Spouse Visa, advice

I am in the the process of marrying a Japanese woman and obtain a spouse visa. I have been in Japan for more than 7 years, professor visa, Student visa, then professor visa, which expires early April. Currently, we live in different prefectures, in fact I will join her when we marry, my current job runs till March ending. I am likely to send my application to immigration late and probably they will not finish processing it before March ends. However they say, one should submit the application to an office where the applicant intends to have an address.

1).Is it possible to submit my application to the prefecture I live now? Knowing that I will not be in the prefecture when the result comes.
2) Or will it be better to apply in the new prefecture after I moved? In fact, I would prefer this method but the moving date will only be 1 day away from the day my current Visa expires, may be too late.
3) It is possible to "move" before I actually move? that is to change my residence to that of the new prefecture but then stay a few weeks in the old prefecture? Remember, I live here alone, and I have to inform city hall I am moving. Is it therefore illegal to come back and stay a few more weeks? I don't wanto do anything illegal.
Your responses will be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance

- First of all, when are you getting married? I'm asking because you say you join her when you marry. I want to be sure that you will be married before the current visa expires, because there is no "fiance" visa for Japan.
- As long as you get married (meaning with all documents in place) before you apply, and apply for visa status change and have it accepted before the current visa expires, it's OK :)

- 3) would not be outright illegal, but comes close to a false statement, so I would not recommend it.
- If you do 1), then you will have to go back to the previous prefecture to pick up the visa.

- Since you will be living with your Japanese wife in the new prefecture, it would be natural to do it as in 2). But are you sure that you can get all the documents together and apply on the day of your move? That sounds very busy, considering you have to move, go to city hall to report the address change, get your papers and go to Immigration on the same day?

- You need to submit your Japanese wife's "koseki" with her marriage to you stated in it, and her "juminhyo" preferably with your name also appearing there as "de facto head of household." (See the link below to find out exactly what documents you need to take). So all those paperwork has to be done in order for your application to be accepted.

- Take into consideration that it looks "nicer" to Immigration if the two of you appear together at Immigration office to apply. There could be question about why you've had different addresses, etc., so in that case it is better that the couple goes together. So (I know this is not a requirement at all but) arrange to do that if you can.

About application for change of status of residence:
http://www.moj.go.jp/ONLINE/IMMIGRATION/16-2.html
For spouse of Japanese national, there seems to be a questionnaire document (one I haven't seen before) about when and where you met, and all that.

Equivalent page in English, somewhat abridged:
http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/english/tetuduki/kanri/shyoru...

Thanks AK for your time, detailed response and your suggestions. We will get married in the third week of February. I have to wait for some documents to come from my country (what a pain, some kind of affidavit “competence to marry”, my consulate doesn’t issue it directly, it must come from home).
Affidavit-Attestation at the embassy-City hall of her city to register marriage-obtain koseki-have to register the marriage at embassy-and include that information in the visa application form.

Yes there is a lot of paper work and we are working on it to supply all the info. Yes, that questionnaire is an 8-page form, detailing the relationship and more.

Unfortunately, my embassy requires that we both appear in person at the embassy to sign, for the registration and that will also delay things a little, she will come from Fukuoka to Tokyo, I am in Gunma.

It may be difficult for her (she is working) to come here for the registration at embassy and then again during the visa application submission, if I do 1). We will see. I don’t really mind going back the old prefecture to pick up. Not sure if it allowed to use the new address on the notification post card.

Yes I agree 2) is the best way. I hope I can move a few days earlier so it wouldn’t be too busy as you rightly pointed out.

By “…-As long as you get married (meaning with all documents in place) before you apply, and apply for visa status change and have it accepted before the current visa expires, it's OK…”
Do you mean the change be accepted or the application be accepted? If I do 2) I will apply before the current one expires but I am afraid the processing may not be completed before the current one expires. I hear so long as you apply and it is indicated as such in your passport you can stay even after expiration while they process the application. Am I wrong?

Oh there is this website (in Japanese) which details the requirements (never found in English), if it helps somebody else, http://www.moj.go.jp/ONLINE/IMMIGRATION/ZAIRYU_HENKO/za...

...I meant the "application" be accepted, so you should be fine :)

I hope you get through all the procedurs smoothly. When we applied for my husband's change of status (I'm Japanese national) we had already gotten married outside Japan so we went through the marriage procedures elsewhere, but those processes can be daunting...

Thanks again for your time. Yes the proecess is really involving but we are gathering the pieces and making them ready.

It will be 3) or if I can get some few days off, it will be 2), prefered.

Thanks again.

Reading your post again, as you will be already married in Feb., you have a month to take care of things, so you could simply proceed to apply for your Spouse visa then. Part of my concern if you did 1) was that Immigration might ask you why you are living separately, but if you have that questionnaire filled out about where you met, where you live now, etc., that should resolve any question. Maybe even in that questionnaire, there is some place where you can mention your future address where you will live together after March. And since that questionnaire does contain a lot of information about the two of you, maybe your future wife doesn't even have to concerned about showing up at all upon application. (When we did the change of status, that questionnaire was not required - and I wanted to be on standby with him.)

It's then a matter of when Immigration will be ready with the result, and what address you should put on that return postcard; you could tell them it's going to be address A until the end of March, and address B if it's any later, and see what they say. You could use address A (the current one) and make sure you report the address change as of March-end, so the mail gets forwarded to the new address properly.

In any case, whichever you decide, I hope things work out as smoothly as possibly can, because getting married and moving and everything together does occupy you a lot! :)

Thanks again for your help, can't thank you enough.

Yes, we could proceed to apply for visa right away but we have to register the marriage at my embassy (requires the presence of both wife and husband) and she can come in the middle of March. If we can complete the registration on the same day at my embassy, I guess we can submit the visa application in Tokyo on the same day together. I hope that works. Why living separately, I think for this I can present my contract award letter, which states that the contract ends in March. I was in her prefecture for more than 5 years, I didn't mention but we do have a child, hope that also makes the application stronger. Yes, I will strongly consider the address A or B idea, if they agree fine, if not then we rely on post office people to forward to the new address.

Thanks again AK and God bless you.