Questions worth asking first

At birth, yes -- nationality follows the parents, not the place, so a child with a Japanese parent is Japanese wherever they are born. But it can be lost by doing nothing. Where the child also acquires a foreign nationality at birth, the birth must be registered within three months together with a declaration reserving Japanese nationality — written into the "other" column of the birth registration and signed. Miss that and the child loses Japanese nationality retroactively to the date of birth (国籍法12条, 戸籍法 (family register act)104条). It can be reacquired later by declaration, but only while the child is under 18 and resident in Japan — which means first obtaining a status of residence for them, on a certificate of eligibility, from outside Japan. A three-month form becomes a three-month application plus a visa.

The paperwork. Under the Civil Code a marriage takes effect when the 婚姻届 (marriage registration notification) is accepted, so the date on the family register is the date of filing, not the date of any ceremony. The two are often months apart. Forms ask for the registration date; the questionnaire is where a ceremony belongs. Writing the wedding date where the registration date is asked for is one of the most common inconsistencies in a bundle.

Principally a 婚姻要件具備証明書 (certificate of legal capacity to marry) — a certificate from their own country's embassy or authority confirming they are legally free to marry under their national law — together with a Japanese translation naming the translator. Municipalities also commonly ask for a birth certificate and proof of nationality, each with a translation. The translator may be one of the parties, provided they sign the translation.

You no longer get one, and this changed recently enough that most guides are wrong. The United States has never issued a 婚姻要件具備証明書 (certificate of legal capacity to marry) in the way most countries do — there is no US equivalent of a family register, so there is nothing to certify from. The workaround used for years was a sworn Affidavit of Competency to Marry, notarised at the Embassy or a consulate. Effective 1 September 2025 the Embassy and consulates stopped notarising it. In its place they publish a downloadable letter — the 'Letter in Lieu of Marriage Affidavit' — which you print and present at the city or ward office to show that the US government does not issue such a certificate. It cites the diplomatic note sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in June 2025. The Embassy also notes that if your municipal office insists on a notarised document, you may be able to use a remote notary service offered by some US states. Check with that specific office first — practice varies between municipalities.

Longer than the figure everyone quotes. The application page states a standard period of one to three months, and almost every guide repeats it. The Agency also publishes what it actually measured, month by month and status by status: for 日本人の配偶者等 (spouse or child of a japanese national) that was 111.5 days in both May and June 2026 -- about three and a half months. The measured figure runs from receipt to notification and includes any days spent waiting for documents the office asked for. It excludes refusals and withdrawals, so it is the average for cases that succeeded. Plan on four months. The couples who come unstuck are the ones who gave notice on a flat, resigned a job, or booked a one-way flight against ninety days. Most published resources will ordinarily mention a few months but do not be surprised if it takes several months or more.

Not since 2022. During the pandemic the Agency extended validity to six months, and a great deal of guidance still says so. Certificates created on or after 1 August 2022 are valid for three months from the date of creation, and the Agency stated in the same notice that it would not extend validity again. Two things follow. The clock starts on the date printed on the certificate, not the day it reached you abroad -- posting can take a fortnight of it. And landing has to happen inside the window, not merely the visa application.

Yes, but not indefinitely. Where an application is pending when the period of stay expires, you may remain until the decision or until two months after the expiry date, whichever comes first. That is the 特例期間 (special period). The two months run from the expiry printed on the residence card, not from the day you filed. Filing late does not extend it -- it eats into it. Given the measured processing times for this status, that is the practical argument for filing in the first weeks of the window, which opens about three months before expiry.

No, and conflating them is a genuine way to run out of time. The Certificate of Eligibility is valid three months from the date it is issued, and what must happen inside that window is the landing application — not the visa application. The visa has its own separate three months, counted from the day after it is issued, and it cannot be extended. So the certificate's clock starts in Japan, the visa's clock starts at the embassy, and they overlap rather than coincide.

From about three months before your period of stay expires, if you hold a period of six months or more. If your period is three months or less, you can file once roughly half of it has elapsed. Filing late puts you out of status, which is much harder to repair than filing early.

No, provided you filed before expiry. The law lets you continue to stay until the decision is made or two months from the expiry date, whichever comes first. This is the 特例期間 (grace period during examination). It is not an indefinite cushion, and it only exists because you filed in time.

No. A Japanese mission will refuse to accept a visa application while a Certificate of Eligibility application is still pending. Wait for the certificate to be issued and sent abroad. Relatedly, if a visa application has been refused, a fresh application for the same purpose within six months will also be refused acceptance.

Nothing went wrong. The published form itself is four pages, and the second is a chart showing which version of parts 2 to 4 to use for each purpose of entry. It is printed with the form as guidance and carries the note 「このシートは提出する必要は ありません」 ("this sheet does not need to be submitted") (there is no need to submit this sheet). The ISA's own PDF edition of the form has exactly the same four pages. For a spouse case, what is filed is part 1, part 2 T and part 3 T — the sheets marked T are the ones for 「日本人の配偶者等 (spouse or child of a japanese national)」 (Spouse or Child of Japanese National). Take the selection chart out of the bundle before you go to the counter, or simply do not print it.

It depends on the route, and this is the single most common misunderstanding. For a Certificate of Eligibility, yes — the law appoints a relative living in Japan as the applicant's representative, which is exactly how a spouse files while the applicant is still abroad. For a change of status or a renewal, no. There is no representative on those routes: the applicant must appear at the immigration office in person. The spouse's role there is guarantor. A spouse can come along, but that is not the same as filing.

