of Coe no news is literally good news until you get it.

Dear kvhees, my situation:

1. My Japanese national husband and I met each other in Oct 2017, registered for marriage at my country Apr 2019, applied for CoE Sep 2019 (since both of us are here, mother in law submitted for us in Nagoya)

2. I�fm currently pregnant and not working, our current rented place we are staying at here is soon to be due for renewal in Feb 2020, and if we do not head to Japan we intend to move out to a bigger place since we will have one more addition to our family.

Time is of essence now not just with regards to rental, but if we delay returning to Japan I might not be able to travel due to restrictions on length of pregnancy

3. As of Dec 12, it would have been 3 months since we submitted the application. We contacted the Japanese embassy here about a week back because we realised that for my nationality, I could have applied directly with them (just as what one forummer had mentioned before in past threads, �eFiras�f, not all nationalities need to apply for CoE).

Embassy replied saying our next step is to wait for CoE issuance and to bring documents down to embassy for spouse visa processing. Essentially did not answer our query, but there�fs nothing we could do about that.

4. No additional documents have been requested from us, but let�fs not use this to decide if it is a �egood�f or �ebad�f sign since we aren�ft from the bureau

My husband mentioned it could be the fact that many foreigners are applying for CoE (not just as spouses but for work and school purposes as well) so perhaps that�fs why it�fs taking longer than expected. Rest assured that many of us including silent readers of this forum are in the same situation of having to wait, it�fs painfully annoying (doesn�ft help that I�fm not working and have lots of time on hand, haha), and i will definitely update here if there was any news. Good luck! :)

Dear kvhees, my situation:

1. My Japanese national husband and I met each other in Oct 2017, registered for marriage at my country Apr 2019, applied for CoE Sep 2019 (since both of us are here, mother in law submitted for us in Nagoya)

2. I�fm currently pregnant and not working, our current rented place we are staying at here is soon to be due for renewal in Feb 2020, and if we do not head to Japan we intend to move out to a bigger place since we will have one more addition to our family.

Time is of essence now not just with regards to rental, but if we delay returning to Japan I might not be able to travel due to restrictions on length of pregnancy

3. As of Dec 12, it would have been 3 months since we submitted the application. We contacted the Japanese embassy here about a week back because we realised that for my nationality, I could have applied directly with them (just as what one forummer had mentioned before in past threads, �eFiras�f, not all nationalities need to apply for CoE).

Embassy replied saying our next step is to wait for CoE issuance and to bring documents down to embassy for spouse visa processing. Essentially did not answer our query, but there�fs nothing we could do about that.

4. No additional documents have been requested from us, but let�fs not use this to decide if it is a �egood�f or �ebad�f sign since we aren�ft from the bureau

My husband mentioned it could be the fact that many foreigners are applying for CoE (not just as spouses but for work and school purposes as well) so perhaps that�fs why it�fs taking longer than expected. Rest assured that many of us including silent readers of this forum are in the same situation of having to wait, it�fs painfully annoying (doesn�ft help that I�fm not working and have lots of time on hand, haha), and i will definitely update here if there was any news. Good luck! :)

Apologies for the double posting previously; just wanted to update that I finally got the certificate of eligibility today, just exactly on the last day of the third month timeframe. Mine is from Nagoya city hall, so maybe yours will come on the last day or so too prolly depending on where you submitted yours at, khvees! Best of luck!

don't worry, you'll get it soon. the waiting part really is the hardest. just be patient.