Permanent Residency after only One Year (Possible?)

[gulfshores2023]

Hello,

I saw this on Japan-Dev.com, "As I explained, spouses of Japanese citizens or permanent residents become eligible after 3 years of marriage and one year of living in Japan." https://japan-dev.com/blog/how-to-get-p ... e-in-japan

Really? My wife is Japanese, and we've been married for 22 years (2 in Japan, then 20 here in the US). If I move to Japan on my own (she can't quit her job right now), and lived in Japan for 1 year, could I then apply for Permanent Residency? Not sure which visa I would have for that year, but I might be able to teach English and go that route, or possibly a Spouse Visa and her one of her relatives in Kobe be my sponsor, or maybe a student visa which allows Americans to work 28 hours per week at some random arubaito.

But the fundamental question of this post is this, REALLY?! Could I apply for PR after only living in Japan for 1 year? Seems too good to be true.

Thank You,
-Robert

[captainspoke]

Well, while the article does a rather weak job with the specifics of getting PR (it seems it's trying to hype that for clicks/eyeballs), there are some details included.

As you might guess, being a student or an english teacher won't get you there at all quickly. Even as a spouse, I think the minimum stay to start the process is 5 years (contiguous, so those 2yrs long ago don't count).

[Deep Blue]

If you meet the a certain number of points requirements for Highly Skilled Professional visa then you can apply after a year in Japan.

[Beaglehound]

Well, while the article does a rather weak job with the specifics of getting PR (it seems it's trying to hype that for clicks/eyeballs), there are some details included.

As you might guess, being a student or an english teacher won't get you there at all quickly. Even as a spouse, I think the minimum stay to start the process is 5 years (contiguous, so those 2yrs long ago don't count).

You can definitely go the spouse route to PR with the criteria the OP mentions. I did it with a long marriage plus a couple of years here. One is enough though. However, the OP’s plan has a bit of a credibility gap if his spouse isn’t with him. They want to see proof of employment, pension payments, residence tax for your spouse too. Not sure how that would work if said spouse is overseas.

[adamu]

That article has clearly been written using https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/Permanent_residency as a reference. I'm disappointed that they have not cited it according to the cc-by-sa licence agreement. Will send them an email. Incidentally this is exactly the type of article that motivated me to make the wiki in the first place. The information in blog form generally goes out of date and is not updated, and the main motivation is not to provide information to the readers, but to generate traffic and boost search rankings to ultimately improve the site's revenue. At least the write-up is pretty good. If only they had linked back to the source, or, you know, signed up to the wiki and improved it.

To answer the question: yes, it is true, but as the others said, coming here without your wife is a huge grey area that I suspect would make a successful application very difficult.

[zeroshiki]

I have always heard it was 10 years even for spouse but the MOJ does have this (exceptions to the 10 year rule)

https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/publications/ ... kan50.html

（１）日本人、永住者及び特別永住者の配偶者の場合、実体を伴った婚姻生活が３年以上継続し、かつ、引き続き１年以上本邦に在留していること。その実子等の場合は１年以上本邦に継続して在留していること

Unless there's some specific usage of words there that's normal, it is saying you can apply for PR with 3 years of marriage and 1 year in Japan.

I assume this means you live with your wife IN JAPAN for that 1 year though.

[gulfshores2023]

I agree that there is a credibility issue. Since my wife is not going to be with me, I think the Japanese authorities would not approve it. I mean, she is going to be there when I arrive, for a week, and will visit every other month or so, but it's not the same. She can't even be my sponsor for my spouse visa, even though she is my spouse, bc she doesn't live in Japan. Eventually, I will get the PR, it's just the path that I haven't figured out yet. I will hire an attorney to guide me once we are ready.

[gulfshores2023]

Right, I don't actually want a PR to start with. I just saw the post about getting it after only 1 year and thought it was really interesting, and maybe even possible, and knew that someday, it will be something I would want to do, and having it, there are advantages.

If my wife does not travel with me (she only gets a few weeks of vacation per year and my job is really flexible, I can take up to 3 months off), then the most likely visa in the beginning would just be a tourist visa, which allows me 90 days to scout, explore, make connections, reestablish relationships with her extended family, interview language schools, view some properties, etc. I would do those things, and then return to the US and work another 9 months, and repeat the next year. But on a tourist visa I cannot work, not even remotely, and Americans do NOT qualify for a working holiday. That's not good, no income for 3 months, plus travel expenses.

Getting a spouse visa, from what I've been told, might be difficult for me since I will be on my own, and I won't be able to have her as my "sponsor". Apparently, a sponsor is important in Japan. So if I don't have a spouse visa, I cannot work. That's what led me to think about ways in which I could legally work in Japan, even for short term stays (90 days, 6 months, and maybe even a year). One way is to sign up to teach English, and get a work visa that way, but I'm not sure my family would want me to be gone for 1 whole year starting in January 2024. It's a bit much, right now. Another option, which I've been considering anyway, is to join a Japanese Language Institute. If you sign up for a 6 month course, which I would LOVE (I'm only between N4 and N3 now), then you have the legal right to work up to 28 hours per week. I could teach, work at a pub, be a tour guide, whatever I can find, and that job would really be helpful for me, to use my Japanese in the real world. This is all prep for RETIRING in Japan.

Now, if we go back to my original post, which suggested there might be a way to get PR in only 1 year, you can see how that might be really useful in my situation.

[gulfshores2023]

Thanks for the help on this topic everyone!

[RetireJapan]

The spousal visa can be adapted to visa for specific purposes, which might be working in English teaching for example.

Just to be clear, a spouse visa has no restrictions on employment.