No. The Agency states plainly that the Certificate of Eligibility application is not accepted by post, and the in-Japan routes require personal appearance by statute. Online filing is the alternative to attending, not the post.

Partly, and the limits are not obvious. All four procedures exist in the online system, and a Japanese spouse holding a My Number Card can file a Certificate of Eligibility application online themselves. But a spouse cannot file a change of status or a renewal online on the applicant's behalf — only the applicant, a legal representative, or an accredited lawyer or 行政書士 (administrative scrivener) can, unless the applicant is under 16 or unable to apply through illness. Filing online also reduces the fee by 500 yen.

For a Certificate of Eligibility, the bureau covering the address the couple intend to live at in Japan — the Agency's wording is 居住予定地, the intended place of residence, not "wherever the Japanese spouse happens to be registered", though in practice these are usually the same. For a change of status or renewal, the bureau covering the applicant's registered address.

Not any more. Since 1 April 2025 it is 6,000 yen at a window and 5,500 yen if you file online. The same applies to a renewal. The 4,000 yen figure is still printed across most guides and blog posts because it was correct for years, and it now applies only to applications received on or before 31 March 2025.

It was, until 1 July 2026. A single-entry visa is now approximately 15,000 yen and a multiple-entry visa approximately 30,000 yen, paid in local currency. Both the old and new fee pages are still live on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs site and the old one still ranks well in search, which is why the stale figure keeps circulating. Nothing is charged if the visa is refused.

Nothing. Neither the Certificate of Eligibility nor the acquisition-of-status application carries a fee. Only change of status and renewal do, and only when permission is granted — a refusal costs nothing.

No. The whole point of submitting it is that it shows the marriage, and the marriage only appears once the 婚姻届 (marriage registration notification) has been accepted and processed. A copy issued before that shows nothing relevant. Obtain it after registration — and note it can take one to two weeks after filing for the entry to appear, especially if the register is held at a different municipality from where you filed.

No. A family register is only ever compiled for a Japanese national. The marriage is recorded in the Japanese spouse's register, along with the foreign spouse's name, date of birth and nationality. That entry is the proof of the marriage — there is no separate document for the foreign spouse to obtain. As a spouse, the foreign national does have a statutory right to request a copy of that register.

That is the default, not an error. By law the municipality omits the relationship (続柄) and the registered domicile (本籍) unless you specifically ask for them. Ask for a copy showing the whole household (世帯全員), with 続柄 (relationship to the head of household) and 本籍 included. A copy showing only one person does not evidence that the couple live together, which is the reason it is being submitted.

That usually means the income was below the taxable threshold, so there is no tax to certify as paid. The office will issue a 非課税証明書 (certificate of non-taxation) instead. Submit that, and be ready to show how the household is actually supported — savings, the other spouse's income, family support. Do not leave the gap unexplained; an examiner who cannot see how you live will ask.

Not according to the Agency's own document list. The questionnaire, the foreign marriage certificate and the evidence of your interaction as a couple are listed for the certificate, change and acquisition routes — not for a straightforward renewal. An office can always ask for more, but you do not start by preparing it.

No. That box is marked 氏名（自筆）— written in your own hand. It is a signature field, and a printed name there is a common reason the document is handed back at the counter. The same applies to the applicant's signature and the date of preparation on part 3 of the application form, which the form itself marks 自署 (signed in one's own hand). This software leaves all three blank on purpose.

This is common and it is not a dead end. The Agency's own Q&A addresses it: where the home country will not issue a certificate because the marriage was registered in Japan, submit a written explanation in your own words setting out the circumstances, in place of the certificate. There is no form for it. Say which authority you approached and what they told you.

As a rule, no. The law only permits a change from 短期滞在 (Temporary Visitor) where there are compelling special grounds, and the Agency states plainly that it is not normally allowed. The expected route is to leave, have your Japanese spouse file a Certificate of Eligibility application in Japan, and return on the visa issued against it. Marrying on a tourist entry is perfectly lawful; it just does not shorten the immigration route.

No. This status carries no restriction on the kind of work you may do, so no permission to engage in activity outside your status is required. That is also why leaving the employment box on the application blank is unremarkable — many incoming spouses have no job arranged, and it is not a problem.

It can. A spouse-status holder who for six months or more does not carry on activities as a spouse is liable to have the status revoked, unless there is a justifiable reason. Separation pending reconciliation, living apart for work, or caring for a relative can be justifiable; simply no longer living as a married couple generally is not. Note this is a separate rule from the notification duty: you must notify the Agency within 14 days of a divorce or the death of a spouse, and separation alone does not trigger that notification.

The Agency publishes nine worked refusal cases, two of them on this status. Neither turns on income. One was refused because the Japanese spouse declared an address the couple did not live at; the other was a post-divorce application after a short period of residence with little to show for it. The pattern is consistent with everything else here: refusals are driven by statements that do not match the record, not by failing a threshold. Note the Agency does not publish refusal rates by status, so anyone quoting a percentage for spouse visas is estimating.

There is no published figure, and anyone quoting one as a rule is inventing it. The test is whether the household can live in Japan without public assistance. In practice offices examine modest incomes more closely, and the answer to a low income is never to inflate it — the tax certificate states the real number and is compared against the form. Widen the evidence instead: savings, housing that is owned or provided by family, a job offer with a start date, or a relative formally recorded as meeting the expenses.

Register the address at the municipal office within 14 days of settling, taking the residence card (or the passport, if the card is to be posted later). This is a legal obligation with a penalty of up to 50,000 yen for failing to do it without good reason. It also matters practically: every later application compares your form against the 住民票 (certificate of residence), so the record needs to be right from the start.