Re-applying for Spouse visa accepted in past

Hello all

Last year I had applied for the spouse visa and had it accepted, I ended up leaving Japan and having my visa void because I went to my home country due to my parents illness. I did inform the ward and did all the necessary paperwork before leaving but as I did not know whether I would return or when I would or not so I decided to have my residence card punched at the airport.

At that point my spouse and I had decided that we would move to my home country and stay with my family. After a few months they got much better so we decided to go back to japan to visit the spouses family. But now my country has put travel restrictions and my spouse cannot enter the country due to the corona virus. That means that if I leave japan to my home country we will be separated for goodness knows how long.

I cannot leave Japan to my home country because if I do due to travel restrictions I cannot leave the country to see my spouse.

So I want to re-apply for the spouse visa so we can stay together. Do I need to get the CoE again?
My tourist visa expires in about two weeks.

Please help, any advice!

If you actually plan to move back again to your home country, why not "simply" extending your tourist visa? (You cannot work on that, but you can remain in Japan). Due to Covid-19 Japan is allowing tourist visa extensions, apparently even without visiting the immigration office. Have a good look at the immigration web site as information is changing nearly daily.

This is the official source of info:
http://www.moj.go.jp/EN/nyuukokukanri/kouhou/m_nyuukokukanri01_00003.h...

Details under:
gMeasures to reduce congestion at the immigration counters in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19)h

So as of today (based on the announcement dated April 3) those whose resident status expire during March, April, May and June are getting extension for three months, as they are accepting late applications.

But if you are planning on staying in Japan for any extended time period, in the meantime youfd want to apply for gChange of Resident Statush (not apply for a gvisah – visa is for entering Japan, and you are in Japan right now) from Temporary Visitor to Spouse of Japanese National.

Possibly since you had a gspouse of Japanese nationalh status before, you might be able to get it again if you apply with current documents of your Japanese spouse.

See this thread discussing a similar issue:
https://www.japan-guide.com/forum/quereadisplay.html?0+172868

ok, I would very much rather to just extend the tourist visa as I want to move back to my home country with my husband asap. Do I have to go to immigration to get the additional 90 day extension? It seems really vague to me and I don't really understand as it's not clear enough for me.

It says; ''as a measure to reduce congestion at the immigration counters for residency applications, the immigration counters will be accepting applications to change the status of residence and applications to extend the period of stay from those foreign nationals''

But that seems contradictory. They want to avoid congestion yet they are accepting applications at the counter? It's confusing for me.

It goes on to say "In order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Please avoid to visit us unless you are in
hurry". A hurry? Does that apply to me as my visa expires in only two weeks, yet the usual application processing time for extension is one month?

It doesn't really specifically say 'due to covid-19 all temporary visitor visas will be automatically extended 90 days, to avoid congestion it is unnecessary for you to come to our counters' or something along those lines. So it's just really confused me more, but the fact that (i think that) the 90 days extension is an option I'm so grateful.

I will ask my in-laws to read the japanese version in a few days. Maybe it would be more clear.

If you could specify exactly what this means that would be so great. But you've helped so much already so it's not necessary thank you so much for your time!

The way I read it (I am Japanese), reading from the Japanese page, since they say for those whose resident status expire in March, April, May, and June, they will accept applications for extension or change of resident status until 3 months after their expiry date, they are in effect allowing you to go up to 3 months beyond the current expiry date.
http://www.moj.go.jp/content/001315947.pdf

(Please ask your in-laws to read the above in Japanese.)