Timeline
/ Already a spouse; the period of stay is running out
Extension of period of stay
This route laid out against a scale of days. Day zero is the day the current period of stay expires. 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 “2 weeks to 1 month”;
the measured average is 49.8 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
The grace period, if it comes to that
The scale is days; day zero is the day the current period of stay expires. 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
Assembling the year
about 2 months
A renewal is not a repeat of the first application. What is being examined is whether the marriage has continued as a marriage since the last permission -- living together, supporting each other, paying tax. That evidence accumulates over the year, or it does not exist when it is needed.
The window is open
about 3 months
A renewal may be filed from about three months before the period of stay expires, for periods of six months or more. The window is ninety days wide; nothing obliges you to use the last of it.
Under examination
49.8 days measured
The published standard period is two weeks to one month. The Agency's measured average for this status was 49.8 days to disposition in June 2026 -- roughly double the top of the published range, the widest gap in proportion of any route here. Permanent residence is the widest in absolute days.
The grace period, if it comes to that
about 2 months
Only where no decision has been made by the expiry date. Lawful residence continues until the decision or two months after expiry, whichever is earlier. Filed on the first day of the window, this stretch is usually never reached.
The next period of stay
about 12 months
One, three or five years. A first renewal is commonly one year again; longer periods follow a record of stable cohabitation, stable income and clean notifications rather than a request.
What goes wrong, in the order it arises
1
The evidence for a renewal is made during the year, not at the end of it
common
140 days before
A marriage certificate proves the marriage began. A renewal asks whether it has continued. Photographs from one weekend, a tenancy in one name, and no shared anything reads as a marriage that exists on paper.
What to do about it
Keep the ordinary traces as they occur: both names on the tenancy or the utilities, a joint account or regular transfers, photographs across the year rather than from one occasion, the certificate of residence showing one household. None of it is difficult at the time and none of it can be made later.
2
Six months apart without a reason on the record
trap
120 days before
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. A renewal is where a period of separation gets looked at, and an explanation constructed afterwards reads differently from one recorded at the time.
What to do about it
A work posting, hospital treatment, or caring for a relative abroad are justifiable reasons, and the law says so expressly. Record the reason and its dates while it is happening -- a transfer order, an admission record, tickets -- and keep the contact going across it.
3
The tax certificate now covers a year you were married for
trap
100 days before
At the first renewal the tax certificate covers a full year of the marriage, and it is read against what the application said a year earlier about how the household would live. A large discrepancy between the two invites a question that the first application never faced.
What to do about it
Look at the figure before you file and be ready to explain any gap -- a job changed, hours reduced, a business started. The explanation is short; its absence is not.
4
File in the first weeks of the window, not the last
trap
88 days before
The window opens ninety days before expiry and the measured average is 49.8 days. File on the first day and the decision typically lands with a month to spare. File a fortnight before expiry and you are relying on the grace period, with the travel restrictions and employer conversations that entails.
What to do about it
Diary the date the window opens, not the expiry date. They are three months apart, and only one of them is a deadline you can act on.
5
Two weeks to one month is published; 49.8 days was measured
misconception
60 days before
Roughly double the top of the published range -- the widest gap in proportion of any route here, though permanent residence is further in absolute days. A renewal is the application people most often treat as a formality, and its published period is the one furthest from what happens.
What to do about it
Treat it as a two-month procedure when planning, and as a substantive examination when preparing. It is both.
6
The notifications you owed during the year are checked at the renewal
common
30 days before
Changes of address within fourteen days, and changes to the spouse relationship within fourteen days, are duties that run throughout the period of stay. They are rarely noticed while they are being missed, and routinely noticed at renewal.
What to do about it
Before filing, check that every address on the record matches where you actually live and when you moved there. Where something was missed, do it now and say so, rather than hoping the dates are not compared.
7
A second one-year period is not a warning
misconception
10 days after
Couples read a repeated one-year grant as a sign that something is wrong. Usually it is not: longer periods follow an accumulated record, and one year of marriage is a short record however solid it is.
What to do about it
Keep the same records for another year and apply again on the same basis. Where a longer period matters -- for a mortgage, for a job -- that is a reason to keep the evidence tidy, not a reason to ask.
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.
