Timeline
/ The applicant is outside Japan
Certificate of eligibility
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 3 months”;
the measured average is 111.5 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
+16 mo
+18 mo
Getting what the ward office needs
Waiting for the paperwork to catch up
The certificate is issued and posted
The visa, at an embassy or consulate
Travelling, within the certificate's life
Landing, and the first fourteen days
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 3.9 months
The foreign spouse's certificate of legal capacity to marry, or whatever their country issues in its place, with a Japanese translation. Some embassies issue it the same day; some require an appointment weeks out; the United States issues nothing at all and publishes a letter to that effect instead.
Registering the marriage
about 1.3 months
The 婚姻届 (marriage registration) is submitted to a municipal office. Acceptance is usually the same day. Nothing in the immigration process can begin before this: the marriage is proved to the Agency by the family register, and the family register does not know about the marriage until it has been registered.
Waiting for the paperwork to catch up
20 days
The family register has to be reissued after the marriage appears on it, the certificate of residence has to show the new household, and the tax certificates have to exist for the year being claimed. This is the stretch couples consistently underestimate.
Filing
same day
The Japanese spouse files at the immigration bureau with jurisdiction over their address, as the applicant's representative. The applicant is abroad and does not attend. Filing is free for a certificate of eligibility.
Under examination
111.5 days measured
The Agency's published standard period is one to three months. Its own measured average for this status was 111.5 days in both May and June 2026 -- about three and a half months, and that average already includes any time spent waiting for documents the office asked for.
The certificate is issued and posted
8 days
Sent by post to the representative in the self-addressed envelope filed with the application, then forwarded to the applicant abroad. A refusal arrives the same way, with a notice of the reason.
The visa, at an embassy or consulate
about 0.8 months
A separate procedure, at a separate ministry. The certificate is presented with the visa application; the mission decides how long it takes and charges its own fee.
Travelling, within the certificate's life
about 1.9 months
A certificate created on or after 1 August 2022 is valid for three months from the date it was created -- not from the date it arrived, and not six months. Landing has to happen inside that window.
Landing, and the first fourteen days
14 days
The residence card is issued at the airport at the major ports of entry. The address must then be registered at the municipal office within fourteen days of settling on it -- at the municipality, not at an immigration bureau.
The first period of stay
about 11.5 months
Usually one year for a first grant. The renewal window opens about three months before it expires, and the couple's circumstances are looked at again then.
What goes wrong, in the order it arises
1
Your country may not issue a capacity-to-marry certificate at all
trap
150 days before
Municipal offices ask for a 婚姻要件具備証明書 (certificate of legal capacity to marry) as a matter of course. Several countries have no such document. The United States stopped notarising the sworn affidavit that served in its place on 1 September 2025 and now publishes a letter saying so, which is what the ward office should be given.
What to do about it
Ask your embassy what they issue before you book anything, and take the ward office the document your country actually publishes rather than arguing about the one it does not. A counter that has not seen it before may need a supervisor; that is normal and is not a refusal.
2
The family register does not update the moment you marry
common
18 days before
A family register copy obtained too soon does not show the marriage, and a family register that does not show the marriage proves nothing to the Agency. Where the registered domicile is in a different municipality from the one that accepted the registration, the paperwork travels between them first.
What to do about it
Allow one to two weeks, and more where the registered domicile is elsewhere. Ask the office that accepted the registration when the entry will appear; they will tell you. If you need proof sooner, a 婚姻届 (marriage registration notification)受理証明書 (certificate of acceptance) is issued on the day and covers the gap.
3
The tax certificate you need may not exist yet
trap
14 days before
A taxable income certificate covers the previous calendar year and is not issued until the municipality has assessed it -- in Shinjuku for 2026, from 15 May where the tax comes out of salary and from 10 June otherwise. File in April and you can only get the year before that, which may show a lower income or none.
What to do about it
Check the changeover date with your own municipality -- it differs, and it differs by how your tax is collected. Where the figure on the available certificate no longer reflects what the household earns, an employment certificate and recent payslips explain the gap; silence does not.
4
A certificate of residence omits what you need unless you ask
common
12 days before
Relationship to the head of household and registered domicile are left off by default. A certificate without them does not show that the couple form one household, which is the reason for filing it.
What to do about it
Ask for the whole household, with 続柄 (relationship to the head of household) and 本籍 (registered domicile) shown, in those words. It costs the same and takes no longer.
5
One to three months is the published period, not the observed one
misconception
30 days after
The application page states one to three months and most guidance repeats it. The Agency's own measurement for this status was 111.5 days in both May and June 2026. Couples who plan flights, leases and notice periods around ninety days routinely find themselves a month short.
What to do about it
Plan on four months and be pleased if it is three. Do not give notice on a job or a flat, and do not book a one-way flight, against the standard period.
6
A request for additional documents stops the clock for you, not for them
common
55 days after
A 資料提出通知書 (notice requesting additional documents) arrives by post with a deadline, usually a fortnight. The days spent producing what it asks for are counted inside the processing average, so a slow reply lengthens the case by exactly as long as it takes to reply. It is not a refusal and not a bad sign; it is the office telling you what is missing.
What to do about it
Answer it the week it arrives, even partially, with a covering note saying what is still coming and when. Keep the envelope: the deadline is on it. If what is asked for cannot exist -- a certificate your country does not issue -- say so in writing and explain why, rather than sending nothing.
7
The certificate is not a visa, and the embassy is not the Agency
misconception
125 days after
The certificate says a person meets the conditions for landing. It does not admit them. A separate application to a Japanese embassy or consulate, under a different ministry, produces the visa -- with its own fee, its own queue and its own idea of how long it takes.
What to do about it
Look up your own mission's published processing time and appointment availability while the case is still under examination, not after the certificate arrives.
8
The certificate is valid for three months, not six
misconception
150 days after
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 three months from the date of creation, and the Agency stated in the same notice that it would not extend again. The three months run from the date on the certificate, not from the day it reached you.
What to do about it
Check the date printed on the certificate the day it arrives and count from there. Posting it abroad can take a fortnight of that window; a visa appointment can take another.
9
Fourteen days to register the address, and ninety before it costs the status
trap
208 days after
The duty is to register at the municipal office within fourteen days of settling on an address. Missing it carries a fine of up to 200,000 yen, and a status of residence may be revoked where the address has not been registered within ninety days of landing without a justifiable reason.
What to do about it
Do it in the first week, at the same counter visit that starts health insurance and the pension. Take the residence card: presenting it with the move-in notification under the Basic Resident Registration Act counts as the immigration notification too.
10
The renewal window opens three months out, and the grace period is two
common
480 days after
A renewal may be filed from about three months before the period of stay expires. Where an application is pending when the period expires, the person may stay until the decision or two months after the expiry date, whichever comes first -- the two months run from the expiry on the card, not from the day of filing. Filing late does not extend that.
What to do about it
Diary the date the window opens, not the expiry. Given the measured processing times for this status, filing in the first weeks of the window is the difference between a decision before expiry and a decision inside the grace period.
11
Fourteen days to notify if the marriage ends, and six months before the status is at risk
trap
500 days after
Divorce or the death of the spouse must be notified to the Agency within fourteen days, under article 19-16(3). Separately, a status held as a spouse may be revoked where the holder has not carried on activities as a spouse for six months or more without a justifiable reason, under article 22-4(1)(vii).
What to do about it
The six months has an express exception for a justifiable reason -- work posting, hospital treatment, caring for a relative abroad. Where such a period is coming, record why at the time rather than reconstructing it later, and consider whether a change of status is the right answer before the six months runs.
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.
