Moving out from Japan and then back again

Hello!

This post is kind of a two-parter; first a question of what to think about when moving out from Japan, and then about things to think about when moving back to Japan.

I live in Sweden and my fiancée lives in Japan, but we're planning to move in together.
Together we decided we'll live in Sweden, at least to begin with. So we already have an active application with the Swedish migration agency since the beginning of the year (there's a long waiting time and the pandemic is probably not helping).

So my first question is if anyone has any experience about moving out from Japan, and tips about things for her/us to think about?
Of course there are things such as quitting work, cancelling contracts and needing to send in some forms about taxes and address change etc.
Does anyone know more exactly what the procedure is like?
Or general tips about things that are easy to miss, like... "Don't forget this" or "do X before doing Y, it will help a lot"?

My second question is, let's imagine we live in Sweden for 1-2 years and get married, and then decide we want to live in Japan together instead - Does anyone have experience about anything similar, and what it is like or good tips about things to think about?
I guess it'll at least be easier to do before she becomes a Swedish citizen.
Does she have to move back to Japan first to "invite" me?
Or, because she's still a Japanese citizen, can I just apply for a spouse visa and when it gets accepted we can start to look for apartments and jobs in Japan?

Speculation and personal stories are welcome!

I guess it'll at least be easier to do before she becomes a Swedish citizen.
Then she will not be a Japanese citizen - she can't be dual citizen, so "spouse of a Japanese National" will no longer apply. And if you do the spouse visa first, and then she swaps citizenship, then neither of you will have the right to live in Japan (unless you both get some other resident status).

Thanks for the input! Yes, we definitely have to make a decision before changing any citizenship because otherwise it can become very difficult, as you said.

You don�ft have to worry about �gcitizenship�h yet – after you get married, you can apply for visa as �gspouse of Japanese national�h for Japan, and probably she will be eligible for something similar for Sweden, I don�ft know if you call it �gresident status�h or �gresidency permit�h or something else, but that is something either of you can get without changing your citizenship (passport).

I am Japanese, married to my continental European husband, and when we used to live in the UK, I got a resident permit In the UK as the spouse of EU national living there (OK, this was before Brexit). Now we live in Japan, and my husband had his �gspouse of Japanese national�h resident status for some years, after which he applied for �gpermanent resident�h status for Japan, which he has now, without changing his citizenship/nationality.

It sounds like you already went through a similar situation as what I might be doing in the (near?) future!
When changing countries and then back again, did you run into any problems, or complications because things like "I wish I knew this earlier" for example?

Just make sure you know the procedures, what documents are needed, and be sure about what you want to do.
Also I would suggest looking into the documents and procedures if you decide to get married (1) in Sweden, or (2) in Japan. Also about different kind of visas - for example, Japan does not have any fiance visa (you need to be married to be eligible for a family/relation-based visa). It might be different in Sweden.
At one point in time when we lived in the UK for a while, we sought the help of an immigration lawyer to be sure about the requirements for spouse�f resident permit. Best wishes.

Thanks for taking your time to share and for your suggestions!
Indeed, in order to apply for a visa to Japan we need to be married first, which is one of the reasons to why we will start off in Sweden since we didn't have a chance to get married yet.
As for the application itself we are pretty much set (I hope). Just waiting for being called to an interview and hoping for approval.
While Japan does not have a fiance visa, the Swedish counterpart does not require marriage even though that of course may increase the chances for an approval. It's even the same application form to apply for either spouse or cohabiting partner etc.
That said, the application is still very strict and contains many questions to validify the relationship.

If I may ask, could you apply for your husbands "spouse visa" while both of you still were in the UK, or did you need to move back to Japan first?
While the Swedish application could be made online, she still had to do it from Japan. That's why I'm curious whether you had to live in Japan to be able to "invite" him, or for formal reasons.

In our case, the situation was a bit different that my case would not help you with your question: we got married while being in the UK (so I got my resident permit there then), but he got hired by the London branch of a Japanese company, who wanted him to come to Japan to work, and they applied for a certificate of eligibility for him from Japan (somehow they never thought about his eligibility as �gspouse�h), and he got the work visa based on that. So we returned to Japan on that visa, and only after being in Japan for some years, we changed it to �gspouse of Japanese national�h status (a different story).

Try reading this blog entry, he helps me a lot with my spouse Coe. He and is Japanese wife were both outside of Japan when they applied. Your marriage will also have to be registered in Japan to be able to apply. I think the blog mentions how to do that.

http://www.transenzjapan.com/blog/certificate-of-eligibility-spouse-vi...

There are two different ways to do that by the way:

About reporting your marriage:
Assuming you get married in Sweden, there are two different ways to report that Swedish law based marriage to the Japanese authorities: either through the Embassy of Japan in Sweden, or she returning to Japan and reports it to her local city hall. (Either way is fine.)

About applying for either visa or resident status as spouse of Japanese:
- While you stay in Sweden, she goes back to Japan, she applies for certificate of eligibility for you, then once she gets it in Japan, she sends it over to you, you take it to the Embassy of Japan in Sweden, and get the visa, and then use that to enter japan. (This is the �gofficial�h way, as it seems.)
Or
- (If Temporary Visa Waiver is available to Swedish nationals) you two together travel to Japan (you as Temporary Visitor), you apply for �gchange of resident status (from Temporary Visitor to Spouse of Japanese National)�h while staying in Japan.

Shelly - That link will certainly be helpful when we get married no matter where we will keep living, thanks a lot!

AK - Thank you once again for sharing! These kinds of things are always good to know beforehand to be a bit mentally prepared for what kind of challgenges/opportunities that may arise, even if it's probably a couple of years away.
Of course we'll have to revisit the rules when/if the time comes to make sure we're up to date with any changes.
We'll see what happens first... approval of our current application, or possible to start normal traveling again.