Changing From Work Visa to Spousal Visa

Hello there,

I am Zimbabwean and I recently got married to my wife who is South African, but we don't share the same family name on our passports as well as our national identity documents yet.

We got married in August last year but didn't have time to change her name to mine before darting back to work here in Japan.

My wife and I are currently living and working in Japan on work visas. We are expecting a baby and would like to change the status of my wife's residency here in Japan in order to get her onto a spousal visa.

I was wondering if anyone could advise me on how we should inform the Japanese immigration bureau of our marriage and how we go about changing her visa status.

I would greatly appreciate any assistance in the matter.

Kind regards,

Kumbi

First of all, congratulations on your marriage.

So you are Zimbabwean and your wife is South African, and each of you are on your own work resident status, and are working in Japan.

As far as I know, you should inform city hall of the fact that you got married, so that the marriage can be noted on your resident system record. (Whether you change your family names to either is up to you and your customs.)
So you got married according to c Zimbabwean law? Then you should bring the marriage certificate from your (or your wifefs) country, have it translated into Japanese, and take it to the city hall. The city hall will record the marriage into your record after-the-fact. (But be sure to check in advance with the city hall exactly what documents you need, such as your passports.)

Just one thing – your wife will be eligible to change her status to gdependent,h not gspousal.h This is because when we say gspouseh status, it usually means gspouse of Japanese national.h If your wife has her own work visa, I donft see any reason why she should change from work to gdependent.h

As previous poster mention,

since both of you are foreigner, for immigration purpose , it is 'Dependent' not 'Spouse'.

Since your wife is on 'working' status, changing to 'Dependent' status will greatly reduce her stay benefit.
Dependent status is not allow to work unless they apply/obtain Permission to Engage in Other Activities, and then can only work up to 28hours per week.

So it is best for your wife to keep her current 'work' status.
Unless your wife plan to quit her job, then change status to Dependent is the next course.

You should check/consult directly with cityhall and immigration related to marriage notification/registration.

Hello there,

Thank you for the clarification in relation to the above-mentioned terms.

To answer your first question we got married in South Africa.

Secondly, the only reason why we are even considering changing her status or mine to that effect is that we are expecting a child in May and would like one of us to raise the child till he/she is at least 2 years old. Then after that my wife or I will revert our status back to a working visa.

Nonetheless, thank you so much for your help. At least now I have a better understanding of the difference between spouse and dependant.

Kind regards

K