To hire a lawyer or not (Spouse Visa)

Hi all,

Sorry if this question has already been asked, tried using the search function but couldn't find anything useful. Also; since some of you might have new experiences, I thought I'd ask. My fiancé (Japanese) and I(Dutch) are soon going to marry and we're going to apply for a spouse Visa. We're now wondering whether or not we should hire a lawyer for this process. I understand that this makes things easier; but it'll cost. Based on your guys' experience, does the lawyer's help outweigh the cost? Or is it perfectly doable on our own?

We're both uni graduates, have a job ( me quitting of-course ) and have savings. Not sure if that'll help in your judgment but nevertheless. Looking forward to your answers. Thanks for reading my query!

Just to share our experience (though from years ago): All done without any lawyer. Continental European and Japanese couple. Got married in the UK, brought our UK marriage certificate with us to Japan, reported the marriage in Japan, my spouse initially came on an employer-sponsored work visa, which we changed to spouse status later due to circumstances. Renewed several times, got PR status a few years back.

The process is not complicated, once you know what the requirements are and what documents are needed. Your spouse-to-be can look up things.
Where it might be useful is (just in my opinion) in order to get some suggestions on the prospects (like which law you should get married under/where, which path might be better suited to you under the current circumstances – CoE or change of status -, what kind of financial guarantor might be required – which seems to be more important recently -, how long of a wait you might expect if you apply from Europe, etc.)

Just sharing our experiences. Others can contribute with more recent experiences I hope. Best wishes.

Hey KA,

Thanks so much for your reply! I appreciate the information. Right: that's what I thought too. As long as either of us does research on exactly what is needed there shouldn't be too much trouble I'd think. Of course this is just speculation but It's nice to hear from you that you've went ahead and gone through the process without a lawyer.

To add some information for any potential information-adders; waiting time for the CoE doesn't really matter since I'm planning to work for at least a year more here in my country to increase my (and my fiance's) net-worth. Since my fiance has a permanent contract, savings + my savings i'm not really worried about anything related to financial guarantees (hope that isn't short-sighted). We're pretty much set on the idea to get married in Japan and handle all processes from there; so my spouse will be initiating everything from that side of the pond.

We've been together for 3+ years; have lived together for a year (not officially, as in registered at the municipal- but more of me just living somewhere and her always being over). My best friend in Japan introduced me to her initially so he and one of my fiance's best friends will be our "witnesses". I'm not sure what else to add. I work in the IT field so I've thought of moving to Japan and then finding a job in the field ( not sure how realistic that is, but I believe in my skills ).

If I've missed anything, please do let me know. Thanks again for your reply AK and any potential future posters :)

It’s AK again. Reading your thoughts, some more thoughts come to mind.

It sounds like - if your spouse-to-be has been working in Japan full-time, then you won’t have a financial guarantor issue. If you have been together for 3 years or so (and maybe have photos to show) that should also prove that the marriage is genuine (those are two things that the immigration cares about AFAIK - financial stability, and genuine marriage). So that sounds fine.

Are you in Japan currently? If not, are you going to just visit Japan and get married, then return to your country to do the CoE/visa process? It’s those things that matter, and where you might possibly seek professional advise (not necessarily to have all the process done by them on your behalf).

- If you are going to quit your work, come to Japan (COVID-19 permitting of course) under Temporary Visitor arrangement, then get married, then apply for a change of your status from Temporary Visitor to Spouse, in recent years the immigration authorities have gotten strict with any change from Temporary Visitor in-country to longer term resident status. (I don’t know exactly how that is handled currently.)

- If you just come to visit (again COVID-19 permitting), get married, then return to your country, your spouse applies for CoE, while you continue your work, then how long that takes would matter because there is a validity period to CoE/visa during which you need to enter Japan using it.

It is those timing issues and the immigration authorities’ (sometimes changing) attitudes/rules where you could possibly seek advise.
Again I am not exactly familiar with the recent situation, so I hope someone else would come to share their experiences too.

Hey AK,

Thanks so much for your time once again, I appreciate it! Photos will definitely not be a problem; her and me have travelled with and without her family so next to regular pictures together we also have pictures of those events. Not sure how much legitimacy it adds but yeah.

I think one of the main things I'm seeking an answer for is related to my current whereabouts. As of now I'm not in Japan so we've thought about several ways to get married. We were originally planning on getting married in Japan, together, and then starting the Visa procedure but of course, COVID-19 happened. We did some research and decided that it'd be best if I collected all documents needed for marriage and send it to her, and she marries alone at the city hall ( sounds really depressing, proxy marriage ). We've called and asked and this should be possible, especially due to COVID. But just to be sure we'll call again and reaffirm.

After we've married, my fiancé will start the VISA procedure and once the COE has been obtained I will have 3 months to have it consumed in exchange for a VISA and 1~2 more months to get my 在留カード. Since I'd have a VISA from that point onwards, I wouldn't have any problems entering Japan, correct? ( of course as long as the covid situation doesn't worsen )

I never really thought about partial professional advice; but in-case my plan sounds sane, I'd love to give it a shot.

Hi, someone correct me if I am wrong but I am also someone who got married to a Japanese man, got a COE from outside of Japan then got a visa and entered Japan. Assuming no corona restrictions, I'm not sure if it is different by country but I am pretty sure once your Coe is granted that you have 3 months to enter Japan, you don't get an extra 1-2 more months on top of the 3 months once you get a visa, you have to get a visa and enter Japan within the 3 months.

Apologies if I am wrong (or if I read your post wrong) but this is what I had to do so just putting it out there in case it messes with your plans. Someone else can probably confirm for sure...

Hi Shelly,

Thanks so much for the heads-up, that's definitely good to know! Would love to get more confirmations on that! Did you guys marry together in Japan?

Just to add a bit more information for the thread - my ex used a specalist lawyer when she did her change of status to "spouse". To give an idea, the fee was 130k, and with taxes and a few other bits it came to a total of 153k. She was already in Japan (work visa) and married, so it was simply a change of status.
They could probably have done it themselves without too much trouble, but it only took nine weeks start to finish (approval), and they didn't have to spend time getting all the right bits and pieces together. Also, they did get some good advice about what to include/exclude on the various forms/questionnaires. I recall that helped them a lot.
There are other threads about using professional help for visa/status of residence and other services, but I do not often people ask themselves "what is the cost/impact of getting it wrong?" In my case, I am pretty happy to pay for expert advice for my visa renewals if the potential fallout is getting kicked out of the country, and effectively having my business/livelihood destroyed because of that. In your case, probably not as high risk.

hi again

yes i got married japan, returned to the uk while my husband applied for coe in japan.

once he got my coe he posted it to me and i went to the japan embassy in london to applt for visa.

once i got the visa the embassy staff pointed to the expiry date on the coe which they stapled in my passport and said, "you need to enter japan by this date"
i was like whaaat? i only get 3 months to tie everything up!!
i'm pretty sure i done digging on the internet at that time and confirmed it was true and made sure i entered japan time.

Hi Shelly, Tours,

Thanks again for the replies. Appreciate the heads up once again on the 3 month time-window. I will now also consider what it means to have my application rejected, I guess that in my case it'd also be critical since at that point I would have already quit my job so it's an all or nothing situation really. Thank you for bringing that up!