Timeline
/ The applicant is already in Japan on another status
Change of status of residence
This route laid out against a scale of days. Day zero is the day the application is filed. The bars are
the stages; the list beneath is what tends to go wrong at each point, and what to do
about it. What the Agency publishes is “1 to 2 months”;
the measured average is 55.7 days.
These are averages, not promises
Every figure here is an average of cases already decided, published by the Agency for a month that has ended. It describes what happened to other people. It is not a estimate for your case, not a commitment by anybody, and an individual case may take considerably longer — a request for extra documents alone can add weeks. Plan with room, and never book anything that cannot be moved.
-6 mo
-4 mo
-2 mo
day 0
+2 mo
+4 mo
+6 mo
+8 mo
+10 mo
+12 mo
+14 mo
Getting what the ward office needs
Certificates, and the status you already hold
The notice, the fee, and the new card
The scale is days; day zero is the day the application is filed. Hatched bars are time that passes whether
you act or not. The numbers mark the problems listed below. Processing figures are the Agency's published averages for 日本人の配偶者等 (spouse or child of a Japanese national) in the month stated, not a promise about any particular case.
The stages
Getting what the ward office needs
about 3 months
The same capacity-to-marry document as any other marriage in Japan, with a Japanese translation. Being already in Japan makes this easier -- the embassy is here -- but it does not remove the step.
Registering the marriage
about 1.5 months
Nothing can be filed with the Agency until the marriage is on the family register. Until then the applicant simply holds whatever status they already have, with its own conditions.
Certificates, and the status you already hold
about 1.4 months
The family register, the certificate of residence and the tax certificates, as for any route -- plus the documents about the status being left behind, and the residence card itself, which is presented at the counter.
Filing, in person
same day
The applicant attends the immigration bureau with jurisdiction over their address. There is no representative on this route: the Japanese spouse may come along, but the application is the applicant's own. The fee is not paid now.
Under examination
55.7 days measured
The published standard period is one to two months. The Agency's measured average for this status was 55.7 days to disposition in June 2026 -- close to the top of the published range rather than the middle of it.
The notice, the fee, and the new card
6 days
A postcard asks the applicant to attend. The fee is paid then, in revenue stamps, and only if permission is granted -- a refusal costs nothing. The new residence card is issued over the counter the same day.
The new period of stay
about 12 months
Usually one year on a first grant as a spouse, whatever period the previous status carried. The address does not need registering again if it has not changed.
What goes wrong, in the order it arises
1
Keep doing what your present status is for, until the change is granted
trap
60 days before
A student who stops attending, or an employee who resigns, in the months before a change is decided, has stopped carrying on the activity their status exists for. That is a ground for revoking it, and it does not become harmless because a spouse application is pending.
What to do about it
Stay enrolled or stay employed until the new card is in your hand. Where that is impossible -- a contract that ends, a course that finishes -- say so in the application rather than leaving the office to notice the gap.
2
The tax certificate year, again
trap
14 days before
Same trap as every other route: the taxable income certificate covers the previous calendar year and is not issued until the municipality has assessed it, in mid-May or early June depending on how the tax is collected. On this route it bites harder, because the deadline is the expiry of the current status and cannot be moved.
What to do about it
Check the changeover date with your municipality before you fix the filing date. Where only the older certificate is available and it understates the household's income, add an employment certificate and recent payslips.
3
The application has to be filed before the current period expires
trap
10 days before
A change of status is filed from the time the reason for it arises until the day the current period of stay expires. Miss that and there is nothing to change -- the person is out of status, and the route back is not a change application.
What to do about it
Work backwards from the expiry on the residence card, not forwards from the wedding. Where the marriage cannot be registered in time -- a capacity document that will not arrive, a family register that has not caught up -- renew the existing status first and change afterwards. Two applications are inconvenient; being out of status is not.
4
One to two months is published; 55.7 days was measured
misconception
25 days after
The pattern holds on every route: the measured average sits at or beyond the top of the published range. Fifty-six days from filing is the middle of the distribution, not the worst case, and the average excludes refusals and withdrawals.
What to do about it
If the current period of stay ends within two months of filing, expect to be relying on the grace period. That is lawful, but it constrains travel: leaving Japan during it is not straightforward.
5
A request for documents, against a fixed deadline
common
30 days after
The same 資料提出通知書 (notice requesting additional documents) as on any route, and the days spent answering it count inside the processing average. Here they also count against the expiry of the current status, which is the difference.
What to do about it
Answer within the week, even partially, with a note saying what is still coming. Where the document asked for cannot exist, say so in writing and explain why.
6
The grace period is two months from expiry, and it is not a new status
trap
45 days after
Where the period of stay expires while the application is pending, the applicant may remain until the decision or two months after the expiry date, whichever comes first. It runs from the date on the card, not from the day of filing, and it is a permission to remain rather than a status conferring anything new.
What to do about it
Do not book travel that depends on re-entering during it, and tell an employer before the card's expiry date arrives rather than after. Carry the application receipt with the card.
7
The fee is paid at the end, in stamps, and only if you are granted
common
58 days after
Six thousand yen at the counter, five thousand five hundred online, paid in revenue stamps when permission is granted. Nothing is due on filing, and a refusal costs nothing. The figure changed on 1 April 2025 and most guidance still says four thousand.
What to do about it
Buy the stamps at the post office or at the office's own counter on the day you are called in, not in advance -- the amount is confirmed in the notice.
The figures were checked against their published sources on 2026-08-20. The
standard period and the measured average are different numbers, and both change.
Confirm anything you are planning around against the source.
